Dance Concept: Energy

Energy patterns are like personality traits and everyone has a home pattern. It describes how motion, emotion, thoughts and actions function together. They connect movement, mindset and behavior.

Understanding the energy patterns will help you learn about yourself, your child’s temperament and how we all process incoming information.

There are 4 energy patterns: Swing, Hang, Thrust, Shape

Here’s a quick summary of each energy pattern. Click here for a more detailed description.

  • Swing

    • Swingers prefer patterns of movement that are circular, sway side to side, twirl, and originate from the belly.

    • They are relaters, love to socialize, empathetic and wants to make everyone happy

    • Swinging engages the vestibular system

  • Hangers

    • Hangers prefer to feel gravity and connected to the floor and need to move to learn

    • They are dreamers, like being in their own world, intuitive, and enjoy coming up with new ideas

    • Hanging is very recuperative because it grounds you

  • Thrusters

    • Thrusters are direct and action-oriented people who like to move quickly and abruptly

    • They like to be useful, making things happen and have a role to play

    • Thrusting helps develop proprioception sense

  • Shapers

    • Shapers prefer linear, exact movements, like to stand up straight and tall

    • They like order, consistency, directions, and to know what is right and wrong

    • Shaping helps integrate our righting reflexes to help orient our head in order to balance in vertical

Why do we want to play with the different energy patterns? To expand our child’s potential by giving them intentional activities that stretch them into new ways of moving and thinking, helping them develop into more well-rounded people! By moving our bodies in different ways, we are developing the different skills of the different energy patterns. The body changes the brain!

For example, if you’re raising a shaper, you can introduce more hanging movements to them to help them relax and go with the flow more.

Give it a try yourself! You’ve heard of the “Power Pose” right? It is the same thing…when you’re procrastinating and need a little boost to get stuff done, do some thrusting movements and see if it changes your mindset.

Now that you’ve learned about the different energy patterns, read more about how you can relate to each of the energy patterns. Observe your children, parents, and co-workers and relate to them as they would like to be related to and you will stretch yourself to a whole new level of effective communication and connection with others. 

Regina Lum