Mens sana in corpore sano
Education must provoke a mobilization at all levels of the human nature: intellectual, affective and corporal. However, in formal education there has been a tendency to ignore the knowledge of the body, whose power and importance has been reduced to its functional use. Therefore, the main premise that governs physical education states that it is necessary to exercise the body in order to obtain the best possible performance out of it. In this way, “the body becomes invisible, ritually erased by the relentless repetition of the same sensations and the familiarity of the sensory perceptions" (Le Breton, 1990: 93 in Coterón & Sánchez, 2010).
But we must know that apart from its obvious necessity as a means of development in the environment (manifested through the motor skills), the human body has multiple possibilities of expressive type. The pedagogical tool to develop the expressive dimension of movement is none other than “the physical expression”. The moving body expresses, as a mechanic of the daily doing, messages of permanent form through the gestures, the postures, the look and the changing positions of its corporal form. And not only that, but, in other cases, the language of bodily movement deliberately seeks expression and communication from the creative capacity and need (Coterón & Sánchez, 2010).
Physical expression gives a place to the inner experience, since each one can express oneself and it involves the exploration of the intimate space between the self and the others; a work on theatricality, gestuality and physicality, a work of deeply self-exploration (Mateu, 2006: 90 in Coterón & Sánchez, 2010). As teachers, we must help our students to improve this type of communication by encouraging the awareness of one's own body and the acceptance of oneself and others. Achieving this goal involves the correct and conscious use of communication and body expression techniques, individually or in groups (Departament d'Ensenyament, 2015).
Coterón, J. & Sánchez, G. (2010). Educación artística por el movimiento: La expresión corporal en educación física. Aula, 16, 113-134.
Departament d’Ensenyament (2015). DECRET 119/2015, de 23 de juny, d'ordenació dels ensenyaments de l'educació primària. Retrieved from: http://portaldogc.gencat.cat/utilsEADOP/PDF/6900/1431926.pdf
