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Much of mainstream psychological theory has been contributed by sedentary academics seated behind desks for most of the day, cogitating about how the mind works. Even scholars who have maintained an active lifestyle have often separated the body and motor skills from the traditional conception of cognition: logic, reason, and formal intelligence. The edited volume The Neurocognition of Dance: Mind, Movement, and Motor Skills introduces the reader to something fresh. Indeed, there is a beautiful and energetic new field emerging in cognitive psychology: the cognition of dance. This line of research is using a revolutionary approach by taking advantage of well-entrenched movement repertoires in order to shed light on many questions about the mind–body connection. These questions have been debated since the dawn of philosophy and have more recently been renewed under the umbrella of embodied cognition in the cognitive sciences.

The eclectic array of work presented at this conference, and reflected in this subsequently published volume, draws on a wide range of interdisciplinary talents. Being a cognitive psychologist with years of dance training and having attended the 2010 conference, I read this collection of essays as both a dancer and a psychologist. This volume bridges the practice of dance to cognitive science in a variety of ways. In part I of this volume, "The Science Perspective," a cognitive perspective is articulated. In part II, "The Dance Perspective" the pedagogical, artistic, and applied value of such research is explicated by a dance teacher, a choreographer, and an applied researcher. Finally, part III presents "The Neurocognitive Perspective." These contributors explore the relationship between action and perception through the use of neuroscience and dance.