Concrete Human Psychology by L. S. Vygotsky as a Methodology for Analyzing Dance and Music-Motor Practices

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of analyzing cultural and historical practices as established tools for the development of personality and its worldview. The actual task is to create means of analyzing the psychological structure of practices and to develop theoretical bases for their description. We turned to the principles of Vygotsky’s concrete psychology as a methodology for describing and researching cultural-historical practices. The focus of attention was on dance and music-movement practices: classical dance, dance-movement therapy, and musical movement. The main parameters by which these approaches are analyzed, which allow us to evaluate the psychological content of the practice, are highlighted: the plastic canon of the practice, the image of the person, the learning situation, the relationship between movement and music, the type of communication between the teacher and the student and between the participants of the process, the role of improvisation, and others. The paper shows how different dance practices have different psychological orientation and form different personality structure. Thus, in classical dance a volitional personality is formed, which is subordinated to the rational beginning. On the contrary, dance-movement therapy emphasizes the importance of the unconscious in a person, involuntary impulses, emotions. Finally, musical movement emphasizes aesthetic experiences in which feelings are subordinated to musical form.