Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2010

This article discusses Graham-based technique in the context of present-day British contemporary dance pedagogy, and focuses on the work as informed by somatic principles. I call for a reconsideration of dance pedagogy vis--vis Graham's technique, especially within the context of Release-based teaching. Under the rubric of Hans-Georg Gadamer's fusion of horizons (Gadamer 2004) it is argued that current dance teaching methods could benefit from a reciprocal understanding of principles as taught in Graham-based training and somatics. Major principles that underpin Graham are analysed and explained, as well as the main principles underpinning somatically informed dance pedagogy. The article further explores an overview of the 1970s shift in Britain when the domination of Graham-based pedagogy gave way to Release in response to the ideas of Mary Fulkerson.

From a phenomenological perspective this article aims at exploring how the weight of the body can be perceived from within when moving. The exploration begins with a diversity of dancers' experiences by looking into thirteen professional dancers' individualized eclectic techniques, including, for example, ballet, different kinds of somatic practices and/or Butoh. The lived experiences of the dancers thereby present the empirical basis for a phenomenologically informed description of how the physical mass as weighted is present to the dancers' experiences. Across the different qualia and content of the dancers' subjective experiences two dimensions of self-consciousness could be recognized. In one dimension the physical mass of the body is objectified and relates to a scrutinization of sensations. The other dimension verifies a pre-reflective and performative dimension of experience and relates to an overall sensation of what the body feels like in movement. In both dimensions of self-consciousness the dancers' experiences exemplify different kinds of possible sensorial qualia and bring attention to the fact that sensing the weight of the body from within also form part of situated and shared experiences.

This article is about spiritualities and somatic movement dance education (SMDE). It is discursive, and reflective, drawing attention to areas of critical debate, such as secularized university dance curricula, the sacred-cum-secular nature of the field and the non-religious roots of somatics. Through observation and scholarly theory, the article explores the visibility, status and possible classificatory types of spirituality in the field. Readers are introduced to the scholarly territory of contemporary spirituality, which aims to support new research trajectories and theoretical purviews. The following areas are discussed as possible new theoretical vantage points: Progressive spirituality, New Age spirituality, Holistic spirituality and Postmodern spirituality. This article is a broad reflection on the field at large, aiming to be inclusive where possible, and offering broad conceptual ideas that both undergraduates and postgraduates can follow, reject, apply or interrogate. However, the content of this article may have more resonance and academic usefulness for scholars and students exploring autogenic approaches, which utilize SMDE as a tool for personal growth. The article also provides an extensive bibliography for undergraduate and postgraduate dance/somatics students venturing into spirituality as a new topic of research. The article responds discursively to postgraduate concerns about the academic status of spirituality within the field of SMDE, and in places consciously acts as a definitional referential guide.

Authentic Movement, Focusing, Jungian dreamwork and related somatic practices can create a safe place or container for women to discover the psyche's capacity for the symbolic or imaginal. I am regularly confronted with women of all ages who feel they do not have a voice and cannot bring the creative self into their practice-led movement research. This feminist approach brings together symbolic material generated from individual women's experience in order to articulate somatic, psychological and creative and sociocultural experiences. The article seeks to more fully explore and articulate the application of particular somatic practices as methodological imperative or praxis for arts research. This is a somatic approach to working in educational environments that recognizes the interdependence of many modes of being in the world that can both embrace and move beyond the rational and cognitive.

Part 1 is an article describing the principles and practices of Elaine Summers' Kinetic Awareness work. I place Kinetic Awareness in the context of the history of somatic practices within the lineage of German somatic education pioneer Elsa Gindler (18851961), and document three key performances from different stages of Summers' career in relation to her Kinetic Awareness work (Dance for Carola (1963), Energy Changes (1973) and Hidden Forest (2007)), before assessing the importance of her somatic work in choreography and performer training. Part 2 is an interview with Elaine Summers focusing primarily on her Kinetic Awareness work in relation to performance.

This article reflects on combinations of the somatic practices of Authentic Movement and Contact Improvisation in group facilitation and artistic development. It examines benefits of the two practices, individually, while also considering insights the author has gleaned, more specifically, as to the unique creative and therapeutic opportunities made available through different movement investigations of eyes-closed touch. Interwoven in the article are artist and facilitator reflections, student commentaries, and texts of somatic practitioners from both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Sensing Movement, Living Spaces: An Investigation of Movement Based on the Lived Experience of 13 Professional Dancers, Susanne Ravn (2009) First edition, Saarbrcken: VDM, 312 pp., ISBN: 978-3-639-20153-6, Paperback, 74