Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Gardner uses the example of the celebrated mime Marcel Marceau to introduce bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Using only his own body and gesture, Marceau could create an imaginary world populated with invisible objects that he acted upon in ways that were both familiar and exaggerated. Within a few gestures, Marceau could communicate essential aspects of a character, like their beauty, cruelty, or clumsiness, and could imply an environment through contrived reactions to it, most famously being able to act as if he were on a rapidly moving, jolting train, a beach, a busy street, or crammed into a box. 

Gardner defines bodily-kinesthetic intelligence as both control of bodily motions and “the capacity to work skillfully with objects” (218). Though this intelligence involves some visualization, like in Marceau’s miming, it is grounded and embodied by nature. Dancers, swimmers, surgeons, baseball players, and instrumentalists all depend on their bodily-kinesthetic intelligence for success. In Ancient Greece, athletes competed in the earliest forms of the Olympics to express their bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Many philosophers in that time period and beyond stressed the importance of developing this intelligence in tandem with abstract thinking. Even today, there are few fields in which a person can succeed without any sensori-motor aptitude.