Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1  

0945  –  1015  ET221:  Welcome   Martin  Woolley,  Associate  Dean,  Coventry  School  of  Art  &  Design  Sarah  Whatley  &  Natalie  Garrett  Brown    Introduction:  Emergence  of  Form  Aesthetic  Practice  &  Embodiment  Research  Group    

1015  –  1100  ET221:  Keynote   Dancing  bodies,  spaces/places  and  the  senses:  a  crosscultural  investigation  As  an  anthropologist  specialising  in  dance  I  argue  that  ‘dancing  bodies’,  ‘space’  and  ‘place’  cannot  be  accepted  as  universal  concepts  since  they  are  embedded  within  typically  western  understandings,  firmly  rooted  in  a  Kantian  perspective  of  the  body  in  space.  I  also  argue  that  our  common  understanding  concept  of  the  five  senses  is  an  ethnocentric  construct,  not  especially  useful  when  trying  to  make  sense  of  dance.  I  will  use  a  number  of  ethnographic  examples  to  underpin  what  an  anthropological  approach  can  bring  to  our  understanding  of  dance.    Andrée  Grau  is  Professor  of  the  Anthropology  of  Dance  and  Director  of  the  Centre  for  Dance  Research  at  the  University  of  Roehampton  London,  where  she  also  convenes  the  MA  in  Dance  Anthropology.  She  has  carried  out  fieldwork  in  South  Africa,  Australia,  India,  and  the  UK  and  has  published  widely  in  English  and  in  French  both  in  anthropology  and  dance  studies.      

1130  –  1330  ETG34:  Panel  1A  Body  Discourses  Chair:  Natalie  Garrett  Brown    ‘Points  of  View':  Exploring  and  Reflecting  Embodied  Gazes  in  the  Performer  Training  Space  In  dance,  ‘apperception  is  grounded  not  just  in  the  eye  but  in  the  entire  body’,  thus  necessitating  reconsideration  of  the  static,  filmic  concept  of  the  objectifying  male  gaze  (Daly  2002:  307).    This  paper  proposes  that  such  reconsideration  can  be  deepened  through  exploration  of  the  gazes,  which  are  developed  within  the  psychophysical  performer  training  space.  Focusing  specifically  upon  Phillip  Zarrilli  and  Sandra  Reeve’s  psychophysical  trainings,  I  begin  by  examining  the  disembodied  gaze  and  self-­‐conscious  response  to  observation  frequently  initially  evident  in  these  practices.    I  argue  that  the  multiple  embodied  gazes  that  participants  subsequently  develop,  and  the  possible  embodied  forms  of  writing  about  and  through  these  gazes,  can  challenge  and  move  beyond  alternative  paradigms  to  the  binarised  concept  of  the  singular  male  gaze.    Such  challenges  are  placed  in  dialogue  with  Luce  Irigaray  and  Hélène  Cixous’  theoretical  explorations  of  gazing.    

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   Alissa  Clarke  is  a  Lecturer  in  Drama  at  De  Montfort  University.  She  completed  an  AHRC-­‐funded  PhD  at  the  University  of  Exeter  in  2009.  Alissa’s  research  interests  include:  psychophysical  performance  and  performer  training,  feminist  and  gender  theory  and  performance  practice,  and  documentation  of  performance.  Alissa  has  been  practising  Phillip  Zarrilli’s  performer  training  since  2002,  and  has  been  involved  with  Sandra  Reeve’s  ‘Move  into  Life’  work  since  2005.      Dancing  with  Socrates:  Telling  the  Truth  about  the  Self  This  paper  aims  to  take  Michael  Peters’  article  on  Socrates  and  Foucault  (Peters,  2003),  and  Foucault’s  writings  on  the  care  of  the  self  and  technologies  of  the  self  as  the  starting  point  for  a  discussion  on  what  it  might  mean  in  the  context  of  dance  and  movement  training  to  practice  the  telling  of  truth  about  oneself.  The  paper  will  also  reflect  on  what  telling  lies  about  oneself  might  mean  in  this  context  and  the  significance  truth-­‐telling  and  lying  might  have  in  constructing  an  embodied  self  that  can  engage  in  more  than  its  own  well-­‐being  and  mean  more  than  its  own  happiness.  Self-­‐transformation  and  the  changing  sense  of  the  physical  self  -­‐  as  in  the  self-­‐harmed,  the  disabled  or  the  trans-­‐gendered  body  -­‐  implicitly  question  what  it  means  to  tell  the  truth  or  tell  lies  about  your  body  and  your  sense  of  self.  Thus  it  is  not  only  health  but  also  its  opposites  that  tell  us  and  others  about  what  it  means  to  be  human.    Mark  Evans,  Coventry  University,  has  published  on  movement  training  for  the  modern  actor  (Routledge,  2009)  and  on  the  teaching  and  theories  of  the  French  theatre  practitioner  Jacques  Copeau  (Routledge,  2006).  His  research  interests  include  the  physical  training  of  the  performer,  training  for  enterprise  and  entrepreneurship  within  the  creative  performance  sector,  and  the  relationship  between  training,  education  and  industry.  He  is  currently  guest  editing  a  special  issue  of  the  Theatre  Dance  and  Performance  Training  Journal  on  Sport  and  Performance  Training,  to  be  published  in  2012.      An  action  research:  The  Feldenkrais  method  with  women  presenting  eating  disorders.  In  this  paper,  we  will  present  the  results  of  an  action  research  conducted  over  21  weeks  with  8  women  suffering  from  eating  disorders  for  an  average  of  30  years.  The  aim  was  to  1)  describe  the  women’s  experiences  and  meanings  of  Feldenkrais  classes  captured  by  individual  and  group  interviews  as  well  as  autoethnographic  writing  on  a  web  platform,  2)  to  identify  any  possible  relationships  between  perceptual  changes  of  their  body  awareness  and  eating  disorders.  A  data  analysis  inspired  by  grounded  theory  showed  the  social  production  of  bodily  experiences  through  popular  and  medical  discourses.  In  a  short  period  of  time,  the  Feldenkrais  classes  showed  their  potential  to  help  the  participants  to  consciously  challenge  the  dominant  social  discourse  by  making  concrete  changes  in  the  way  they  perceived  themselves.  They  were  occasionally  able  to  change  their  daily  activities  and  various  eating  habits.    Sylvie  Fortin  and  Chantal  Vanasse  (not  attending)  Sylvie  Fortin,  Ph.D.,  is  associate  professor  at  the  Université  du  Québec  à  Montréal,  Canada,  and  director  of  the  graduate  programs  in  dance  and  somatic  education.  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   She  is  well  known  as  a  somatic  practitioner  and  prolific  author  of  body-­‐related  issues  in  the  arts.  Sylvie  is  currently  involved  in  a  series  of  funded  research  projects  focusing  on  the  constructions  of  health.  She  is  part  of  CINBIOSE  (Centre  for  the  Study  of  Biological  Interactions  on  Human  Health)  and  ‘Invisible  That  Hurts’,  two  interdisciplinary  research  groups  that  favour  an  interdisciplinary  and  feminist  approach.      Body  schema  and  body  image  in  the  Feldenkrais  Method  New  conceptual  tools  to  describe  and  discuss  the  Feldenkrais  Method  For  this  presentation,  I’ll  introduce  two  concepts  that  Moshe  Feldenkrais  has  used  in  a  rather  loose  way  in  his  writings  :  body  schema  and  body  image.  The  same  terms  have  been  given  by  S.  Gallagher  (1995,  2005)  more  recent  definitions  that  are  relevant  to  the  Feldenkrais  Method,  firstly  because  Gallagher  presents  those  two  notions  as  both  distinct  and  interdependant  functions  of  action.  My  proposal  is  to  present  how  those  two  notions  open  to  a  new  way  of  describing  the  system  and  purposes  of  the  Feldenkrais  Method,  which  might  be  more  legible  to  a  non-­‐Feldenkrais  public,  yet  very  loyal  to  the  actual  Feldenkrais  practice.  In  Gallagher’s  terms,  the  Feldenkrais  Method  is  aiming  at  recreating  plasticity  in  the  body  schema,  and  does  so  through  the  mobilization  of  body  image.  Conversely,  the  Feldenkrais  Method  may  help  describing  and  understanding  the  difficult  question  of  how  body  image  and  body  schema  interact  and  interlace.    Isabelle  Ginot  is  Professor  at  the  Dance  department  of  Université  Paris  VIII  and  has  been  a  dance  writer  and  theoretician  for  many  years,  contributing  to  French  newspapers  and  international  dance  magazines.  She  has  collaborated  with  various  dance  companies,  theaters  and  festivals  and  wrote  several  books  on  dance,  such  as:  La  Danse  au  XXième  siècle,  M.  Michel  and  I.  Ginot,  Paris  (Bordas:  1995),  Larousse:  1998,  2002;  Dominique  Bagouet,  un  labyrinthe  dansé  -­‐  essai  d'analyse  de  l’oeuvre  chorégraphique,  I.  Ginot,  Pantin,  éd.  CND,  1999.  Isabelle  Ginot  is  also  a  certified  Feldenkrais  practitioner  and  is  currently  working  in  conjunction  with  the  Movement  Analysis  discipline  to  adapt  this  method  to  the  needs  of  dancers.      

1130  –  1330  ET126:  Workshop  1B  (20  places)  Chair:  Katye  Coe    Examining  the  use  of  tactile  aid  in  Somatic  teaching:  A  practical  workshop  in  Contact  Unwinding  Using  tactile  aid  in  somatic  education  taps  into  a  rich  reservoir  of  information  within  the  body’s  structure,  often  releasing  tensions,  reminding  us  of  ease,  re-­‐  awakening  forgotten  pathways  and  unlocking  new  potential  in  our  learning.  So  how  can  we  employ  tactile  aid  in  somatic  teaching  and  what  is  the  significance  of  its  application  to  student  learning?  This  practical  workshop  offers  some  hands  on  work  from  the  practice  of  Shin  Somatics®  (original  work  of  Sondra  Fraleigh).  In  particular  it  examines  the  application  of  touch  in  contact  unwinding.  This  process  promotes  a  supportive  environment  for  learning  using  a  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   guide  and  a  mover.  The  guide  matches,  initiates  and  guides  the  movement  of  the  mover,  learning  the  importance  of  being  present  through  touch,  whilst  assisting  the  mover  in  their  explorations.  The  mover  is  invited  to  move  away  from  the  familiar  and  expected,  exploring  new  possibilities  of  motion  and  developing  a  keener  sense  of  self.    Karin  Rugman  is  an  experienced  performer,  choreographer  and  teacher  who  has  worked  extensively  in  education  and  the  local  community  for  over  20  years.  Karin  has  a  background  in  contemporary  dance,  with  experience  in  Alexander  Technique,  Tai  Chi,  Ideokinesis  and  Feldenkrais  Technique.  She  is  an  advanced  student  in  Shin  Somatics  ®,  currently  studying  at  the  Eastwest  Institute  for  Dance  and  Movement  Studies  under  the  guidance  of  Sondra  Fraleigh.  She  is  presently  a  Senior  Lecturer  in  Dance  at  Bath  Spa  University  and  has  been  working  hard  to  establish  advanced  somatic  practice  in  the  Dance  Department  at  Bath  Spa  University,  her  work  feeding  directly  into  undergraduate  study  at  all  levels.        

