The Natural Body in Somatics Dance Training

The Natural Body in Somatics Dance Training PDF Author: Doran George
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197538762
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
From its beginnings as an alternative and dissident form of dance training in the 1960s, Somatics emerged at the end of the twentieth century as one of the most popular and widespread regimens used to educate dancers. It is now found in dance curricula worldwide, helping to shape the look and sensibilities of both dancers and choreographers and thereby influencing much of the dance we see onstage worldwide. One of the first books to examine Somatics in detail and to analyse how and what it teaches in the dance studio, The Natural Body in Somatics Dance Training considers how dancers discover and assimilate new ways of moving and also larger cultural values associated with those movements. The book traces the history of Somatics, and it also details how Somatics developed in different locales, engaging with local politics and dance histories so as to develop a distinctive pedagogy that nonetheless shared fundamental concepts with other national and regional contexts. In so doing it shows how dance training can inculcate an embodied politics by guiding and shaping the experience of bodily sensation, constructing forms of reflexive evaluation of bodily action, and summoning bodies into relationship with one another. Throughout, the author focuses on the concept of the natural body and the importance of a natural way of moving as central to the claims that Somatics makes concerning its efficacy and legitimacy.

Kinaesthesia and Visual Self-Reflection in Contemporary Dance

Kinaesthesia and Visual Self-Reflection in Contemporary Dance PDF Author: Shantel Ehrenberg
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303073403X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
Kinaesthesia and Visual Self-reflection in Contemporary Dance features interviews with UK-based professional-level contemporary, ballet, hip hop, and breaking dancers and cross-disciplinary explication of kinaesthesia and visual self-reflection discourses. Expanding on the concept of a ‘kinaesthetic mode of attention’ leads to discussion of some of the key values and practices which nurture and develop this mode in contemporary dance. Zooming in on entanglements with video self-images in dance practice provides further insights regarding kinaesthesia’s historicised polarisation with the visual. It thus provides opportunities to dwell on and reconsider reflections, opening up to a set of playful yet disruptive diffractions inherent in the process of becoming a contemporary dancer, particularly amongst an increasingly complex landscape of visual and theoretical technologies.

Experimental Dance and the Somatics of Language

Experimental Dance and the Somatics of Language PDF Author: Megan V. Nicely
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031302966
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
This book is about dance’s relationship to language. It investigates how dance bodies work with the micromovements elicited by language’s affective forces, and the micropolitics of the thought-sensations that arise when movement and words accompany one another within choreographic contexts. Situating itself where theory meets practice—the zone where ideas arise to be tested, the book draws on embodied research in practices within the lineages of American postmodern dance and Japanese butoh, set in dialog with affect-based philosophies and somatics. Understanding that language is felt, both when uttered and when unspoken, this book speaks to the choreographic thinking that takes place when language is considered a primary element in creating the sensorium.

Improvised Dance

Improvised Dance PDF Author: Nalina Wait
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000868419
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Book Description
This book elucidates the technical aspects of improvised dance performance and reframes the notion of labour in the practice from one that is either based on compositionally formal logic or a mysterious impulse, to one that addresses the (in)corporeal dimensions of practice. Mobilising the languages and conceptual frameworks of theories of affect, embodied cognition, somatics, and dance, this book illustrates the work of specialist improvisers who occupy divergent positions within the complex field of improvised dance. It offers an alternative narrative of the history and current practice of Western improvised dance centred on the epistemology of its (in)corporeal knowledges, which are elusive yet vital to the refinement of expertise. Written for both a disciplinary-specific and interdisciplinary audience, this book will interest dance scholars, students, and practising artists.

Resistance and Support

Resistance and Support PDF Author: Ann Cooper Albright
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197776264
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
"Along with the rock music of [the late '60s and early '70s], dancing both reinforced and crystalized an image of the self: independent yet communal, free, sensual, daring . . . also associated with contemporary social movements and practices such as the civil rights movement, youth culture, and drug-taking, and with values such as rebellion, expressiveness, and individualism within a loving community of peers. Dancing encoded these ideas in a flexible and multi-layered text, its kinesthetic and structural characteristics laden with social implications and associations. (Novack 1990, 38) Drawn passionately into the vortex of this revolutionary youth movement fifty years ago, along with so many of my North American (and Global North) peers, I recall how we danced together fervently but also purposefully. We were dancing in clubs, gymnasiums, theaters and galleries, in the streets, parks, our homes and at outdoor rock concerts. Our way of moving "freely," alone and together, was imbued with a constellation of meanings: heralding a new era of liberties, embarking on social experiments, and not the least, promoting world peace. Going back to nature, we lived in rural enclaves, envisioned a "natural foods" movement with health and environmental concerns. We imagined ourselves enacting the lives of counter-cultural rebels,"--

Dancing Indigenous Worlds

Dancing Indigenous Worlds PDF Author: Jacqueline Shea Murphy
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452967954
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 491

