Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2014

The article examines somatic experience in Odissi, arguing that this is shaped by the dance’s techniques of transmissions and aesthetic values. In particular, the article discusses how certain practices and discourses enable, hinder or give meaning to different experiences of body–mind relationships in Odissi dance. It is suggested that somatic experience in Odissi is characterized by a tension between training and performance. This tension is explained in terms of different forms of consciousness.

This article discusses the intersections of the artistic practice and somatic education in the work of a Canadian and a Brazilian dancer within the complex negotiation among body, society, and dance. We will base our analysis on narratives collected in two case studies, one by Pamela Newell in Montreal and one by Marcela Levi in Rio de Janeiro. The aesthetic consequences of incorporating somatics arise in the plasticity of gestures and body. But this incorporation is seen in relation to the operational aspects of creation, such as the elasticity of roles from the dancer to the choreographer, and from the collaborator to the viewer. Thus, these relations concern the political order of the scene and promote a less directive sociability of the performing arts.

In the performance installation, LandMark (2011), dancers Deborah Saxon and Henry Montes and the visual artist Bruce Sharp explore both the facticity of human experience and the frailty of connections between people and between them and the world that they inhabit.1 I suggest that their work may also be understood to probe the complexities of the interrelationships between consciousness-world and self-other that are the focus of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s text, ‘The intertwining-the chiasm’. His analysis of intercorporeality is particularly relevant to understanding the significance of the dancers’ somatic investigations that inform their artistic practices. Further, by drawing on developments upon Merleau-Ponty’s work in ecological aesthetics and social philosophy, I explore how the artists’ creative practices may be understood to foster intercorporeal negotiations of significance. This is suggested to be of increasing importance within an intracultural context in which people have a complex variety of cultural experiences even while sharing in a national identity.

The indigenization and domestication of foreign (western) culture in Japan has, according to Koichi Iwabuchi, led to an increasing variety of ‘modes of indigenized modernities’. Flamenco dancing, I argue, presents one such mode. Since the 1980s, Japanese women have been appropriating and adapting flamenco, an assumed local, ‘authentic’ Spanish genre turned into a so-called world music/dance, to their cosmopolitan dreams. They have turned flamenco in Japan into modern dance. This case shows that the relocation of a global genre through cultural adaptation should never be taken as a mere act of imitation, since the embedding of the genre into a new sociocultural environment requires adjustments to both the pre-existing ways of learning in the new environment as well as to the new meanings the genre may have for its apprentices. This is so, even in a society as reputed for cultural imitation as Japan. In this case, it is exactly the local social developments concerning femininity and modernity that explain flamenco’s appeal to Japanese women. The genre’s sound-based quality, as identified through a sensory analysis of their learning and transmission processes, revealed itself to be quintessential in terms of these women expressing their newly found sense of self. Adaptation of form and content has rendered a distinct, female and Japanized flamenco.

This article addresses the question of the universality of somatic approaches in teaching dance through the author’s experiences in Mali. She describes how context is an important part of the teaching–learning experience in a cross-cultural situation. While it might be said that the body is a constant, the context (the cultural interpretation) is not. A dancer evolves first in a dominant ‘homeland’ cultural context. With somatic-influenced teaching, a dancer can learn what is common to all human bodies and what is unique in his or her own. The author includes an interview with one of the dancers who is part of the programme in Mali. The respect of the individual in somatic approaches opens possibilities for exploration and shared understanding between people of very different backgrounds. In the best of circumstances, somatic work itself continues to evolve in an ever-changing landscape of learning exchanges.

This article is written from the perspective of the author’s 24-year experience as a choreographer in contemporary dance in Guatemala. It starts with an overview of traditional dances and their religious motives. It outlines the experience of presenting contemporary choreographic works in the streets and theatres. Some of the questions that arise during the creative process, as well as the ones that come up in the encounters with spectators are discussed. An experiment called ‘Three Voices for a Dance’, aimed at drawing audiences closer to dance, is described. In this activity, the experience of a dancer, the choreographer, and a spectator are designed as vocal choirs that accompany the dance. After the experience of eight performances, from 2010 to 2011, the author believes that a different response from the audience was observed when compared to other approaches.

In 2012, amid a critical and transitional socio-political situation in Egypt, Bibliotheca Alexandrina started an initiative aiming at developing contemporary dance. The project included the organization of dance workshops for amateurs in various cities of Egypt. Led by eleven local dancers, these workshops consisted of trainings aimed at forming trainers. The methodologies used appeared to have strengthened the awareness of the close relationship between body and mind, revealing new perceptions of the body’s potential and awakening a strong feeling of empowerment. By bringing these dynamics to light and examining their implications on the individuals involved in the workshops, the following article aims to open further discussion on how transcultural use of somatic practices can actively participate in enhancing the autonomy of the emergent Egyptian contemporary dance field. It revisits the outcomes of this pioneering project of dance transmission and examines its impact on both dancers and participants.

Fields in Motion: Ethnography in the Worlds of Dance, Dena Devida (ed.) (2011) Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, ISBN13: 9781554583393, 486 pp., p/bk, $39.95, h/bk, $95.00