1130  –  1330  ET221:  Panel  1C  Pedagogical  Explorations    Chair:  Kirsty  Alexander   Touch:  Between  Experience  and  Knowledge  Making  This  practical  paper  explores  responses  to  touch  as  a  socialising  interaction  and  contributory  feature  of  our  knowledge  making.  Touch  has  a  complex  and  somewhat  problematic  position  in  knowledge  formation;  prized  as  the  king  of  the  senses  and  yet  marginalised  for  its  association  with  pain,  contagion  and  negative  power  relations,  leaving  the  experience  for  some  as  something  unwelcome,  or  threatening.  Introducing  the  first  stage  of  a  larger  programme  of  research  the  aim  is  to  explore  an  understanding  of  what  it  is  to  ‘know’,  when  informed  by  our  perception  of  touch.  The  intention  is  to  critically  engage  with  an  empathetic  transmission  of  information  through  touch,  when  used  as  an  integral  part  of  performer  training.  The  discussion  considers  the  complex  inter-­‐connections  that  exist  in  learning,  between  an,  ‘inside’  and  ‘outside’  experience  of  identity,  authority,  role,  and  ‘difference’.    Fiona  Bannon  is  Senior  Lecturer  (Dance)  in  the  School  of  Performance  and  Cultural  Industries,  University  of  Leeds.  She  leads  the  MA  Performance,  Culture  and  Context  and  MA  Choreography  and  teaches  choreography,  collaborative  performance  practice,  and  research  methods  with  postgraduate  and  undergraduate  students.  Research  includes  exploring  of  arts  practice,  aesthetic  development  and  everyday  life.  Recent  works  include  Walking  as  Daily  Dance  Practice,  Explorations  of  Active  Design  and  Everyday  Aesthetics  and  Bad  Girls  Dancing.  Fiona  is  a  founder  member  of  ‘Architects  of  the  Invisible’,  a  roaming  performance  group  exploring  collaborative  practice  and  currently  creating  a  new  work,  Hand  Tied.    Duncan  Holt  MA  DC  FMCA  is  the  lecturer  in  Dance  at  the  University  of  Hull  and  is  a  state  registered  Chiropractor  (McTimoney).  Dance/movement  is  the  essence  of  my  work  and  it  appears  in  the  context  of  persons  doing  movement  in  places  with  sound.  It  is  through  dance  that  I  experience  the  essential  nature  of  myself  as  a  being  in  the  world.  Contributions  to  knowledge  include  performance,  screen  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   media  and  other  scholarly  endeavors  on  choreographic  reconstruction  (World  Dance  Alliance;  Brisbane  2008  &  New  York  2010),  aspects  of  independent  learning,  (WDA;  Wisconsin  2009)  and  aspects  of  Touch  in  Dance  (Coventry  University  2011).      Embodied  Portraitures:  Facilitating  Students  in  Building  Personal  Theories  of  Embodiment  in  the  Somatics  Classroom  The  presenter  will  share  a  study  she  conducted  in  her  university  somatics  classroom  that  involved  students  engaging  in  processes  of  discovering,  exploring  and  transforming  their  working  theories  of  embodiment  through  the  reflexive  development  of  embodied  portraitures.  Learning  frames  for  the  inquiry  drew  from  various  somatic  constructs,  including  Laban/Bartenieff  Praxis,  Body-­‐Mind  Centering  and  Authentic  Movement.  Students  were  encouraged  to  investigate  the  relations  of  Soma,  identity,  perception,  movement  patterning,  embodied  knowing,  social  experience,  habits  of  thought  and  action,  and  meanings  construed  from  lived  experiences.  Specifically,  students  explored  how  particular  developed  movement  patterns,  dynamic  constellations,  habits  of  holding,  and  attitudes  held  and  conveyed  in  the  body  were  tied  to  their  beliefs,  understandings,  feelings,  social  encounters,  self-­‐perceptions,  and  worldviews.  The  presenter  will  conclude  the  paper  by  summarizing  her  gained  understandings  and  perspectives  as  well  as  the  questions  that  have  emerged  for  her  from  this  study.    Becky  Dyer  is  an  assistant  professor  in  the  School  of  Dance  at  Arizona  State  University  where  she  teaches  Laban/Bartenieff  Praxis  and  Somatic  Studies,  dance  pedagogy  and  contemporary  postmodern  dance  technique.  Becky  received  her  Ph.D.  in  Dance  Philosophy  with  an  emphasis  in  dance  pedagogy  and  somatics  from  Texas  Woman’s  University  in  Spring  2010.  Her  research  focuses  on  somatic  approaches  to  teaching  and  learning,  somatic  epistemology,  transformative  learning  perspectives  and  collaborative  inquiry  process.      F  Matthias  Alexander  and  Mabel  Elsworth  Todd:  their  theory,  practice  and  contemporary  relevance  This  paper  reconsiders  ideas  and  correspondences  in  the  work  of  two  of  what  Martha  Eddy  describes  as  the  first  generation  of  somatic  pioneers:  F  Matthias  Alexander  and  Mabel  Elsworth  Todd.    Both  Alexander  and  Todd  drew  on  ideas  prevalent  at  the  turn  of  the  Twentieth  Century.  Their  practices  and  writings  acknowledged  burgeoning  new  developments  in  physiology,  philosophy  and  psychology  in  particular.  There  are  historical  correspondences  too.    From  a  Twenty-­‐First  Century  perspective  it  is  useful  to  understand  how  these  two  ‘pioneers’  —  Alexander  and  Todd  —  developed  techniques  that  intersected  the  humanities  and  sciences.  Recent  research  suggests  that  there  are  lessons  that  can  inform  current  dance  research  into  transversing  discipline  borders.  The  author  draws  on  established  research  and  then  examines  Alexander’s  and  Todd’s  ideas  and  practices  in  the  context  of  their  time.    The  paper  proposes  a  radical  rethinking  of  how  we  conceive  of  dancing  and  how  ‘somatic’  practices  are  currently  employed  in  dance  education.      

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   Michael  Huxley  is  a  researcher  and  teacher  at  De  Montfort  University,  UK.  He  has  been  published  in  a  number  of  books  including,  most  recently,  with  Ramsay  Burt,  in  Carter,  A.  and  Fensham,  R.  (Eds.)    (2011)  Dancing  Naturally:  Nature,  Neo-­‐Classicism  and  Modernity  in  Early  Twentieth  Century  Dance.  He  qualified  as  an  Alexander  Teacher  in  2004  with  the  Professional  Association  of  Alexander  Teachers  and  is  currently  working  on  research  projects  on  the  learning  and  teaching  of  dance  history,  early  modern  dance  and,  with  Jayne  Stevens,  on  the  work  of  Akram  Khan  Company.      Somatics  in  Dance:  Tracing  Practice  and  its  Cultural  and  Philosophical  Ground    The  focus  of  this  paper  is  to  trace  an  ethnographic  history  of  Body-­‐Mind  Centering;  examining  the  practice  as  part  of  a  social  movement  and  as  a  postmodern  western  somatic  method  influencing  the  development  of  contemporary  dance  in  Britain.  It  will  present  findings  from  research  in  progress  undertaken  as  part  of  a  PhD  study.  The  paper  will  situate  somatic  practices,  with  particular  reference  to  Body-­‐Mind  Centering,  within  the  socio-­‐political,  artistic  and  philosophical  context  in  which  somatic  practices  emerged  and  developed.  From  an  ethnographic  and  historical  perspective,  it  will  examine  the  way  somatic  approaches  to  movement  have  influenced  contemporary  dance  performance  in  Britain  drawing  examples  from  New  Dance,  the  independent  dance  sector  and  experimental  dance  performance  as  evident  in  the  focus  and  language  used  in  practice.  The  parallel  expansion  of  scholarly  and  artistic  interest  and  investigation  into  embodiment  over  the  past  three  decades  points  to  a  social  need  for  growth  in  knowledge  about  embodiment  as  an  existential  condition  and  the  significance  of  bodiliness  to  our  perception  and  sense  of  self.  This  parallel  growth  also  shows  cross-­‐fertilisation  between  disciplines  such  as  phenomenology,  cultural  phenomenology,  dance  ethnography  and  artistic  processes  which  emerged  over  the  past  fifty  years.  The  cultural/ethnographic  and  historical  positioning  of  somatic  practices  will  form  the  basis  for  exploring  questions  of  a  methodological  and  philosophical  nature  raised  by  practice-­‐based  research  to  date.    Gina  Giotaki  is  currently  doing  a  PhD  research  at  Coventry  University.  The  research  investigates  the  way  the  practice  of  Body-­‐Mind  Centering  and  somatic  approaches  to  movement  have  informed  current  contemporary  dance  performance  and  the  way  they  influence  the  performer’s  sense  of  self.  She  is  currently  completing  her  training  on  Somatic  Movement  Education  and  teaches  related  subjects  at  Coventry  University.  Gina  has  taught  across  a  number  of  subjects  in  the  undergraduate  dance  degree  programme  at  Liverpool  John  Moores  University  where  she  also  coordinated  the  Outreach  Team  of  JMUpstart  Dance  Company.        

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1  

1415  –  1445  ET101:  Book  Announcement  +  Book  Presentation  Chair:  Sarah  Whatley   Dance,  Somatics  and  Spiritualities:  Contemporary  Sacred  Narratives  This  paper  presents  the  content  of  an  exciting  forthcoming  book,  entitled:  Dance,  somatics  and  spiritualties:  contemporary  sacred  narratives,  edited  by  Amanda  Williamson  and    co-­‐edited  by  Sarah  Whatley,  Glenna  Batson  and  Rebecca  Weber.  The  book  comprises  chapters  by  25  leading  authors,  including:  Don  Halon  Johnson,  Daria  Halprin,  Jill  Green,  Sylvie  Fortin,  Sondra  Fraleigh,  Linda  Hartley  and  Martha  Eddy.  It  is  the  first  scholarly  text  to  focus  on  contemporary  spirituality  within  the  domain  of  dance  and  somatic  movement  studies  –  this  paper  will  outline  the  scope  of  the  book,  discussing  potent  issues,  such  as  secularization  and  the  emergence  of  the  sacred/spiritual  in  embodied  practice.  The  book  is  due  to  be  published  in  2012,  by  Intellect  Publishers.    Amanda  Williamson,  course  leader  MA  Dance  and  Somatic  Wellbeing:  connections  to  the  living  body  programme,  New  York.  She  is  a  senior  lecturer  at  the  University  of  Central  Lancashire,  School  of  Art,  Design  and  Performance,  currently  involved  in  international  development  across  continents  and  educative  innovations  where  the  body  and  spirituality  are  foregrounded  as  central  in  research  and  writing.      Nine  Ways  of  Seeing  a  Body  The  nine  body  lenses  in  this  book  are  intended  to  be  a  useful  stimulus  for  teachers  and  students  of  dance,  performance,  movement,  somatics  and  the  arts’  therapies.  Perhaps  they  will  also  serve  as  an  interdisciplinary  resource  for  other  areas  of  study,  where  a  brief  review  of  recent  approaches  to  the  body  could  be  useful.    Sandra  Reeve  is  a  movement  teacher,  artist,  director  and  movement  psychotherapist.  She  teaches  an  annual  programme  of  autobiographical  and  environmental  movement  workshops  called  Move  into  Life®  and  creates  occasional,  small-­‐scale  ecological  performances.  She  is  an  Honorary  Fellow  at  the  University  of  Exeter,  where  she  lectures  in  Performance  and  Ecology  and  Physical  Theatre.      

1445  –  1645  ET221:  Panel  2A  Interdisciplinary  Perspectives    Chair:  Sarah  Whatley    A  future  beyond  Allan  Kaprow:  Rosemary  Butcher  reinvents  18  Happenings  in  6  Parts  In  2010  Rosemary  Butcher  presented  her  reinvention  of  Allan  Kaprow’s  18  Happenings  in  6  Parts  (NYC,  1959)  at  the  South  Bank  Centre  in  London.  The  paper  investigates  what  traces  were  left  of  Kaprow’s  original  work,  and  how  Butcher  encountered  and  worked  with  these  materials.  How  did  the  unfoldings  in  the  rehearsal  phase  contribute  to  a  unique  outcome  that  differs  significantly  to  Kaprow’s  original  work,  and  what  was  retained  from  it?  Can  we  identify  a  different  ‘artistic  signature’  (Melrose)  in  both  works,  possibly  marked  by  two  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   different  disciplinary  creative  fields,  that  of  the  fine  arts  in  Kaprow’s  case  as  well  as  that  of  choreography  for  Butcher?  The  paper  seeks  address  the  act  of  ‘reinventing’  as  an  artistic  practice  of  ‘looking  back’  at  something,  in  order  to  produce  new  work.    Stefanie  Sachsenmaier  is  a  lecturer  in  Theatre  Arts  at  Middlesex  University,  where  she  has  completed  her  PhD,  enquiring  into  the  skills  and  expertise  of  the  performer  in  contemporary  performance-­‐making  (supervised  by  Prof.  Susan  Melrose  and  choreographer  Rosemary  Butcher).  She  has  contributed  as  a  writer  and  translator  to  the  Laban  Sourcebook,  ed.  Dick  McCaw,  published  by  Routledge  June  2011.  She  has  been  performing  for  the  past  ten  years  in  many  performance  productions,  lately  notably  her  own  solo  work.  She  further  trains  and  teaches  tai  chi  at  the  Wu’s  Tai  Chi  Chuan  Academy  London,  Bethnal  Green.  www.stefaniesachsenmaier.eu      (not  attending)  Rosemary  Butcher  has  been  a  consistently  radical  and  innovative  choreographer  for  nearly  three  decades.  Profoundly  influenced  by  her  time  in  New  York  where  she  encountered  the  work  of  the  Judson  Church  Movement  at  its  peak,  she  became  a  seminal  figure  to  British  dance  with  her  1976  ground-­‐breaking  concert  at  London's  Serpentine  Gallery.  Her  works  have  been  received  to  great  critical  acclaim,  in  both  this  country  and  abroad.  Her  solo  Hidden  Voices  was  nominated  for  the  Place  Prize  in  2004.  In  2005,  she  published  a  series  of  essays  on  her  work,  co-­‐written  with  Susan  Melrose  and  entitled  Rosemary  Butcher:  Choreography,  Collisions  and  Collaborations  (Middlesex  University  Press).  In  2010  she  presented  a  reinvention  of  Allan  Kaprow’s  18  Happenings  in  6  Parts  at  the  Royal  Festival  Hall,  London.      Somatics  as  Science  Within  Dance  Practice  After  four  decades  of  Somatics  and  Science  exploring  various  avenues  of  intersection  (Eddy  2009;  Green  2007),  dance  science  and  somatic  education  remain  largely  divided  in  both  theory  and  practice.  Earlier  decades  of  interchange  faced  challenges  in  substantiating  personal  narrative  with  positivist  models;  however  the  proliferation  of  post-­‐positivist  science  and  nonlinear  theories  (Batson  2009;  Fortin  2005)  has  recently  forged  a  path  for  dialogue  between  dance  science  and  Somatics.  Research  paradigms  are  shifting:  influenced  by  phenomenology  and  cognitive  science,  new  models  for  dance  research  ground  qualitative  data  with  quantitative  measurement.    Additionally,  research  in  neurophysiology  and  embodied  cognition  allows  us  to  re-­‐think  possibilities  for  integrating  Somatics  and  science  within  dance  practices.  In  this  presentation  three  academic  educators  weave  together  these  concepts  in  order  to  broaden  the  sphere  of  Somatics  as  science  within  dance  and  consider  a  viable  model  of  rigorous  yet  flexible  study.    Edel  Quin  is  a  lecturer  and  researcher  at  Trinity  Laban  Conservatoire  of  Music  and  Dance,  delivering  on  undergraduate  and  postgraduate  programmes.  Her  work  for  the  Education  and  Community  department  includes  teaching  on  the  Centre  for  Advanced  Training  (CAT).  She  holds  a  BA(Hons)  in  Dance  (Chichester  University)  and  an  MSc  in  Dance  Science  (Laban).  Professional  performance  experience  includes  world  tours  with  Riverdance,  Westend  performances,  and  Henri  Oguike’s  H20.  Edel  has  produced  multiple  presentations  and  publications  as  an  active  researcher  and  applied  practitioner.  Specialist  areas  include  dance  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   science,  safe  dance  practice,  dance  fitness,  experiential  anatomy  and  Somatics.  As  a  freelance  dance  artist  and  dance  scientist,  Edel  continues  to  research,  educate,  create  and  perform,  whenever  and  wherever  possible.    Margaret  Wilson  is  an  associate  professor  of  dance  at  the  University  of  Wyoming  where  she  teaches  contemporary  dance  technique,  history,  kinesiology,  Pilates  and  pedagogy.    She  choreographs  for  productions  in  all  venues,  including  vertical  dance  -­‐  which  takes  place  on  rock  faces  in  recreational  areas  and  off  the  catwalk  in  theatres  and  participates  in  interdisciplinary  and  collaborative  explorations.    These  pursuits  provide  her  with  multiple  opportunities  to  understand  the  interface  between  science,  somatics  and  dance  technique.      Glenna  Batson,  PT,  ScD,  MA,  professor  emeritus,  physiotherapy,  Winston-­‐Salem  State  University,  USA,  faculty  American  Dance  Festival  and  Hollins/ADF  M.F.A.  program  (1986/2004),  internationally  recognized  teacher,  Alexander  Technique  (qualified  1989);  Three  decade  synthesis  of  dance-­‐science-­‐somatics  theory  and  practice  as  scholar,  dance  educator  and  practitioner;  Fulbright  Senior  Specialist,  London  (Trinity  Laban  Conservatoire,  2009)  and  Estonia  (2011).  Current  research  interests  include  effects  of  improvisational  dance  and  Parkinson  disease,  of  Alexander  Technique  on  balance  in  the  elderly,  and  on  validating  assessment  tools  for  balance  in  dancers.  Co-­‐editor  of  forthcoming  book,  Dance,  Somatics  and  Spiritualities:  Contemporary  Sacred  Narratives,  with  Amanda  Williamson  and  Sarah  Whatley.      Choreographic  and  Somatic  Strategies  for  Navigating  Bodyscapes  This  paper  explores  the  notions  that  postural  and  movement  habits  pattern  bodyscape,  and  that  this  patterning  in  turn  informs  navigation  of  a  broader  body-­‐mind-­‐environment  meshwork  which  is  conceptualised  as  a  'tensegrity-­‐schema'.  The  interstices  of  the  constituent  elements,  whether  actual  or  metaphorical  connective  tissue,  make  for  a  messy  web  of  shifting  compressions  and  tensions  in  a  dynamic  system  that  reaches  deep  into  self  and  out  to  collective,  that  shapes  and  is  shaped  by  experience.  In  this  model,  the  'self'  is  not  a  unit  in  itself,  rather,  the  sel(f)ves  are  highly  plastic,  multi-­‐layered  and  performative.  I  argue  that  certain  dance  and  somatic  training  and  performance  practices  offer  practical  and  conceptual  tools  to  apprehend  and  illuminate  bodyscape,  and  to  nurture  skills  for  negotiating  the  tensegrity-­‐schema,  such  as  bringing  in  and  out  of  focus,  or  simultaneously  holding  in  attention,  multiple  layers  and  perspectives  of  this  schema.  Performers  may  be  called  upon  to  focus  attention  on  the  in-­‐depth,  visceral  body,  on  peri-­‐personal  reach,  or  on  exteroceptive  inter-­‐personal  space  between  co-­‐performers  and  performance  environment;  to  project  to  an  audience,  extend  through  virtual  environments  and  to  create  distantiation  through  character  and/or  generating  an  external  viewpoint  as  if  from  the  audience'  perspective.  Bringing  these  multiple,  simultaneous  layers  to  attention  may  lead  toward  an  experience  of  expanding  phenomenal  sense  of  performing  sel(f)ves;  but  also,  potentially,  toward  a  fragmenting  or  distancing  of  sense  of  ownership  and  agency,  that  approaches  delusional  or  schizophrenic  states.  These  notions  are  explored  from  performance  and  theoretical  perspectives,  informed  by  dance  and  performance  studies,  somaesthetics,  cognitive  science,  cultural  studies  and  informatics,  giving  examples  from  practices  including  my  own.  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   Sue  Hawksley  is  a  dance-­‐artist  and  bodywork  therapist.  She  is  artistic  director  of  Edinburgh-­‐based  dance  company  articulate  animal,  an  umbrella  for  interdisciplinary  performance  practice  and  research.  She  has  performed  extensively,  including  with  Rambert  Dance  Company,  Mantis,  Scottish  Ballet  and  Philippe  Genty  and  many  freelance  projects.  Sue  is  currently  completing  a  practice-­‐based  PhD  in  Dance  at  Edinburgh  College  of  Art.  Her  research  engages  questions  of  embodiment  through  choreographic  practice,  somatics,  philosophy  and  technological  mediation.  http://www.articulateanimal.org.uk      

