The Extended Mind: Physical Tools to Expand Cognition in the Collegiate Modern Dance Class

ABSTRACT

This article connects the Theory of Extended Mind with the use of three-dimensional, physical objects in dance pedagogy. The theory of the extended mind supposes that cognition is an activity that reaches out from the mind to the body and to the environment. In particular, we take up Dewey‘s pragmatic Instrumentalism as a framework that focuses on the use and creation of tools, broadly defined, for transforming fragmented problematic situations into coherent wholes. Dance is a field that typifies the extended mind, in that knowing is never merely mental but intertwined with the physical. To demonstrate, we explore how a specific set of tools can be used as a means for problem solving in a modern dance class.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognition
• dance pedagogy
• Extended Mind
• Instrumentalism
• visual objects