Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices - Volume 5, Issue 2, 2013

This article explores the ‘translation’ of live, extended voice performance, imbued with tactile intention, into an archival document that attempts to perform in a way that includes tactile communication. Through re-embodying somatic vocal performance within a format that includes hand-made textile art, the author traces the conversion of the live performance Soie soyeuse into an artist’s book. The resulting artwork takes a stab at talking about the live performance in a way that includes direct, tactile communication with the reader of the book. Placing this in a context of how else we might think about writing for, with, and about tactile performance, the article militates for a model of the articulation of performance as research that works directly on the haptic register of sensation, with all of the contradictions and difficult questions this might raise.

The Pilates Method is a form of somatic education with the potential to cultivate mindfulness – a mental quality associated with overall well-being. However, controlled studies are needed to determine whether changes in mindfulness are specific to the Pilates Method or also result from other forms of exercise. This quasi-experimental study compared Pilates Method mat classes and recreational exercise classes on measures of mindfulness and well-being at the beginning, middle and end of a fifteen-week semester. Total mindfulness scores increased overall for the Pilates Method group but not for the exercise control group, and these increases were directly related to end of semester ratings of self-regulatory self-efficacy, perceived stress and mood. Findings suggest that the Pilates Method specifically enhances mindfulness, and these increases are associated with other measures of wellness. The changes in mindfulness identified in this study support the role of the Pilates Method in the mental well-being of its practitioners and its potential to support dancers’ overall well-being.

The concept of a single embodied centre is an important part of modern dance training and aesthetics, and is particularly applicable to spinal movement. Polycentrism, a concept that has arisen though analysis of Africanist dance aesthetics, can also be identified in contemporary dance. Polycentric aspects of spinal connectivity are supported by somatic and biomechanical studies, and offer additional possibilities for movement aesthetics, efficiency and health. How might our pedagogies, aesthetics and world-view integrate polycentric approaches to spinal connectivity?

This reflective autobiographical essay written from an experiential perspective investigates how closely kinaesthetic, emotional and spiritual experiences can be interwoven through movement, encompassing embodied practice, intense feeling and personal ritual. As a movement artist and therapist the author explores how her personal experience of loss was embodied and expressed in a series of moments of movement that took place both in the studio and in the wider environment, in the context of her ongoing practice of non-stylized and environmental movement. It includes detailed analysis of these moments in terms of the movement and actions undertaken and the symbolic and personal significance of them as part of a broader process of grieving. It provides insight into how an embodied expression of mourning might offer a alternative to our English culturally acceptable expressions of grief, a kinaesthetic equivalence of the poetic expression of authors such as T. S. Elliot and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Reflecting on pre-existing models of site-based contemporary performance practice, this article will introduce dance ecologist Rachel Sweeney’s recent experiences participating in the Vertical Nature Base dance and rock-climbing collaborative project together with Steve Batts and Dan Shipsides in coastal northern Donegal. Here the author’s on-hand experiences of negotiating vertical and horizontal site-based movement strategies will challenge the notion of gravity as informing dance’s interrogation of site, illustrating how emergent responses to moving from the horizontal to the vertical might present their own critique of map-making, performance writing and ephemera, in moving between different kinesthetic states as defined by proximity to land. Underlying the writing here, the terms topophobia and topophilia point to the body’s own physiological response that can shift register considerably between these polarized sensations as the body seeks to re-establish its own parameters for movement both on and off the ground.

Process-Product: International festival of improvised dance (2013)

Body and Performance, Sandra Reeve (2013) Devon: Triarchy Press, 185 pp., ISBN: 978-1-909470-16-3, p/bk, £20.00