Newswise — President Bush's Iraq television address last night conveyed "a stony lack of genuine intention, and he appeared disingenuous when he accepted responsibility for mistakes," according to University of Maryland dance professor Karen Bradley, a certified movement analyst who studies the nonverbal and movement behaviors of political leaders.
Bradley is available for interviews. Her credentials and direct contact information can be found below.
BRADLEY SAYS:
"There was not a moment of heartfelt or gut-level rhetoric. Last night George Bush stilled his usual side-to-side rocking, reduced his smirk to an almost-unchanging grimace and read his speech as a recitation of mere facts.
"What he said mattered little for his case; he ran through the homilies and platitudes without belief. This speech was all about conveying intention without serious rationale. As he read the monitor, only the merest of shifts took place; it was as if he was running a marathon and he needed to preserve all his energy for the long haul; no point in conveying any expression or communicating any real information.
"At one point he stated that the mistakes 'rest with me.' It was a moment of profound disconnection; he almost edged away from the words and his mouth grimaced a little more. When he damned the Iraq Study Group with faint praise, his eyes blinked rapidly; a little too obviously disingenuous.
"It reminded me of an alcoholic father who comes home after a binge and tells the family that they must leave the house and move because they have not paid the bills.
EXPERTISE CREDENTIALS:
Karen Bradley is an expert in Laban Movement analysis and a specialist in Movement for Actors. She has applied these principles to study the non-verbal communication of political leaders and candidates. She consults regularly with educators nationally on arts education, research, and policy. She has been a member of the State of Maryland Task Force on Arts and the Higher Education Arts Task Force (HEAT) to Arts Education in Maryland Schools (AEMS).
Bradley has authored many articles and chapters on dance education research and policy and most recently, co-authored a chapter entitled "The Dance of Learning" in the updated Handbook of Research on the Education of Young Children. (Spodek and Saracho, Techbooks Press, 2005)
She is currently writing a book about Rudolf Laban and his performance practices for Routledge's series on 20th Century Performance Practitioners (due July 2007). http://www.dance.umd.edu/Personnel/Faculty/karenbradley.html
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