Flow Seekers: The Characteristics of Flow in Social Dance, Part 2
“Athletes in all sports, all over the world, seek moments like these. The feelings involved are among the most intense, most memorable experiences one can get in this life. The state they describe is what we call flow, or optimal experience. Once attained, flow experiences remain etched in the memory and provide the blueprint for returning to this optimal state.”
- Susan A. Jackson & Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
In Flow Seekers: The Characteristics of Flow in Social Dance, Part 1, I attempted to define the very elusive concept of flow. Even for those who enjoy every moment on the dance floor, flow is a rare experience in which the movement of your body, the connection within the partnership, and the internalization of the music all come together to create the feeling of being “on a high” or “in the zone.” These are tantalizing moments that stay with the dancer forever and provide motivation to explore the art and science of social dancing even more.
In Part 1, I provided three of six characteristics of flow that I feel are most applicable to the social dancer. The first three characteristics were effortless action, transcendence, and synchronicity. When a social dancer experiences flow on the dance floor, he or she experiences an increase in skill and creativity with a corresponding decrease in conscious deliberation, transcends the everyday limitations of time and space, and feels a sense of synchronicity with his or her partner. Here are three more characteristics of the flow experience in social dance.
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