1445  –  1645  ET126:  Workshop  2B  (20  places)  Chair:  Kerstin  Wellhofer   Mud  Drying  on  Skin  and  Other  Tactile  Adventures  -­‐  Touch  and  Self-­‐Sensing  in  Dance  Practice    Drawing  upon  practice-­‐based  research  into  the  deep  interrelatedness  of  skin  and  nervous  system,  this  workshop  engages  with  how  such  a  phenomenon  can  uniquely  and  significantly  inform  dance  practice.  The  notion  of  a  ‘tactile  adventure’  represents  the  intense  and  immersive  physical  dialogue  I  locate  through  these  ideas  in  practice  and  the  kind  of  awareness  and  thought  opened  thereby.  With  the  particular  tactile-­‐intention  of  ‘holding’  or  ‘guiding’  a  partner,  the  relative  porosity  of  reception  can  be  an  action  of  skilful  allowance  calibrated  by  contacting  skin  as  an  outer  layer  of  our  inner  contents.  Motivating  movement  from  tactile  sensation  creates  a  certain  permeability  of  presence  that  prompts  our  dancing  to  feed  us,  to  receive  information  even  as  we  articulate  and  embody.  Accumulating  knowledge  through  touch  permits  practice  to  loop  both  internal  and  external  environments,  creating  a  tactile-­‐kinaesthetic  web  through  which  multiple  levels  of  perception  and  intelligence  integrate.    Jennifer-­‐Lynn  Crawford    is  currently  on  faculty  at  Northern  School  of  Contemporary  Dance  where  she  lectures  in  release-­‐based  technique.  She  also  teaches  on  a  freelance  basis  through  the  UK,  Germany  and  Scandinavia.  Jennifer-­‐Lynn  currently  situates  her  research  interests  within  ‘The  Nature  of  Things’,  a  project  with  long-­‐term  collaborator  and  choreographer  Charlotte  Spencer.      

1715  –  1800  ET221:  Plenary  Chair:  Sarah  Whatley  &  Natalie  Garret  Brown      

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1  

1800  –  2000  ET135:  SCODHE  AGM  3A   Standing  Conference  on  Dance  in  Higher  Education  AGM  and  REF  Update  SCODHE  is  the  representative  body  for  dance  within  the  Higher  Education  sector  in  the  UK.  This  meeting  is  open  to  anyone  interested  in  finding  out  more  about  our  work  and  the  AGM  will  be  an  opportunity  to  discuss  the  role  and  direction  of  SCODHE.  This  will  be  followed  by  an  overview  of  the  forthcoming  Research  Excellence  Framework  by  Prof  Maria  Delgado  (Chair,  REF  sub-­‐panel  for  Drama,  Dance  and  Music).  There  will  be  an  opportunity  to  discuss  areas  such  as:  What  constitutes  excellent  research  in  our  discipline?  What  is  the  nature  of  research  ‘impact’  for  dance  academics?  And,  how  do  we  sustain  our  research  environments  within  the  current  climate?  Votes  cast  at  the  AGM  should  be  by  an  identified  representative  from  member  institutions/organizations.    This  event  may  be  attended  as  part  of,  or  independently  from,  the  Conference  and  we  welcome  your  participation.      

1930  –  2130  ICE  Studio:  Performance  3B  (second  showing  starts  at  2045  –  both  limited  to  25  people)  NB  The  ICE  Studio  is  a  5-­‐10  minute  walk  from  the  Ellen  Terry  Building;  guides  will  be  available  to  escort  delegates  from  Ellen  Terry  at  1915  &  2030  

 Sift  a  collaboration  between  composer  James  Buchanan  lighting  designer  Cath  Cullinane  choreographer  Amy  Voris  with  video  editing  by  Christian  Kipp    movement  and  stillness,  sound  and  silence,  light  and  shadow  flicker    created  with  support  from  Clarence  Mews  London.    Amy  Voris  is  a  dance  artist  based  in  the  West  Midlands  and  assistant  organiser  for  the  Summer  Dancing  Festival  in  Coventry.  Her  current  practice  is  inspired  by  authentic  movement  and  by  collaboration  with  other  artists.  She  was  a  founding  member  of  Rose's  Thoughts  Dance  Company  (choreographer  Ruth  Segalis,  London  1996  -­‐  2003).  She  currently  teaches  at  Coventry  University  and  is  training  in  Integrative  Bodywork  and  Movement  Therapy  with  Linda  Hartley.    James  Buchanan,  Composer  James  plays  several  instruments  including  piano,  saxophone,  and  guitar  amongst  others.  His  passion  is  music  composition  and  he  works  in  a  number  of  genres,  including  folk,  death  metal,  jazz  and  contemporary  classical.  He  studied  music  at  Goldsmiths,  University  of  London  and  is  currently  studying  part-­‐time  to  complete  his  doctoral  thesis  in  computer-­‐assisted  music  composition  at  Middlesex  University.    In  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   collaboration  with  choreographer  Amy  Voris,  he  has  created  electronic  scores  for  several  dance  works  which  have  been  performed  in  London  and  abroad.    He  is  a  member  of  both  CoMA  London  Ensemble  and  Graphite  which  is  a  group  of  five  composer-­‐performers  based  in  London  who  perform  their  own  music  alongside  works  by  other  contemporary  composers.        Cath  Cullinane,  Lighting  Designer  “I  have  a  fascination  for  the  moving  body  as  it  splinters  into  the  shapes  of  light....it  evokes  and  delights  my  senses  simultaneously.”    Originally  from  Liverpool  I  have  worked  as  Performance  Technician  for  the  last  20  years,  in  many  Theatres,  Festivals  and  Colleges  in  the  UK  and  Europe.    I  am  currently  Senior  Theatre  Technician/Skills  Instructor  at  Coventry  University  and  have  enjoyed  experimenting  with  non-­‐theatre  light.      