Book Description
The vital role of dance in enacting the embodied experiences of Indigenous peoples In Dancing Indigenous Worlds, Jacqueline Shea Murphy brings contemporary Indigenous dance makers into the spotlight, putting critical dance studies and Indigenous studies in conversation with one another in fresh and exciting new ways. Exploring Indigenous dance from North America and Aotearoa (New Zealand), she shows how dance artists communicate Indigenous ways of being, as well as generate a political force, engaging Indigenous understandings and histories. Following specific dance works over time, Shea Murphy interweaves analysis, personal narrative, and written contributions from multiple dance artists, demonstrating dance’s crucial work in asserting and enacting Indigenous worldviews and the embodied experiences of Indigenous peoples. As Shea Murphy asserts, these dance-making practices can not only disrupt the structures that European colonization feeds upon and strives to maintain, but they can also recalibrate contemporary dance. Based on more than twenty years of relationship building and research, Shea Murphy’s work contributes to growing, and largely underreported, discourses on decolonizing dance studies, and the geopolitical, gendered, racial, and relational meanings that dance theorizes and negotiates. She also includes discussions about the ethics of writing about Indigenous knowledge and peoples as a non-Indigenous scholar, and models approaches for doing so within structures of ongoing reciprocal, respectful, responsible action.

The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Dance

The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Dance PDF Author: Vida L. Midgelow
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199397007
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 833

Book Description
From the dance floor of a tango club to group therapy classes, from ballet to community theatre, improvised dance is everywhere. For some dance artists, improvisation is one of many approaches within the choreographic process. For others, it is a performance form in its own right. And while it has long been practiced, it is only within the last twenty years that dance improvisation has become a topic of critical inquiry. With The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Dance, dancer, teacher, and editor Vida L. Midgelow provides a cutting-edge volume on dance improvisation in all its facets. Expanding beyond conventional dance frameworks, this handbook looks at the ways that dance improvisation practices reflect our ability to adapt, communicate, and respond to our environment. Throughout the handbook, case studies from a variety of disciplines showcase the role of individual agency and collective relationships in improvisation, not just to dancers but to people of all backgrounds and abilities. In doing so, chapters celebrate all forms of improvisation, and unravel the ways that this kind of movement informs understandings of history, socio-cultural conditions, lived experience, cognition, and technologies.

Rechoreographing Learning

Rechoreographing Learning PDF Author: Sandra Cerny Minton
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000827623
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Book Description
This book addresses the mind-body dichotomy in movement and dance. This book includes a description of the often-forgotten kinesthetic sense, body awareness, somatic practices, body-based way of thinking, mental imagery, nonverbal communication, human empathy, and symbol systems, what occurs in the brain during learning, and why and how movement and dance should be part of school curricula. This exploration arguers that becoming more aware of bodily sensations serves as a basis for knowing, communicating, learning, and teaching through movement and dance. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students interested in teaching methodology and for courses in physical education, dance, and education.

Dance Research Methodologies

Dance Research Methodologies PDF Author: Rosemary Candelario
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 100084871X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 442

Book Description
Dance Research Methodologies: Ethics, Orientations, and Practices captures the breadth of methodological approaches to research in dance in the fine arts, the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences by bringing together researchers from around the world writing about a variety of dance forms and practices. This book makes explicit the implicit skills and experiences at work in the research processes by detailing the ethics, orientations, and practices fundamental to being a researcher across the disciplines of dance. Collating together approaches from key subdisciplines, this book brings together perspectives on dance practice, dance studies, dance education, dance science, as well as dance research in cross-, multi-, and interdisciplinary fields. Practice-based chapters cover methodological approaches that provide rich examples of how research design and implementation are navigated by practicing scholars. Dance Research Methodologies also includes a practical workbook that helps readers to decide upon, refine, and enact their research, as well as develop ways in which to communicate their process and outcomes. This vital textbook is a valuable resource for research faculty interested in interdisciplinary conversation and practice, emerging scholars honing their methodological approaches, graduate students engaged in research-based coursework and projects, and advanced undergraduates.

Performativity and the Representation of Memory: Resignification, Appropriation, and Embodiment

Performativity and the Representation of Memory: Resignification, Appropriation, and Embodiment PDF Author: Dinis, Frederico
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 452

Book Description
The age of digital culture has not only brought significant transformations in how we perceive memory, history, and heritage, but it has also raised pressing questions about authenticity and ownership of memory. The role of digital technologies in shaping collective identities is a topic of intense scrutiny. Moreover, contemporary societies grapple with complex issues in the politics of memory, especially with the proliferation of diverse narratives and the manipulation of public spaces. The book's content is therefore highly relevant, offering critical reflection and scholarly analysis to these societal challenges. Performativity and the Representation of Memory: Resignification, Appropriation, and Embodiment offers a comprehensive exploration of these issues, examining how contemporary practices of re-enactment intersect with digital contexts to shape our understanding of memory and heritage. The book analyzes the processes of memory creation and transmission in digital environments, providing a nuanced understanding of how memory is constructed, shared, and contested in the digital age. It also explores the role of arts-based research and participatory practices in documenting and preserving collective memories, offering insights into new forms of memory sharing and identity formation.