Skip to content
1981
Volume 14, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 1757-1871
  • E-ISSN: 1757-188X

Abstract

Creative processes used to choreograph country dance are distinguishable from those utilized in other dance movement systems. Described here is my experience of a novel approach within somatic education – one reflecting on the nature of the creative process in country dance choreography. My primary aim was to trace a distinctive moment when feeling translates into a later communicable thought. In country dance choreography, this is known as the . Over the course of two months, I developed my own experiential somatic practice under the guidance of leading dance, science and somatics practitioner-researcher, Dr Glenna Batson. I engaged in this form of embodied practice in order to explore somatics as a method for conducting research as well as aiding in my own creative process as a country dance choreographer. Through the process of anarchiving, harvesting and tracing moments from my somatic experience, I found key correlations and contrasts between somatics and country dance.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jdsp_00083_1
2023-01-25
2026-04-11

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Bainbridge Cohen, B.. ( 2012), Sensing, Feeling, and Action, , 3rd ed., Toronto:: Contact Editions;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Barry, O.. ( 2020;), ‘ While we are together: Exploring the living archive of community. ’, unpublished MA thesis, Limerick:: University of Limerick;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barthes, R.. ( 1982), Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (trans. R. Howard.), New York:: Hill and Wang;.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Batson, G.. ( 2009;), ‘ The somatic practice of intentional rest in dance education: Preliminary steps toward a method of study. ’, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 1:2, https://doi.org/10.1386/jdsp.1.2.177_1. Accessed 1 November 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Batson, G.,, Quin, E., and Wilson, M.. ( 2011;), ‘ Integrating somatics and science. ’, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 3:1&2, pp. 18393, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272538639. Accessed 1 November 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Fraleigh, S. H.. ( 1996;), ‘ The spiral dance: Toward a phenomenology of somatics. ’, Dance Faculty Publications, 8, https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/dns_facpub/8. Accessed 15 February 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Fried, M.. ( 2005;), ‘ Barthes’ punctum. ’, Critical Inquiry, 31:3, pp. 53974, https://doi.org/10.1086/430984. Accessed 15 November 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Friendly, B.. ( 2020;), ‘ Home. ’, http://heatherandrose.org/. Accessed 20 March 2021.
  9. Hume, C.. ( 2017;), ‘ A history of country dance, with an emphasis on the steps. ’, Colin Hume, https://colinhume.com/dehistory.htm. Accessed 20 November 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Hume, C.. ( 2020;), ‘ Maggot pie. ’, Colin Hume, https://colinhume.com/demaggot.htm. Accessed 20 November 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Ingold, T.. ( 2015), The Life of Lines, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kaeppler, A. L.. ( 1976;), ‘ Dance and the interpretation of Pacific traditional literature. ’, in Adrienne L. Kaeppler, and H. Arlo Nimmo. (eds), Directions in Traditional Literature: Essays in Honor of Katharine Luomala, Honolulu, HI:: Bishop Museum Press;, pp. 195216.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Keller, K. V., and Shimer, G.. ( 1990), The Playford Ball: 103 Early English Country Dances, Pennington, NJ:: A Cappella Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Macks, A.. ( 2018;), ‘ The Ward dance manuscript: A new source for seventeenth-century English country dance. ’, Harvard Library Bulletin, 3: Fall 2016 , pp. 14166, https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42660044. Accessed 29 November 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Manning, E., and Massumi, B.. ( 2014), Thought in the Act: Passages in the Ecology of Experience, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Mattson, M. P.. ( 2014;), ‘ Superior pattern processing in the essence of the evolved human brain. ’, Frontier Neuroscience, 8:265, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00265. Accessed 21 November 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Nahachewsky, A.. ( 1995;), ‘ Participatory and presentational dance as ethnochoreological categories. ’, Dance Research Journal, 27:1, pp. 115, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1478426.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A257550fbfa38898600247cc352b6c8d9. Accessed 29 November 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Sheets-Johnstone, M.. ( 2011), The Primacy of Movement, , 2nd ed.., Amsterdam:: John Benjamins Publishing Company;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Stevens, C., and McKechnie, S.. ( 2005;), ‘ Thinking in action: Thought made visible in contemporary dance. ’, Cognitive Processing, 6, pp. 24352, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339=005-0014-x. Accessed 15 February 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Warburton, E. C.. ( 2011;), ‘ Of meanings and movements: Re-languaging embodiment in dance phenomenology and cognition. ’, Dance Research Journal, 43:2, pp. 6583, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0149767711000064. Accessed 15 February 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Barry, Olivia. ( 2022;), ‘ Tracing the felt image to thought: A somatic turn towards the nature of the creative process in country dance choreography. ’, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 14:2, pp. 24961, https://doi.org/10.1386/jdsp_00083_1
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jdsp_00083_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test