Throughout  the  conference    The  Emergence  of  Form  This  experimental  framework  proposes  to  explore  the  emergence  of  form  in  the  context  of  an  intertwined  exploration  of  different  somatic  practices  and  time-­‐space  related  strategies  for  an  extended  period  of  time:  the  duration  of  the  complete  conference.  It  would  consist  of  a  continuous  and  open  process  articulated  as  a  sequence  of  frames.  Form  emerges  when  the  actual  experience  is  perceived  as  operationally  coherent.  Form  is  understood  here  not  as  produced  or  constructed  but  as  perceptive  emergence,  defined  as  spontaneous  appearance  arising  from  the  interaction  between  the  performed  movements,  their  environment  and  the  perception  of  both.  “The  emergence  of  form”  will  create  conditions  to  research  this  subtle  process  through  its  immediate  observation.  The  main  questions  to  be  addressed  are:  when  and  how  does  form  emerge  in  the  practice  of  somatics?  Which  are  the  conditions  of  this  emergence?  And:  how  does  this  kind  of  experience  change  our  concept  of  form?    Aesthetic  Practice  and  Embodiment  Research  Group  (Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin  –  HZT),  represented  by:  Elisabeth  Molle,  Katja  Münker,  Ka  Rustler,  Alex  Arteaga    Elisabeth  Molle's  dance  background  is  Ballet,  the  Cunningham  technique,  Trisha  Brown  and  the  "post-­‐modern  dance".  After  spending  6  years  in  New  York,  where  she  also  graduated  as  an  Alexander  teacher  (ACAT)  in  1983  she  moved  to  Berlin.  There  she  developed  her  work  connecting  the  Alexander  Technique  to  movement  and  improvisation,  teaching  and  performing  in  a  process-­‐oriented  way.  She  teaches  presently  at  the  Master  for  Choreography  at  the  Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin  (HZT),  has  a  private  praxis  for  the  AT  and  has  been  working  on  Alexander  Technique  training  schools  for  over  20  years.      Katja  Münker  is  a  freelanced  dancer/choreographer,  Feldenkrais-­‐Practitioner,  physiotherapist  based  in  Berlin;  New  Dance  +  performance  training  with  Keriac;  movement-­‐studies  +  performance  projects  with  Amos  Hetz;  self-­‐organized  learning  +  research  in  dance  et  al.  during  ‘Transploration’  with  Ingo  Reulecke  +  Martin  Nachbar  as  mentors;  performance  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   projects  +  regular  teaching  in  various  context;  part  of  the  artists  collective  ‘Bergrecherche’.  www.MOveMENT-muenker.de    Ka  Rustler  is  a  dancer,  performer,  choreographer,  movement  educator  and  researcher.  Her  work  experience  also  includes  somatic  psychotherapy  and  worldwide  top  management  trainings.  She  teaches  internationally  applications  and  methods  derived  from  BMC®  and  their  relevance  in  Movement  &  Artistic  Research,  Choreographic  Exploration  and  Embodiment.  At  present  she  is  in  the  Team  of  the  HZT  in  Berlin.    Alex  Arteaga  is  a  researcher  in  the  fields  of  aesthetic  practice  and  embodiment  theories.  He  develops  his  research  through  his  artistic  practice,  as  academic  researcher  at  the  Collegium  for  the  Advanced  Study  of  Picture  Act  and  Embodiment  (Humboldt  University  Berlin)  and  as  visiting  professor  at  the  Master  of  Choreography  (Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin).      Stopping  in  Interesting  Places  A  series  of  works  by  Antony  Wall  drawn  from  movement  explorations  in  the  natural  environment  and  studio  practice.    An  exploration  of  arriving  in  moving  and  in  stillness  as  an  ongoing  practice  through  visual  art.  The  works  chosen  for  this  exhibition  focus  around  a  sense  of  moving  and  of  arriving  both  in  my  own  movement  practice  and  within  the  creation  of  the  works  themselves.  My  inspiration  stems  from  a  connection  to  the  natural  environment  through  embodied  and  somatic  movement.  The  aim  is  to  convey  a  sense  of  pure  experience,  perception  and  event  through  a  grounding  of  awareness  in  the  moving  body.  The  title  comes  from  a  quote  by  Paul  Gardner  "A  painting  is  never  finished  -­‐  it  simply  stops  in  interesting  places".  This  what  I  have  been  doing  in  my  practice  and  through  this  exhibition  you  are  invited  to  share  in  the  journey!  I  suffer  from  that  primal  drive  to  find  meaning  in  the  world  and  to  somehow  capture  it  in  image,  in  word,  in  movement  or  event.  In  a  sense  to  express  ones  very  soul  and  in  doing  so  recognizing  the  soul  nature  of  everything.    Antony  Wall  brings  the  full  weight  of  his  many  years  training  as  a  visual  artist,  Shiatsu  therapist,  Martial  Artist  and  movement  artist  to  his  work.  He  graduated  from  Winchester  School  of  Art  in  1998,  is  devoted  to  exploring  creativity  as  fundamental  to  the  human  experience.    He  has  recently  been  training  with  Helen  Poynor  in  the  Walk  Of  Life  training  programme.      everything  is  at  once  everything  is  at  once  is  a  collection  of  photos  from  a  collaborative  site  project,  Enter  &  Inhabit.  This  project  seeks  to  explore  our  changing  experiences  of  the  outdoor  spaces  that  we  pass  through  by  drawing  on  durational  movement  improvisation,  photography  and  writing.  In  January  2011  Enter  &  Inhabit  began  a  project  in  Kenilworth  Common.  In  these  woods  -­‐  a  popular  thoroughfare  local  to  our  homes  -­‐  we  are  beginning  to  translate  processes  from  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Fri  8TH  July  –  Day  1   previous  sites  and  projects,  further  afield.  Interests  in  the  processes  of  sensory  perception  and  the  shifting  textures  of  the  seasons  are  feeding  into  our  scores  for  the  site.  The  images  in  this  collection  evolve  from  the  ongoing  project  process  which  involves  inhabiting  space  and  place,  through  a  practice  of  staying  open  to  the  present.  Through  simple  camera  movements  the  colours  and  textures  of  the  woodland  merge  and  layer.  Created  from  and  by  the  site,  existing  forms  are  transformed  into  images  which  are  abstract  and  familiar.  Characterised  by  a  sensorial  playfulness,  the  resulting  images  are  not  the  place,  the  dancer  or  the  dance,  but  are  something  parallel,  folding  back  into  collaboration  with  the  site  and  each  other.  The  images  considered  here  seem  to  gently  resonate  with  the  outdoor  movement  practices  being  explored.    Enter  &  Inhabit  www.enterinhabit.com  Natalie  Garrett  Brown,  Christian  Kipp  &  Amy  Voris    Natalie  Garrett  Brown  lectures  in  Dance  at  Coventry  University  where  she  is  associate  head  for  Performing  Arts.  She  is  associate  editor  for  the  Journal  of  Dance  and  Somatic  Practices  and  she  is  on  the  editorial  board  for  the  Dancelines  section  in  Research  in  Dance  Education.  She  has  just  completed  her  Somatic  Movement  Educators  Training  in  Body-­‐Mind  Centering.  Her  research  interests  are  theoretically  situated  within  Feminist  understandings  of  embodied  subjectivity  and  is  focused  on  the  ways  in  which  Somatic  practices  inform  performance  making,  creativity  and  writing.  Informed  by  the  work  of  Helen  Poynor  and  others  her  most  recent  performance  projects  have  explored  moving  outside.  These  include  an  ongoing  collaboration  with  photographer  Christian  Kipp  and  dance  artist  Amy  Voris.    Christian  Kipp  is  a  photographer  based  in  Essex.  He  splits  his  time  between  working  on  his  own  in  the  natural  landscape  and  collaborating  with  a  variety  of  dance  artists.  He  is  interested  in  the  ways  that  these  two  areas  feed  and  reflect  each  other.  For  Christian,  photography  feels  like  a  way  of  connecting  more  strongly  with  nature  and  people.  www.christiankipp.com    Amy  Voris  is  a  dance  artist  based  in  the  West  Midlands  and  assistant  organiser  for  the  Summer  Dancing  Festival  in  Coventry.  Her  current  practice  is  inspired  by  authentic  movement  and  by  collaboration  with  other  artists.  She  was  a  founding  member  of  Rose's  Thoughts  Dance  Company  (choreographer  Ruth  Segalis,  London  1996  -­‐  2003).  She  currently  teaches  at  Coventry  University  and  is  training  in  Integrative  Bodywork  and  Movement  Therapy  with  Linda  Hartley.    

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2  

0930  –  1000  ET101:  Artist  Talk    Chair:  Paula  Kramer   Stopping  in  Interesting  Places  A  series  of  works  by  Antony  Wall  drawn  from  movement  explorations  in  the  natural  environment  and  studio  practice.    An  exploration  of  arriving  in  moving  and  in  stillness  as  an  ongoing  practice  through  visual  art.  The  works  chosen  for  this  exhibition  focus  around  a  sense  of  moving  and  of  arriving  both  in  my  own  movement  practice  and  within  the  creation  of  the  works  themselves.  My  inspiration  stems  from  a  connection  to  the  natural  environment  through  embodied  and  somatic  movement.  The  aim  is  to  convey  a  sense  of  pure  experience,  perception  and  event  through  a  grounding  of  awareness  in  the  moving  body.  The  title  comes  from  a  quote  by  Paul  Gardner  "A  painting  is  never  finished  -­‐  it  simply  stops  in  interesting  places".  This  what  I  have  been  doing  in  my  practice  and  through  this  exhibition  you  are  invited  to  share  in  the  journey!  I  suffer  from  that  primal  drive  to  find  meaning  in  the  world  and  to  somehow  capture  it  in  image,  in  word,  in  movement  or  event.  In  a  sense  to  express  ones  very  soul  and  in  doing  so  recognizing  the  soul  nature  of  everything.    Antony  Wall  brings  the  full  weight  of  his  many  years  training  as  a  visual  artist,  Shiatsu  therapist,  Martial  Artist  and  movement  artist  to  his  work.  He  graduated  from  Winchester  School  of  Art  in  1998,  is  devoted  to  exploring  creativity  as  fundamental  to  the  human  experience.    He  has  recently  been  training  with  Helen  Poynor  in  the  Walk  Of  Life  training  programme.      

1000  –  1200  ET221:  Panel  4A  Creative  Practice  Chair:  Polly  Hudson    A  Phenomenological  and  Character  Analytic  Approach  to  Facilitating  the  Embodied  Processes  of  the  Contemporary  Dancer  Recent  shifts  in  the  aesthetics  of  contemporary  dance  towards  a  sensorial-­‐perceptual  and  performative  mode  of  performing  have  challenged  the  traditional  tasks  of  the  dancer.  Of  the  dancer  they  require  heightened  awareness  of  and  ability  to  utilize  her  own  sensations  and  experiences  as  material  for  performing.  They  likewise  ask  her  to  become  immersed  in  open  and  immediate  forms  of  interaction  with  others  and  the  environment.  This  presentation  discusses  how  to  foster  increased  sensible  and  perceptual  awareness  as  well  as  immediate  interaction  in  the  dancer  through  a  somatic  approach.  The  approach  draws  on  Merleau-­‐Ponty’s  phenomenological  method,  conceptions  of  perception  and  the  expressivity  of  the  body  that  are  amplified  by  Reich’s  psychoanalytically  oriented  conceptions  of  character  formation  and  psychotherapeutic  intervention.  The  presentation  introduces  some  of  the  basic  features  of  the  constructed  somatic  approach  including  focused  awareness,  breath  work  and  tension  release  and  argue  for  its  relevance  for  the  artistic  undertakings  of  the  contemporary  dancer.  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2    Leena  Rouhiainen  (MA  in  Dance  Performance,  Theatre  Academy  of  Finland,  1995;  MA  in  Somatic  Studies  and  Labananalysis,  University  of  Surrey  2006;  Doctor  of  Arts  in  Dance,  Theatre  Academy  of  Finland  2003)  is  a  dancer-­‐choreographer  and  dance  scholar.  Her  research  interests  are  in  artistic  research,  phenomenology  and  the  contemporary  dancer.  She  currently  holds  a  position  of  Academy  Research  Fellow  at  the  Department  of  Research  Development  of  the  Theatre  Academy  in  Helsinki.      Somatic  Tools  without  Somatic  Principles:  Tensions  in  a  Creative  Process  in  Dance  We  will  highlight  the  tension  created  by  the  dichotomy  between  the  somatic  practices  principles  called  upon  during  a  creative  process  and  the  demands  of  the  choreographer  in  relation  to  the  required  results  for  the  staged  work.  While  the  audience  could  perceive  the  powerful  effect  of  the  somatic  tools  on  the  emotional  charge  of  the  dancer’s  performance,  the  creative  process  between  the  choreographer  and  the  dancer  ignored  fundamental  somatic’s  principles  as  no  judgement,  recognition  of  the  dancer’s  experience,  respect  of  the  dancer’s  speaking  and  time  maturation,  leading  to  a  constant  stress  and  a  lost  of  autonomy  from  the  dancer’s  side.  Drawing  attention  to  the  necessary  awareness  and  vigilance  required  when  setting  up  conditions  in  which  to  use  somatic  practice  techniques  within  the  choreographic  process,  we  would  suggest  that  the  communication  tools  of  the  choreographer  should  follow  a  certain  “somatical  ethics”.    Nicole  Harbonnier-­‐Topin  has  been,  since  2004,  Professor  in  “movement  studies”  and,  since  2009,  Director  of  the  Graduates’  programs  in  dance  and  in  somatic  education  in  the  Dance  Department  of  the  University  of  Quebec  in  Montreal  (UQAM).  She  is  certified  in  “Functional  movement  analysis  of  the  body  in  danced  movement”  (Analyse  fonctionnelle  du  corps  dans  le  mouvement  dansé  (AFCMD)),  Paris,  1997.  She  was  a  dance  performer  (1982-­‐2004),  a  contemporary  dance  teacher  (1985-­‐2004)  and  a  dance  teacher’s  instructor  in  the  field  of  AFCMD  in  several  institutions  in  France  (1997-­‐2004),  mainly  in  “Centre  National  de  la  danse”  of  Lyon.    (not  attending)  Johanna  Bienaise,  MA,  doctorate  student  in  the  “Studies  and  practices  of  art”  program  in  the  faculty  of  Arts,  University  of  Quebec  in  Montréal  (UQAM),  Director  Nicole  Harbonnier-­‐Topin  and  co-­‐director  Sylvie  Fortin.  After  completing  her  dance  training  in  the  south  of  France,  Johanna  moved  to  Montreal  at  the  end  of  2002  and  spent  two  years  dancing  for  choreographer  José  Navas’  company  Flak.  Among  others,  she  also  has  been  seen  in  the  work  of  Tracy  Mc  Neil,  Erin  Flynn,  Anne-­‐Sophie  Rouleau,  George  Stamos.  From  2006  to  2009,  she  has  been  an  active  member  of  the  collective  La  2e  Porte  à  Gauche,  working  on  site  specific  projects.  Parallel  to  her  career  as  a  dancer,  she  is  presently  preparing  a  Ph.D.  research-­‐creation  at  UQAM  questioning  the  adaptability  of  the  dancer  to  different  dance  projects.  Her  research  has  been  funded  by  the  FQRSC  and  the  SSHRC.  She  also  taught  several  classes  at  the  Dance  Department  of  UQAM.          

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   1000  –  1130  University  Square:  Participatory  4B  Chair:  Paula  Kramer  NB  University  Square  is  a  short  5-­‐10  minute  walk  from  Ellen  Terry  Building  

 Open  Movement  Practice  An  opportunity  to  digest  and  integrate  your  experiences  of  the  conference  through  movement.  Please  join  Helen  moving  at  University  Square.  No  structure,  no  instructions  –  come  for  as  long  as  you  want  –  rain  or  shine!    Helen  Poynor  runs  the  Walk  of  Life  Workshop  and  Training  Programme  in  Non-­‐stylised  and  Environmental  Movement  on  the  World  Heritage  Jurassic  Coast  in  East  Devon/West  Dorset  www.walkoflife.co.uk.    As  a  director  and  performer  she  specialises  in  site-­‐specific  and  auto-­‐biographical  performance  and  cross-­‐art  form  collaborations.    She  is  a  visiting  professor  of  Performance  at  Coventry  University.      

