Perusliikettä

Perusliikettä is a Finnish term used to describe fundamental movement patterns that form the building blocks of human motion. Linguistically, perusliikettä is the partitive singular form of perusliike, the noun meaning “basic movement.”

In practice, perusliikettä appears across fields such as physical education, rehabilitation, and dance. It encompasses broad categories of movement, including locomotor movements like walking, running, and jumping; non-locomotor movements such as bending, twisting, turning; and action components like pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying, and balancing. These basic patterns are essential for developing motor competence, coordination, and functional mobility.

Teaching and training with perusliikettä emphasize safety, control, and gradual progression. Curricula typically start with simple, stable actions performed in neutral positions and advance toward more dynamic, integrated sequences that mirror daily activities, sports, or artistic expression. In rehabilitation, therapists use perusliikettä as a framework to restore range of motion, strength, and motor control after injury or illness.

In dance and movement pedagogy, perusliikettä underpins a movement vocabulary from which more complex choreography and technique are built. The concept aligns with international discussions of fundamental movement skills or motor-learning foundations, though the Finnish term remains common in Finnish-language contexts.