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April 19

Born Today:
Lulu Sweigard

Movement theorist and teacher Lulu Sweigard (1895-1974) enhanced the work by her teacher Mabel Elsworth Todd (1880-1956), and named it Ideokinesis, a name composed of the Greek words for thought and movement. Ideokinesis is the practice of using guided imagery and visualization to improve a dancer’s alignment and movement capacity. and the processes are detailed in Dr. Sweigard’s book, Human Movement Potential: Its Ideokinetic Facilitation (1974). Sweigard taught at Juilliard for nearly two decades and her work has been further expanded by Irene Dowd (1946-) and Eric Franklin (1957-). 

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Broadway Premieres: Carousel in 1945, The Producers in 2001

Movie: Stand Up and Cheer released in 1934