1230  –  1300  ETG34:  DVD  Collection  Chair:  Amy  Voris    Recherche  en  Mouvement  (REM)  is  a  non-­‐profit  organization  created  in  1986  to  diffuse  information  about  somatic  approaches  to  movement.  Our  on-­‐going  collection  of  DVDs  on  somatics  and  artistic  creation,  includes  4  DVDS  already  available,  another  which  will  be  available  by  the  end  of  June,  and  yet  another  still  in  the  making.  The  collection  is  divided  into  3  series.  The  first  series  is  on  Somatic  Approaches  and  Artistic  Creation.    There  is  1  DVD  out,  "Somatic  Approaches  to  Movement",  with  an  introduction  by  Sylvie  Fortin.  The  new  one  that  will  be  ready  by  the  end  of  June  is  on  "Ancestral  Approaches  and  Performing  Arts",  with  an  introduction  by  Bonnie  Bainbridge  Cohen.  The  second  series  is  on  Somatic  Approaches  Applied  to  Artistic  Movement  in  Technical  Training,  with  2  DVDs  out:  "Pirouette,  tour  en  l'air"  with  a  bonus  on  eye  movement  and  a  bonus  on  tensegrity  theory  and  "The  Diversity  of  support  in  Peter  Goss'  Modern  Dance,  with  a  bonus  on  the  thymus  and  a  bonus  on  the  8th  thoracic  vertebra".  The  third  series  is  "Towards  the  Poetry  of  Gesture,  Art  and  Science".  The  one  DVD  out  is  called  "From  Ordinary  Gesture  to  Dance;  Memory  in  Action".    Lila  Greene      

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2  

1300  -­‐  1500  ET221:  Panel  5A  Creative  Practice  Chair:  Sarah  Whatley    Buddha-­‐hood  in  a  single  note:  a  somatic  exploration  of  breath,  mind-­‐body  and  musical  performance.  This  paper  will  explore  specific  relationships  between  sound,  physicality,  breath,  and  meditative  or  ‘flow’[1]  states  of  consciousness.  Meditative  or  ‘no-­‐mind’  states  during  performance  were  originally  experienced  by  the  author  on  saxophone  and  subsequently  developed  through  research  into  traditional  Japanese  shakuhachi  (Zen  bamboo  flute)  performance  within  an  framework  bringing  together  the  physicality  of  instrumental  performance,  flow  studies  and  Zen  meditation  techniques.  I  will  present  a  somatic  framework  through  which  the  mechanism  allowing  shakuhachi  performance  to  act  as  a  catalyst  for  a  meditative  or  no-­‐mind  consciousness  can  be  understood  and  reproduced.  This  will  then  be  extended  beyond  an  instrumental  musical  context  to  discuss  how  it  informs  my  current  work,  which  is  transitioning  from  music  and  sonic  arts  into  physical  performance.  [1]  Developed  in  the  1970s  by  psychologist  Mihaly  Csíkszentmihályi  

 Rees  Archibald  studied  saxophone  and  woodwind  performance  before  moving  to  Japan  to  further  his  studies  on  shakuhachi  (Japanese  bamboo  flute)  in  1996.  In  2002  he  obtained  a  Masters  in  music  composition  at  Wesleyan  University  in  the  USA,  working  with  composers  Ron  Kuivila,  Alvin  Lucier  and  David  Behrman.    Rees  has  performed  and  shown  work  in  venues  such  as  The  Kitchen  in  New  York  City,  ZKM/HfG  in  Germany,  the  Sydney  Opera  House,  Red  Gate  Gallery,  Beijing,  and  the  Emit/Time  Festival  in  Bern,  Switzerland.  He  currently  lectures  at  Leeds  Metropolitan  University  in  electronic  music,  performance  and  music  technology      Writing  the  Somatic  in  the  Insomnia  Poems  Project  The  issue  of  how  to  write  the  somatic  is  a  recurring  one  within  embodied,  practice  led  research.  How  might  dancers  and  somatic  practitioners  translate  or  evoke  felt,  embodied,  sensory  and  moving  experience  to  the  realms  of  pages,  in  order  for  ideas,  feelings  and  spaces  developed  in  a  specific  studio  environment  to  reach  and  contribute  to  new  critical  and  creative  spaces?  This  paper  presents  an  emergent  enquiry  into  the  trans-­‐disciplinary  relationship  between  somatic  dance  improvisation  and  language  from  an  18-­‐month  studio  practice  between  Alys  Longley  and  Katherine  Tate.  It  will  discuss  how  different  somatic  practices,  poetic  methodologies  and  the  boundaries  of  Katherine’s  health  -­‐  living  with  chronic  insomnia  as  part  of  M.E  -­‐  fed  into  the  Insomnia  Poems  project.  This  took  form  in  a  deck  of  cards  that  employed  photographs  of  studio  work,  journal  notes,  drawing  and  poetic  reflection,  to  give  readers  52  starting  points  for  considering  dance,  or  52  starting  points  for  improvisation  or  choreography.  The  Insomnia  Poems  were  designed  like  a  body  of  cells,  as  poetic  blueprints  for  creative  practice,  including  writing  provocations  such  as  “waiting/weighting”  and  “the  world  writes  the  inside  ofyour  body  with  its  breath.”  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   Insomnia  Poems  will  be  discussed  in  relation  to  the  somatic  poetics  of  practitioners  such  as  Joan  Skinner  (1979),  Mary  Starks  Whitehouse  (2002),  Miranda  Tufnell  (2004)  and  Simone  Forti  (2003,  2006);  the  cultural  geography  of  Juliana  Bruno  (2002),  and  to  arts  practitioners  such  as  Fluxus  artist  George  Brecht  and  the  site  specific  performance  group  Wrights  and  Sites,  who  work  to  refine  experiences  ofeveryday  life  into  performance  events.    (not  attending)  Alys  Longley’s  research  works  from  the  discipline  of  dance  studies  with  an  emphasis  on  interdisciplinary  practice.  Her  current  research  explores  performance  writing  as  a  form  of  choreographic  thinking  and  choreography  as  a  way  of  generating  performance  writing.  Within  the  framework  of  practice  led  research,  her  site  specific  dance  work  draws  on  thinking  from  architecture,  theatre  studies,  translation  theory,  creative  writing  and  performance  studies.  Alys  is  a  Lecturer  in  Dance  Studies  at  the  University  of  Auckland,  New  Zealand.    Katherine  Tate  is  a  somatic  therapist  and  dance  artist,  currently  entering  her  second  year  of  Skinner  Releasing  teacher  certification.  She  is  also  completing  a  qualification  in  Somatic  Movement  Education  and  Therapy  through  East  West  Somatics  and  ISMETA.  Currently  she  works  as  a  massage  therapist  at  SOUL  centre  of  the  body  and  mind  in  Titirangi,  and  is  a  post-­‐graduate  dance  student  at  The  University  of  Auckland,  New  Zealand.  She  is  also  an  advocate  for  people  with  M.E.,  creating  awareness  raising  projects  since  2006,  through  performance  art  and  documentary  film.  She  hopes  to  contribute  towards  the  development  of  atherapeutic  Skinner  Releasing  pedagogy  for  people  with  chronic  illness  including  M.E.      Giving  Spaces  to  Voices  Re-­‐solving  many  voices.  A  task  to  hang  multiple  voices  and  an  unfinished  notebook  in  the  air.    This  practice  is  presented  in  its  place  and  time  and  by  attempting  to  find  truthful  and  mindful  agency.    Key  voices  to  acknowledge:  Gill  Clarke,  Giovanni  Fellicioni,  Eva  Karczag,  Helen  Poynor,  Niki  Pollard,  Alva  Noë,  Maurice  Merleau-­‐Ponty,  Kirsty  Alexander,  Joan  Skinner,  Anna  Halprin,  Mary  Oliver  and  David  Abrams.    Katye  Coe  is  a  dance  artist  and  senior  lecturer  whose  primary  dance  practices  are  Skinner  Releasing  Technique,  Contact  Improvisation  and  Non-­‐stylised  movement  (Helen  Poynor).  Katye  is  the  artistic  director  of  Summer  Dancing,  an  international  festival  of  dance  and  performance.  Current  teaching  includes  improvisation,  experiential  anatomy,  choreography,  interdisciplinary  making,  site  practice  and  contextual  studies.      

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2  

1300  –  1500  ET126:  Workshop  5B  (20  places)  Chair:  Katy  Dymoke    The  Relevance  for  Dance  Artists  of  Fundamental  Principles  and  Somatic  Knowledge  Inherent  In  The  Traditional  Japanese  Martial  Arts  of  Aikido  and  Kashima  Shinryu  Swordsmanship  This  workshop  will  offer  participants  the  opportunity  to  experience  the  methodological  approach  of  Paul  Douglas  to  the  study  of  Aikido  and  Kashima  Shinryu  Kenjutsu  as  employed  at  Tetsushinkan  Dojo  at  Movingeast,  London.  As  a  Dance  Artist,  Paul  Douglas  worked  with  London  Contemporary  Dance  Theatre,  Rambert  and  Siobhan  Davies  Dance  Company  and  was  Choreographer/Director  of  Small  Bones  Dance  Company.  Paul  will  deliver  the  workshop  in  partnership  with  Sasha  Roubicek,  alumni  Dance  Artist  of  Siobhan  Davies  Dance  Company  and  Lecture  in  Dance  at  London  Contemporary  Dance  School.  Douglas  and  Roubicek  will  introduce  participants  to  preparatory  mobilisation  and  centring  and  to  exploration  of  basic  partnered  practice  from  Aikido  and  will  give  a  demonstration  of  the  classical  Japanese  Sword  School  of  Kashima  Shinryu.  They  will  talk  about  and  illustrate  the  embodied  knowledge  derived  through  the  practice  of  these  arts  and  of  how  this  has  supported  and  continues  to  inform  and  enriched  their  dance  practice.    Paul  Douglas  –  Director  of  Movingeast  and  Tetsushinkan  Dojo  Sasha  Roubicek  –  Dance  Lecturer  at  London  Contemporary  Dance  School  Laura  Glaser  –  Dance  Lecturer  LABAN  Rafaelle  Sannino  –  Practitioner  of  Tui  na  Chinese  manipulative  therapy      

1300  –  1500  ETG34:  Panel  5C  Philosophical  Shifts  &  Transformations  Chair:  Kirsty  Alexander    Transcendence,  Illumination:    Somatic  practice-­‐led  research  as  Transformative  The  focus  of  this  paper  is  on  those  moments  of  transcendence,  illumination  or  deep  resonance  that  appear  to  guide  creative  research  processes.  Rather  than  being  beguiled  by  conceptual  frameworks  of  postmodernism,  my  research  aims  to  articulate  how  to  more  clearly  know  where  we  are,  even  when  the  notion  of  ‘where  am  I’  is  beyond  comprehension  and  there  is  no  articulation  of  what  we  see,  sense,  feel  and  intuit.  The  concepts  of  soul,  spirit,  or  depth  experience  have  historically  been  associated  with  the  religious,  sacred  and  more  recently  with  psychology  and  self-­‐development  and  in  dance  practices  are  often  difficult  to  articulate.  But  I  will  argue  that  the  somatic  practices  of  Focusing  (work  with  the  ‘felt  sense’,  Gendlin)  and  Authentic  Movement  (active  imagination  in  movement,  Jung/Chodorow)  are  potential  methodological  tools  for  practice-­‐led  research  which  create  a  powerful  container  in  which  to  discover  such  concepts  and  psyche’s  embodied  capacity.    Jane  Bacon  is  Professor  of  Performance  and  Somatics  (University  of  Northampton)  and  a  Jungian  Psychotherapist,  Focusing  Trainer  and  Authentic  Movement  Practitioner  in  private  practice  (London  and  Northampton).  She  is  co-­‐Director  of  The  Choreographic  Lab,  an  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   environment  that  supports  the  articulation  of  creative  embodied  processes,  and  co-­‐Editor  of  Choreographic  Practices  (Intellect).  She  works  with  the  relationship  between  conscious  and  unconscious  in  body  based  psychotherapeutic  practices  and  as  supervisor  and  mentor  she  uses  this  relational  model  as  a  methodological  tool  for  practice  as  research  in  performance  projects.  Her  key  interest  is  in  finding  ways  in  which  we  can  all  ‘articulate  something’  of  and  from  the  creative  process.      Disorientation  and  Emergent  Subjectivity;  The  Political  Potentiality  of  Embodied  Encounter  Located  in  philosophical  enquiry  this  paper  will  consider  ways  to  theorise  and  articulate  the  political  significance  of  embodied  encounter  with  the  environment.  Underlying  this  discussion  will  be  an  interrogation  of  the  relationship  between  presence,  embodiment  and  inter-­‐subjectivity  with  specific  reference  to  Fisher-­‐Lichte’s  (2004/2008)  proposition  of  ‘the  radical  concept  of  presence’  (99).  In  doing  so  an  affinity  is  proposed  between  Deleuzian  inflected  corporeal  Feminism  principally  through  the  work  of  Rosi  Braidotti,  (1991,1992,1994,2002),  Elizabeth  Grosz,  (1994a,  1994b,  1995,  2003)  and  somatic  informed  movement  practice  in  the  environment.  Both,  it  will  be  suggested,  offer  a  critique  of  the  “mind/body”  dualism  implicit  within  humanist  understandings  of  subjectivity.  Accordingly  each  can  be  argued  to  re-­‐cast  subjectivity  as  an  always  embodied  activity,  an  inter-­‐corporeal  exchange  between  “self”,  recast  as  shifting  and  multiple,  and  “otherness”.  Arguing  this  point  the  article  will  propose  an  alternative  model  of  audience  performer  relationship  theorised  around  notions  of  witness  and  transformation.  Noting  the  political  dimensions  of  this  to  issues  of  difference  in  performance,  the  paper  will  seek  to  elucidate  the  extent  to  which  existing  approaches  to  performance  studies,  or  that  which  Melrose  (2003,  2005a,  2005b  &  2005c),    terms  ‘expert  writerly  registers’  themselves  rooted  in  a  disembodied  spectatorship,  arguably  lack  the  apparatus  to  accommodate  such  understandings.    Natalie  Garrett  Brown  lectures  in  Dance  at  Coventry  University  where  she  is  associate  head  for  Performing  Arts.  She  is  associate  editor  for  the  Journal  of  Dance  and  Somatic  Practices  and  she  is  on  the  editorial  board  for  the  Dancelines  section  in  Research  in  Dance  Education.  She  has  just  completed  her  Somatic  Movement  Educators  Training  in  Body-­‐Mind  Centering.  Her  research  interests  are  theoretically  situated  within  Feminist  understandings  of  embodied  subjectivity  and  is  focused  on  the  ways  in  which  Somatic  practices  inform  performance  making,  creativity  and  writing.  Informed  by  the  work  of  Helen  Poynor  and  others  her  most  recent  performance  projects  have  explored  moving  outside.  These  include  an  ongoing  collaboration  with  photographer  Christian  Kipp  and  dance  artist  Amy  Voris.      Coming  to  our  senses:  collisions  and  collaborations  of  cells  and  pixels  The  ongoing  assumption  within  the  field  of  dance  practice  of  an  unresolvable  gap  between  corporeal  matter  (cells)  and  digital  code  (pixels)  invites  critical  rethinking  of  the  sensate  body  and  its  modes  of  interacting  with  digital  interfaces  as  well  as  the  potential  for  emergent  becomings  through  these  interactions.  Strategizing  new  pathways  for  the  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   convergence  of  screen  and  body,  cells  and  pixels  within  contemporary  practice  suggests  a  reconfiguring  and  entwining  of  digital  image  and  material  body.  Choreographic  practices  informed  by  somatic  paradigms  are  used  as  tactics  to  challenge  how  we  perceive  digital  media,  bringing  the  senses  to  virtual  spaces  to  create  embodied  encounters.  With  a  particular  emphasis  on  sonic  mappings  to  recalibrate  relations  between  space  and  the  moving  body  the  research  considers  how  a  destabilising  of  the  body  and  screen  relationship  might  open  a  potential  space  for  dialogue  between  the  fields  of  somatics  and  creative  technologies.    Becca  Wood  works  in  performance  practices  that  slip  between  the  intersections  of  the  body,  space  and  digital  environments.  Her  research  invites  critical  rethinking  of  the  sensate  body  and  its  modes  of  interacting  with  digital  interfaces  to  open  a  potential  space  for  dialogue  between  the  fields  of  somatics  and  creative  technologies.  Becca  is  currently  in  her  first  year  of  Doctoral  research  at  Auckland  University  where  she  also  lectures  in  Dance  Studies.  Prior  to  this  she  taught  movement  for  performance  practice  and  interdisciplinary  arts  at  Unitec  School  of  Performing  and  Screen  Arts.  She  continues  to  work  across  the  arts  in  performance,  somatic  research  and  education  and  digital-­‐based  art  and  design.      

1530  –  1715  ETG34:  Panel  6A  Pedagogical  Explorations  Chair:  Henrietta  Bannerman    Interpreting  Embodied  Dance  Practice  Focusing  on  the  theme  of  dance  and  embodiment,  this  paper  discusses  the  experience  of  learning  dance  practice  in  Higher  Education  in  the  context  of  phenomenological  hermeneutics.  The  ironies  of  dance  as  a  somatic  practice  and  the  requirements  of  assessment  will  be  discussed.  The  research  has  been  gathered  through  practice-­‐based  reflection  and  investigation,  contextualised  with  information  published  on  reflective  practice  and  phenomenological  hermeneutics.  The  conclusion  of  the  paper  is  that  engagement  with  a  variety  of  dialectic  interchange  and  temporal  distance  opportunities  enables  lecturers  to  provide  a  framework  for  students  to  reflect  and  develop  their  somatic  practice,  achieved  by  techniques  of  questioning  and  disclosure  offered  through  phenomenological  hermeneutics.    Marie  Hay  is  a  Senior  Lecturer  in  Dance  at  De  Montfort  University.  She  teaches  across  a  range  of  undergraduate  modules  including;  dance  practice,  choreography,  dance  history  and  contextual  studies.  Marie  also  teaches  on  the  MA  Dance  and  Professional  Practice.  Particular  research  interests  include  self-­‐assessment,  peer  feedback  and  the  application  of  hermeneutics  in  the  teaching  and  learning  of  reflective  dance  practice.  Marie  has  presented  her  research  and  been  published  internationally  in  these  areas.          

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   The  concept  of  Ki,  embodied  experience  and  dance  practice  Central  to  shiatsu,  a  bodywork  form  originating  in  Japan,  and  to  many  other  Eastern  practices  and  philosophies  is  the  concept  of  Ki  (or  Chi  in  Chinese),  the  life  force  understood  to  be  present  and  constantly  in  flux  in  everything  in  the  universe.    Central  principles  of  shiatsu  practice  include  ‘relaxation’,  ‘developing  and  coming  from  the  Hara’  (Hara  being  the  body’s  energetic  centre)  and  ‘extending  your  Ki  field’.    The  shiatsu  practitioner  seeks  ease  of  movement  in  their  own  body,  groundedness,  openness  and  sensitivity  in  many  levels  of  awareness,  presence,  integration  of  physical  and  mental  intention,  and  the  possibility  of  transformation.  Drawing  on  knowledge  arising  through  my  own  personal  experience  as  a  shiatsu  practitioner  and  my  experience  of  Qigong,  as  well  as  reflections  gathered  from  other  dance  practitioners,  this  paper  investigates  how  an  embodied  experience  and  understanding  of  Ki  can  enhance  somatic  awareness  and  impact  on  one’s  dance  practice.    Liz  Pavey    took  up  her  current  post  as  Senior  Lecturer  in  Dance  at  Northumbria  University  in  2004.  Her  research  interests  lie  in  the  roles  of  dance,  movement  and  bodywork  practices,  and  somatic  awareness,  in  promoting  and  sustaining  holistic  health  and  wellbeing,  and  in  the  impact  of  somatic  practices  and  Eastern  perspectives  on  the  development  of  contemporary  dance  practice.  Between  2007-­‐2009  she  completed  the  professional  training  programme  of  the  Shiatsu  College  Newcastle.    She  is  an  active  member  of  the  Shiatsu  Society  UK  and  continues  to  develop  her  practice  studying  shiatsu  and  Qigong  with  leading  teachers  in  the  field.          Somatic  Movement  and  Whole  Person  Education:  A  Somatic  Learning  Cycle  In  this  presentation  I  will  describe  a  somatic  learning  cycle  –  a  methodology  for  facilitating  somatic  movement  education.  I  will  move  between  my  own  core  practice  of  Shin  Somatics  ®  (the  pioneering  work  of  Sondra  Fraleigh  combining  phenomenology,  Zen,  Feldenkrais,  and  intrinsic,  improvisational  dance)  and  John  Heron’s  ‘extended  epistemology’  and  theory  of  whole-­‐person  education.  Eco-­‐somatic  in  orientation,  the  learning  cycle  unfolds  from  our  felt  relationship  with  the  human  and  more-­‐than-­‐human  world.  It  moves  through  four  phases  of  knowing  –  experiential,  presentational,  conceptual  and  practical  –  through  perceptual  practice,  improvisational  dance,  and  the  use  of  imagery  and  imagination.  The  model  considers  dance  and  somatic  movement  in  its  relation  to  being  and  becoming  a  ‘whole  person’,  Heron’s  term  for  the  journey  towards  realizing  our  fullest  human  potential.  I  hope  to  show  how  for  dancers  and  ‘non-­‐dancers’  alike,  this  approach  can  harness  somatic  skills  for  deepening  both  (self-­‐)knowing  and  (self-­‐)making.    Karen  Smith    is  a  Registered  Somatic  Movement  Educator/Therapist  with  ISMETA,  and  a  senior  faculty  member  of  the  Eastwest  Somatics  Institute  teaching  Shin  Somatics,  the  pioneering  work  of  Sondra  Fraleigh  drawing  on  phenomenology,  Zen,  Feldenkrais,  and  intrinsic,  improvisational  dance  forms  including  butoh.  She  works  internationally  offering  workshops  for  the  public,  trainings  for  developing  practitioners,  and  masterclasses  for  dancers  in  tertiary  education.  As  a  consultant  with  15  years  experience  in  large  scale  organisations,  she  has  designed  and  facilitated  learning  processes  for  as  many  as  1000  people  at  places  including  the  BBC,  Microsoft,  and  UK  central  government.  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   1530  -­‐  1700  ICE  Studio:  Interactive  Installation  6C  (2  x  12  places)  Chair:  David  Bennett  NB  The  ICE  Studio  is  a  5-­‐10  minute  walk  from  the  Ellen  Terry  Building;  guides  will  be  available  to  escort  delegates  from  Ellen  Terry  at  1515  &  1600  

 Navigating  the  Site  Map:  From  Analogue  to  Digital  Space  A  space  where  research  takes  place....  My  PhD  research  seeks  to  examine  and  interrogate  the  assumed  pre-­‐eminence  of  face-­‐to-­‐face  pedagogy,  exploring  the  creative  possibilities  made  available  with  the  introduction  of  video,  pre-­‐recorded  instructions  and  photography  as  modes  of  transmission  for  movement.  At  the  centre  of  this  research  is  a  movement  vocabulary  titled  In  All  Languages  which  is  comprised  of  9  sets  of  physical  action;  each  suggest  starting  points  for  individual  and  group  choreography.  The  next  major  phase  in  the  research  is  the  development  of  a  website  that  will  house  the  practice;  it  is  this  shift  from  analogue  to  digital  space  that  is  central  to  this  interactive  installation.  It  seems  essential  that  in  order  to  develop  a  website  that  functions  as  a  tool  for  stimulating  movement,  one  should  first  develop  a  real  time  analogue  assessment,  recording  how  participants  interact  and  navigate  their  way  through  the  material.  The  analogue  'homepage'  will  invite  delegates  to  participate,  recording  personal  pathways  on  to  a  site-­‐map  that  I  hope  will  inform  and  direct  the  construction  of  digital  space.    Louise  Ritchie  is  based  at  Aberystwyth  University  UK  where  she  is  now  in  her  final  year  of  practice  led  AHRC  doctoral  research,  under  the  supervision  of  Professor  Mike  Pearson  and  Dr  Heike  Roms.  Alongside  her  PhD  research  she  teaches  on  the  Performance  Studies  undergraduate  program  at  Aberystwyth  University.      

1530  –  1715  ET126:  Workshop  6D  (16  places)    Chair:  Polly  Hudson  NB  Performance  element  to  be  shown  later,  see  below  

 SOMATIC  MOVEMENT  AND  COSTUME    Talk  /Workshop  /  Performance    Join  Sally  E.  Dean,  somatic  practitioner  and  performing  artist,  for  a  presentation,  performance  and  workshop  –  all  of  which  explore  how  costume  can  support  kinesthetic  awareness  in  a  similar  way  to  touch  or  imagery,  by  designing  and  working  with  costumes  that  create  specific  body-­‐mind  experiences.  Using  her  training  and  research  background  in  Skinner  Releasing  Technique  and  Amerta  Movement  (from  Javanese  body-­‐mind  practitioner  Suprapto  Suryodarmo)  as  a  starting  point,  Sally  will  share  her  investigations  into  the  role  that  costume  can  play  as  a  possible  tool  to  bridge  between  somatic-­‐based  practice  and  performance.  This  2-­‐hour  session  invites  participants  to  engage  with  Sally’s  practice-­‐as-­‐research-­‐project  ‘Somatic  Movement  &  Costume’,  developed  in  collaboration  with  costume  designers  Sandra  Arroniz  Lacunza  and  Carolina  Rieckhof.    Presentation,  performance  and  facilitation:  Sally  E.  Dean  Costumes:  Sandra  Arroniz  Lacunza  and  Carolina  Rieckhof  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   Sally  E.  Dean  is  a  London-­‐based  American  performer,  choreographer,  playwright  and  teacher.  Her  work  is  been  performed  in  New  York,  London,  Java,  Prague,  Essen,  San  Francisco,  and  Seattle.  She  is  the  founding  director  for  own  performing  arts  company  and  the  Kolaborasi  project,  whose  mission  is  to  bring  American,  European  and  Asian  artists  together  to  collaborate  and  produce  innovative  performance  works  internationally.      

1715  –  1800  ET221:  Plenary  Chair:  Sarah  Whatley  &  Natalie  Garrett  Brown      

1915  ET221:  Film  Showing  and  Artist  Talk  7A  Chair:  Natalie  Garrett  Brown    On  an  Incoming  Tide  An  environmental  dance  film  created  under  the  chalk  cliffs  at  Beer  Head  on  the  Jurassic  Coast  World  Heritage  Site  in  East  Devon.  A  collaboration  between  by  movement  artist  Helen  Poynor  and  film-­‐maker  Kyra  Norman  featuring  Laura  Gwynne,  Denise  Rowe  and  Caroline  Thompson.    Made  possible  by  Dance  in  Devon  and  East  Devon  Area  of  Outstanding  Natural  Beauty.    Helen  Poynor  runs  the  Walk  of  Life  Workshop  and  Training  Programme  in  Non-­‐stylised  and  Environmental  Movement  on  the  World  Heritage  Jurassic  Coast  in  East  Devon/West  Dorset  www.walkoflife.co.uk.    As  a  director  and  performer  she  specialises  in  site-­‐specific  and  auto-­‐biographical  performance  and  cross-­‐art  form  collaborations.    She  is  a  visiting  professor  of  Performance  at  Coventry  University.      Erw  Dinmael  -­‐  Shortest  Day  Shortest  Night  Responding  to  the  sounds  and  the  deep  stillness  of  the  snow-­‐covered  landscape,  a  series  of  visionary  scores  create  a  mystical  call  to  the  spirits  of  earth  and  within  us.  A  film  by  Juan  Gabriel  Gutiérrez  and  Denise  Rowe.    Juan  Gabriel  Gutiérrez  is  a  Bristol  based  Colombian  musician  and  filmmaker.  Interested  in  the  power  of  sound  and  ritual  in  various  indigenous  and  primordial  traditions,  his  latest  album  explores  metaphysical  themes  and  the  enhancement  of  awareness  given  by  sensory  deprivation.  This  experience  inspired  him  to  make  his  film  Erw  Dinmael,  which  gave  him  admittance  to  Werner  Herzog’s  Rogue  Film  School.  www.janosgabor.com    Denise  Rowe  is  a  movement  artist,  choreographer,  dancer,  singer  and  mbira  player  with  ten  years  experience  performing  and  teaching  traditional  and  contemporary  pan-­‐African  dance.    

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   2000  ET221:  Solo  Studio  Showing  7B  Sally  E.  Dean  –  see  also  Workshop  6D  above  Chair:  Natalie  Garrett  Brown    Sally  E.  Dean  is  a  London-­‐based  American  performer,  choreographer,  playwright  and  teacher.  Her  work  is  been  performed  in  New  York,  London,  Java,  Prague,  Essen,  San  Francisco,  and  Seattle.  She  is  the  founding  director  for  own  performing  arts  company  and  the  Kolaborasi  project,  whose  mission  is  to  bring  American,  European  and  Asian  artists  together  to  collaborate  and  produce  innovative  performance  works  internationally.      

2030  -­‐  2115  ICE  Studio:  Interactive  Installation  7C  (12  places)  Chair:  David  Bennett  NB  The  ICE  Studio  is  a  5-­‐10  minute  walk  from  the  Ellen  Terry  Building;  guides  will  be  available  to  escort  delegates  from  Ellen  Terry  at  2015  

 Navigating  the  Site  Map:  From  Analogue  to  Digital  Space  A  space  where  research  takes  place....  My  PhD  research  seeks  to  examine  and  interrogate  the  assumed  pre-­‐eminence  of  face-­‐to-­‐face  pedagogy,  exploring  the  creative  possibilities  made  available  with  the  introduction  of  video,  pre-­‐recorded  instructions  and  photography  as  modes  of  transmission  for  movement.  At  the  centre  of  this  research  is  a  movement  vocabulary  titled  In  All  Languages  which  is  comprised  of  9  sets  of  physical  action;  each  suggest  starting  points  for  individual  and  group  choreography.  The  next  major  phase  in  the  research  is  the  development  of  a  website  that  will  house  the  practice;  it  is  this  shift  from  analogue  to  digital  space  that  is  central  to  this  interactive  installation.  It  seems  essential  that  in  order  to  develop  a  website  that  functions  as  a  tool  for  stimulating  movement,  one  should  first  develop  a  real  time  analogue  assessment,  recording  how  participants  interact  and  navigate  their  way  through  the  material.  The  analogue  'homepage'  will  invite  delegates  to  participate,  recording  personal  pathways  on  to  a  site-­‐map  that  I  hope  will  inform  and  direct  the  construction  of  digital  space.    Louise  Ritchie  is  based  at  Aberystwyth  University  UK  where  she  is  now  in  her  final  year  of  practice  led  AHRC  doctoral  research,  under  the  supervision  of  Professor  Mike  Pearson  and  Dr  Heike  Roms.  Alongside  her  PhD  research  she  teaches  on  the  Performance  Studies  undergraduate  program  at  Aberystwyth  University.      

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2  

Throughout  the  conference    The  Emergence  of  Form  This  experimental  framework  proposes  to  explore  the  emergence  of  form  in  the  context  of  an  intertwined  exploration  of  different  somatic  practices  and  time-­‐space  related  strategies  for  an  extended  period  of  time:  the  duration  of  the  complete  conference.  It  would  consist  of  a  continuous  and  open  process  articulated  as  a  sequence  of  frames.  Form  emerges  when  the  actual  experience  is  perceived  as  operationally  coherent.  Form  is  understood  here  not  as  produced  or  constructed  but  as  perceptive  emergence,  defined  as  spontaneous  appearance  arising  from  the  interaction  between  the  performed  movements,  their  environment  and  the  perception  of  both.  “The  emergence  of  form”  will  create  conditions  to  research  this  subtle  process  through  its  immediate  observation.  The  main  questions  to  be  addressed  are:  when  and  how  does  form  emerge  in  the  practice  of  somatics?  Which  are  the  conditions  of  this  emergence?  And:  how  does  this  kind  of  experience  change  our  concept  of  form?    Aesthetic  Practice  and  Embodiment  Research  Group  (Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin  –  HZT),  represented  by:  Elisabeth  Molle,  Katja  Münker,  Ka  Rustler,  Alex  Arteaga    Elisabeth  Molle's  dance  background  is  Ballet,  the  Cunningham  technique,  Trisha  Brown  and  the  "post-­‐modern  dance".  After  spending  6  years  in  New  York,  where  she  also  graduated  as  an  Alexander  teacher  (ACAT)  in  1983  she  moved  to  Berlin.  There  she  developed  her  work  connecting  the  Alexander  Technique  to  movement  and  improvisation,  teaching  and  performing  in  a  process-­‐oriented  way.  She  teaches  presently  at  the  Master  for  Choreography  at  the  Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin  (HZT),  has  a  private  praxis  for  the  AT  and  has  been  working  on  Alexander  Technique  training  schools  for  over  20  years.      Katja  Münker  is  a  freelanced  dancer/choreographer,  Feldenkrais-­‐Practitioner,  physiotherapist  based  in  Berlin;  New  Dance  +  performance  training  with  Keriac;  movement-­‐studies  +  performance  projects  with  Amos  Hetz;  self-­‐organized  learning  +  research  in  dance  et  al.  during  ‘Transploration’  with  Ingo  Reulecke  +  Martin  Nachbar  as  mentors;  performance  projects  +  regular  teaching  in  various  context;  part  of  the  artists  collective  ‘Bergrecherche’.  www.MOveMENT-muenker.de    Ka  Rustler  is  a  dancer,  performer,  choreographer,  movement  educator  and  researcher.  Her  work  experience  also  includes  somatic  psychotherapy  and  worldwide  top  management  trainings.  She  teaches  internationally  applications  and  methods  derived  from  BMC®  and  their  relevance  in  Movement  &  Artistic  Research,  Choreographic  Exploration  and  Embodiment.  At  present  she  is  in  the  Team  of  the  HZT  in  Berlin.    Alex  Arteaga  is  a  researcher  in  the  fields  of  aesthetic  practice  and  embodiment  theories.  He  develops  his  research  through  his  artistic  practice,  as  academic  researcher  at  the  Collegium  for  the  Advanced  Study  of  Picture  Act  and  Embodiment  (Humboldt  University  Berlin)  and  as  visiting  professor  at  the  Master  of  Choreography  (Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin).    

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   Stopping  in  Interesting  Places  A  series  of  works  by  Antony  Wall  drawn  from  movement  explorations  in  the  natural  environment  and  studio  practice.    An  exploration  of  arriving  in  moving  and  in  stillness  as  an  ongoing  practice  through  visual  art.  The  works  chosen  for  this  exhibition  focus  around  a  sense  of  moving  and  of  arriving  both  in  my  own  movement  practice  and  within  the  creation  of  the  works  themselves.  My  inspiration  stems  from  a  connection  to  the  natural  environment  through  embodied  and  somatic  movement.  The  aim  is  to  convey  a  sense  of  pure  experience,  perception  and  event  through  a  grounding  of  awareness  in  the  moving  body.  The  title  comes  from  a  quote  by  Paul  Gardner  "A  painting  is  never  finished  -­‐  it  simply  stops  in  interesting  places".  This  what  I  have  been  doing  in  my  practice  and  through  this  exhibition  you  are  invited  to  share  in  the  journey!  I  suffer  from  that  primal  drive  to  find  meaning  in  the  world  and  to  somehow  capture  it  in  image,  in  word,  in  movement  or  event.  In  a  sense  to  express  ones  very  soul  and  in  doing  so  recognizing  the  soul  nature  of  everything.    Antony  Wall  brings  the  full  weight  of  his  many  years  training  as  a  visual  artist,  Shiatsu  therapist,  Martial  Artist  and  movement  artist  to  his  work.  He  graduated  from  Winchester  School  of  Art  in  1998,  is  devoted  to  exploring  creativity  as  fundamental  to  the  human  experience.    He  has  recently  been  training  with  Helen  Poynor  in  the  Walk  Of  Life  training  programme.      everything  is  at  once  everything  is  at  once  is  a  collection  of  photos  from  a  collaborative  site  project,  Enter  &  Inhabit.  This  project  seeks  to  explore  our  changing  experiences  of  the  outdoor  spaces  that  we  pass  through  by  drawing  on  durational  movement  improvisation,  photography  and  writing.  In  January  2011  Enter  &  Inhabit  began  a  project  in  Kenilworth  Common.  In  these  woods  -­‐  a  popular  thoroughfare  local  to  our  homes  -­‐  we  are  beginning  to  translate  processes  from  previous  sites  and  projects,  further  afield.  Interests  in  the  processes  of  sensory  perception  and  the  shifting  textures  of  the  seasons  are  feeding  into  our  scores  for  the  site.  The  images  in  this  collection  evolve  from  the  ongoing  project  process  which  involves  inhabiting  space  and  place,  through  a  practice  of  staying  open  to  the  present.  Through  simple  camera  movements  the  colours  and  textures  of  the  woodland  merge  and  layer.  Created  from  and  by  the  site,  existing  forms  are  transformed  into  images  which  are  abstract  and  familiar.  Characterised  by  a  sensorial  playfulness,  the  resulting  images  are  not  the  place,  the  dancer  or  the  dance,  but  are  something  parallel,  folding  back  into  collaboration  with  the  site  and  each  other.  The  images  considered  here  seem  to  gently  resonate  with  the  outdoor  movement  practices  being  explored.    Enter  &  Inhabit  www.enterinhabit.com  Natalie  Garrett  Brown,  Christian  Kipp  &  Amy  Voris    

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sat  9TH  July  –  Day  2   Natalie  Garrett  Brown  lectures  in  Dance  at  Coventry  University  where  she  is  associate  head  for  Performing  Arts.  She  is  associate  editor  for  the  Journal  of  Dance  and  Somatic  Practices  and  she  is  on  the  editorial  board  for  the  Dancelines  section  in  Research  in  Dance  Education.  She  has  just  completed  her  Somatic  Movement  Educators  Training  in  Body-­‐Mind  Centering.  Her  research  interests  are  theoretically  situated  within  Feminist  understandings  of  embodied  subjectivity  and  is  focused  on  the  ways  in  which  Somatic  practices  inform  performance  making,  creativity  and  writing.  Informed  by  the  work  of  Helen  Poynor  and  others  her  most  recent  performance  projects  have  explored  moving  outside.  These  include  an  ongoing  collaboration  with  photographer  Christian  Kipp  and  dance  artist  Amy  Voris.    Christian  Kipp  is  a  photographer  based  in  Essex.  He  splits  his  time  between  working  on  his  own  in  the  natural  landscape  and  collaborating  with  a  variety  of  dance  artists.  He  is  interested  in  the  ways  that  these  two  areas  feed  and  reflect  each  other.  For  Christian,  photography  feels  like  a  way  of  connecting  more  strongly  with  nature  and  people.  www.christiankipp.com    Amy  Voris  is  a  dance  artist  based  in  the  West  Midlands  and  assistant  organiser  for  the  Summer  Dancing  Festival  in  Coventry.  Her  current  practice  is  inspired  by  authentic  movement  and  by  collaboration  with  other  artists.  She  was  a  founding  member  of  Rose's  Thoughts  Dance  Company  (choreographer  Ruth  Segalis,  London  1996  -­‐  2003).  She  currently  teaches  at  Coventry  University  and  is  training  in  Integrative  Bodywork  and  Movement  Therapy  with  Linda  Hartley.    

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3  

0915  -­‐  1045  ETG34:  Guest  Speaker  8A  Chair:  Sarah  Whatley    porous  borders  porous  borders  looks  at  Gibson’s  project  Capturing  Stillness:  Visualisations  of  Dance  through  Motion  Capture  Technologies  and  her  research  undertaken  thus  far.  It  highlights  the  complex  nature  of  capturing  a  somatic  practice  such  as  Skinner  Releasing  Technique  and  the  methodologies  and  outcomes  which  have  surfaced  during  her  first  year  of  study.  Ruth  will  discuss  aspects  of  her  practical  research  as  an  artist  in  residence  at  Motion.lab  at  Deakin  University,  Melbourne  and  the  early  stages  of  some  visualisations  created  in  response  to  one  of  Joan  Skinner’s  poetic  images.  Her  exploration  of  the  interface  between  motion  capture  technology  and  SRT  movement  practice  opens  up  a  set  of  questions  about  the  relationship  between  movement  capture  and  the  dancing  body.  For  example:  Can  we  conflate  the  imagined  with  the  real,  kinesthetic  intelligence  and  first  person  experience  through  both  the  language  of  Joan  Skinner  and  the  videogame?  During  the  presentation  examples  of  3D  interactive  artworks  both  with  and  without  motion  captured  dance  will  be  referenced  in  relation  to  ideas  of  kinesthetic  experience.    Ruth  Gibson  is  a  visual  artist,  who  creates  moving  image  and  installation  work.  She  is  a  trained  dancer  and  choreographer  who  continues  to  perform  and  direct  theatre  and  film.      She  is  an  AHRC  Creative  Fellow  at  Coventry  University’s  School  of  Art  and  Design  and  collaborates  with  Bruno  Martelli  as  igloo  creating  virtual  worlds  as  locations  for  inquiry,  exhibiting  in  galleries  and  at  festivals  worldwide  including  the  52nd  Venice  Biennale.    Her  first  igloo  work  won  a  BAFTA    nomination  and  igloo’s  installations  have  gathered  numerous  awards  including  a  recent  Henry  Moore  Foundation  Commission.    Gibson/  Martelli  website  -­‐  www.igloo.org.uk  SwanQuake:  the  User  Manual  -­‐  2007,  Published  by  Liquid  Press  /iDAT  www.swanquake.com    

0915  –  1230  ET126:  Workshop  8B  (12  places)  Chair:  Paula  Kramer    Body  of  Becoming  -­‐  Progressing  into  No-­‐Progress  moving  the  attitude  towards  ‘no-­‐progress’  in  the  continuity  of  acceptance  The  title  in  itself  carries  a  paradox,  which  allows  a  complex  and  creative  view  on  our  collective  and  individual  heritage  of  progress  and  development,  failure  and  aggression.  Starting  with  our  so-­‐being  we  will  share  our  movement,  investigate  its  liveliness  and  crystallize  what  ever  we  may  touch  in  the  fields  of  •  the  dimension  of  acceptance  •  the  possibility  of  no-­‐development  •  the  nothingness,  the  break,  and  the  numerous  •  touching  in  between  spaces,  forgotten  realities  •  the  polarity  of  better  and  worse,  horizontal  and  vertical  •  transformation,  transcendence.  No  transformation,  no  transcendence  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3   The  workshop  will  be  guided  through  live  music,  stillness,  words,  and  movement.  Its  outcome  is  open  and  can  be  witnessed  by  an  audience,  so  we  can  share  the  known  and  the  unknown.    Bettina  Mainz  Bettina  Mainz  is  a  freelance  dancer,  choreographer  and  teacher  based  in  Berlin.  She  originally  trained  at  SNDO  in  Amsterdam  and  subsequently  went  on  to  study  with  Suprapto  Suryodarmo  in  Indonesia  and  Europe,  completing  her  teacher  training  with  Adam  Bradpiece.  She  has  developed  her  own  movement  practice  ‘Body  of  Becoming’  over  the  last  20  years  and  teaches  free-­‐movement,  integration  work,  experimental  dance  and  composition  in  nature  space  and  the  studio.    

0915  –  1045  ET221:  Workshop  8C  (20  places)  Chair:  Natalie  Garrett  Brown    Somatic  Practices  Collaborative  Working  Session:  Developing  Somatic  Frameworks  for  Inquiry  (see  also  Panel  1C  on  Friday)  In  this  workshop  the  presenter  will  begin  by  sharing  several  social  somatic  qualitative  studies  she  has  conducted  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating  dialogical  processes  she  will  facilitate  between  those  attending.  Participants  will  be  guided  to  collaboratively  conceive  of  and  contemplate  new  frameworks  and  possibilities  for  somatic  inquiry  and  practice  inspired  by  their  own  related  observations  and  gained  perspectives.  The  presenter  will  aid  participants  in  developing  theoretical  and  practical  learning  frameworks  and  processes  to  support  their  ideas.  Towards  the  end  of  the  session,  small  groups  of  participants  will  share  their  developed  ideas  with  the  group.  The  session  will  conclude  with  a  discussion  that  considers  new  possibilities  and  directions  for  somatic  education.    Becky  Dyer  is  an  assistant  professor  in  the  School  of  Dance  at  Arizona  State  University  where  she  teaches  Laban/Bartenieff  Praxis  and  Somatic  Studies,  dance  pedagogy  and  contemporary  postmodern  dance  technique.  Becky  received  her  Ph.D.  in  Dance  Philosophy  with  an  emphasis  in  dance  pedagogy  and  somatics  from  Texas  Woman’s  University  in  Spring  2010.  Her  research  focuses  on  somatic  approaches  to  teaching  and  learning,  somatic  epistemology,  transformative  learning  perspectives  and  collaborative  inquiry  process.        

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3  

1100  –  1230  ET221:  Panel  9A  Structures  of  Thought  Chair:  Kirsty  Alexander    Experiments  in  Movement  and  Writing:  Documenting  Somatic-­‐Based  Performance  Practice  In  my  research,  I  have  sought  for  ways  of  writing  about  somatic-­‐based  performance  practices  that  value  the  body-­‐mind  connection  and  subjective  position  of  participants.  Drawing  on  the  work  of  John  Weir,  Janet  Adler  and  Alys  Longely,  I  will  discuss  my  process  of  developing  a  writing  practice  to  document  the  work  of  Irish  choreographer  Joan  Davis  and  my  own  practice-­‐based  research.  My  writing  journey  has  included  experiments  in  revisiting  dynamic  performance  moments  and  deepening  my  sensory  memory  before  writing  distilled  reflections  on  the  practice.  The  paper  will  be  both  a  subjective  “description”  of  performance  moments  and  an  outline  of  my  approaches  for  generating  the  written  material.  Along  with  offering  ways  for  articulating  somatic  practice  for  different  contexts,  this  paper  also  opens  a  debate  about  the  idea  of  documenting  somatic  movement.    Emma  Meehan  is  a  performer  and  researcher  whose  interest  focuses  on  physical  approaches  to  performance.  She  has  recently  completed  her  doctoral  research  at  the  Drama  Department,  Trinity  College  on  the  work  Irish  choreographer  and  dancer  Joan  Davis.  Her  research  was  supported  by  Trinity  College  Dublin  and  The  Irish  Department  of  Arts,  Sport  and  Tourism.    She  is  currently  teaching  part-­‐time  at  the  Drama  Department  in  Trinity  College  and  developing  a  new  performance  piece  on  body  image.      Moving  Identities  –  Reforming  The  material  processes  of  the  dancing  body  can  be  lost  beneath  layers  of  projection,  interpretation  and  representation.  My  recently  completed  PhD  research  examined  ways  of  uncovering  the  inner  experiences  of  the  dancer  through  utilising  narrative-­‐based  approaches  in  conjunction  with  somatic  attention.  In  my  research,  I  developed  both  a  philosophical  rationale  for  including  the  dancer’s  perspective  in  dance  studies  and  written  methodologies  which  emerged  from  practical  choreographic  research  with  four  contemporary  choreographers:  Rosemary  Butcher  (UK),  John  Jasperse  (US),  Jodi  Melnick  (US)  and  Liz  Roche  (Ire).  The  outcome  was  the  formation  of  a  dancer-­‐centred  perspective  on  contemporary  choreographic  practice.  This  paper  will  disclose  conclusions  from  this  PhD  research,  as  well  as  pointing  to  new  research  directions  that  propose  ways  of  deepening  the  phenomenological  mapping  of  choreography  and  dance  practice  through  the  dancer’s  somatic  awareness  of  her  inner  terrain.    Jenny  Roche  is  a  dance  artist  based  in  Ireland.  She  has  worked  as  a  contemporary  dancer  since  the  early  1990s  performing  with  choreographers  including:  Michael  Keegan-­‐Dolan  (Ire),  Janet  Smith  (UK),  Rosemary  Butcher  (UK),  Jodi  Melnick  (NYC),  John  Jasperse  (NYC),  Yoshiko  Chuma  (NYC)  and  in  work  by  Dominique  Bagouet,  re-­‐staged  by  Les  Carnets  Bagouet  (France).  She  co-­‐founded  Rex  Levitates  Dance  Company  with  her  sister,  choreographer  Liz  Roche  in  1999  and  completed  her  practice-­‐based  PhD  in  Dance  at  Roehampton  University  in  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3   2009.  She  recently  joined  the  faculty  of  the  Irish  World  Academy  of  Music  and  Dance  at  the  University  of  Limerick.      Notes  on  a  shared  dialogue  Manny  Emslie  and  Sarah  Spies  will  facilitate  a  joint  practical  presentation  that  is  performative  in  nature  and  that  provides  a  series  of  provocations.  These  will  be  used  to  activate  action  and  dialogue  leading  to  connections  of  the  mind  with  the  body  without  a  body-­‐centric  agenda  or  purely  conceptual  turn.  It  is  anticipated  that  from  this  will  emerge  considerations  of  mindful  bodily  articulations  and  different  thinking  intelligences  in  soma-­‐centric  research.    Manny  Emslie  is  a  Senior  Lecturer  in  Dance  at  the  University  of  Chester  and  a  certified  Skinner  Releasing  facilitator  and  practitioner.  She  is  presently  touring  a  solo  work  -­‐  Wanderings  (2011)  -­‐  that  is  somatically  informed  and  which  draws  on  autoethnographic  processes.  Manny  also  thinks  that  we  shouldn’t  think  too  much!  www.mannyemslie.co.uk    Sarah  Spies  is  a  Senior  Lecturer  in  Dance  at  the  University  of  Chester  and  she  focuses  on  choreographic  and  somatically  informed  screen  work  and  improvisation.  She  is  currently  commissioned  to  create  filmic  projects  for  Cinedans  (Amsterdam)  in  2012  and  is  a  founding  and  active  member  of  artists-­‐networks  Embassy  of…  (Vienna)  and  Performance  Matters  (London).  She  holds  an  MA  in  both  Choreography  and  Existential  Phenomenology.  Sarah  is  an  enthusiastic  supporter  of  practice  -­‐  based  thinking  …        Sarah  and  Manny  are  co  –  founders  of  the  experimental  company  The  Oblique  Strategists.    

1100  -­‐  1230  ICE  Studio:  Interactive  Installation  9B  (2  x  12  places)  Chair:  David  Bennett  NB  The  ICE  Studio  is  a  5-­‐10  minute  walk  from  the  Ellen  Terry  Building;  guides  will  be  available  to  escort  delegates  from  Ellen  Terry  at  1045  &  1130  

 Navigating  the  Site  Map:  From  Analogue  to  Digital  Space  A  space  where  research  takes  place....  My  PhD  research  seeks  to  examine  and  interrogate  the  assumed  pre-­‐eminence  of  face-­‐to-­‐face  pedagogy,  exploring  the  creative  possibilities  made  available  with  the  introduction  of  video,  pre-­‐recorded  instructions  and  photography  as  modes  of  transmission  for  movement.  At  the  centre  of  this  research  is  a  movement  vocabulary  titled  In  All  Languages  which  is  comprised  of  9  sets  of  physical  action;  each  suggest  starting  points  for  individual  and  group  choreography.  The  next  major  phase  in  the  research  is  the  development  of  a  website  that  will  house  the  practice;  it  is  this  shift  from  analogue  to  digital  space  that  is  central  to  this  interactive  installation.  It  seems  essential  that  in  order  to  develop  a  website  that  functions  as  a  tool  for  stimulating  movement,  one  should  first  develop  a  real  time  analogue  assessment,  recording  how  participants  interact  and  navigate  their  way  through  the  material.  The  analogue  'homepage'  will  invite  delegates  to  participate,  recording  personal  pathways  on  to  a  site-­‐map  that  I  hope  will  inform  and  direct  the  construction  of  digital  space.  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3   Louise  Ritchie  is  based  at  Aberystwyth  University  UK  where  she  is  now  in  her  final  year  of  practice  led  AHRC  doctoral  research,  under  the  supervision  of  Professor  Mike  Pearson  and  Dr  Heike  Roms.  Alongside  her  PhD  research  she  teaches  on  the  Performance  Studies  undergraduate  program  at  Aberystwyth  University.      

1100  –  1230  University  Square:  Participatory  9C  Chair:  Katye  Coe  NB  University  Square  is  a  5-­‐10  minute  walk  from  Ellen  Terry  Building  

 Open  Movement  Practice  An  opportunity  to  digest  and  integrate  your  experiences  of  the  conference  through  movement.  Please  join  Helen  moving  at  University  Square.  No  structure,  no  instructions  –  come  for  as  long  as  you  want  –  rain  or  shine!    Helen  Poynor  runs  the  Walk  of  Life  Workshop  and  Training  Programme  in  Non-­‐stylised  and  Environmental  Movement  on  the  World  Heritage  Jurassic  Coast  in  East  Devon/West  Dorset,  www.walkoflife.co.uk.  As  a  director  and  performer  she  specialises  in  site-­‐specific  and  auto-­‐biographical  performance  and  cross-­‐art  form  collaborations.    She  is  a  visiting  professor  of  Performance  at  Coventry  University.      

1330  –  1530  ET221:  Keynote    A  conversation  about  Choreographic  Thinking  Tools  How  might  we  develop  new  ways  of  augmenting  creativity  in  movement  generation?  How  can  we  better  connect  intellect,  imagination  and  the  physical  body  and  enrich  their  relationship?  Can  a  scientific  understanding  of  the  organisation  of  the  mind  provide  clues  and  ideas  that  can  be  put  into  practice  and  how  can  somatic  approaches  contribute?  The  dance  world  is  already  rich  in  choreographic  expertise  that  is  constantly  seeking  new  means  to  create  and  to  inspire  movement  generation.  To  help  create  a  platform  for  debate  and  discussion,  the  three  presenters  will  outline  some  challenges  that  need  to  be  addressed  and  specific  illustrations  of  current  studio  practices  and  tasks.  The  illustrations  will  focus  on  research  on  the  use  of  multiple  forms  of  imagery  in  movement  generation  being  explored  in  R-­‐Research  (The  research  arm  of  Wayne  McGregor  |  Random  Dance).    Scott  deLahunta  has  worked  as  writer,  researcher  and  organiser  on  a  range  of  international  projects  bringing  performing  arts  with  a  focus  on  choreography  into  conjunction  with  other  disciplines  and  practices.  He  is  currently  Senior  Research  Fellow  Coventry  University/  R-­‐Research  Director,  Wayne  McGregor|Random  Dance  and  Program  and  Research  Coordinator  Motion  Bank/  The  Forsythe  Company.  He  serves  on  the  editorial  boards  of  Performance  Research,  Dance  Theatre  Journal  and  the  International  Journal  of  Performance  and  Digital  Media.    

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3   Gill  Clarke  studied  English  and  Education,  and  more  recently  Social  Sciences,    and  has  spent  her  career  as  an  Independent  Dance  Artist:  performer,  teacher,  director,  researcher.  She  was  a  founder  member  of  the  Siobhan  Davies  Dance  Company.  as  well  as  a  working  with  Janet  Smith  and  Rosemary  Butcher,  performing  with  many  other  choreographers.  ,.Gill  was  Head  of  Performance  at  Laban,  co-­‐directs  Independent  Dance  (ID)  and  developed  a  new  MA  in  professional  practice:  a  partnership  between  ID,  TrinityLaban  and  Siobhan  Davies  Dance.  Her  teaching  practice  is  influenced  by  her  studies  of  Alexander,  Feldenkrais  and  Ideokinenis  techniques  and  her  ongoing  g  independent  research.      Philip  Barnard  worked  for  the  Medical  Research  Council's  Cognition  and  Brain  Sciences  Unit  in  Cambridge,  where  he  carried  out  research  on  how  memory,  attention,  language,  body  states  and  emotion  work  together.  His  ICS  model  of  the  human  mind  has  been  applied  to  the  design  of  computer  interfaces,  and  to  help  understand  emotional  disorders.  He  is  currently  using  it  to  account  for  the  way  in  which  human  mental  and  emotional  skills  have  evolved.  Since  2003,  he  has  been  collaborating  with  Wayne  McGregor  |  Random  Dance  to  develop  productive  synergies  between  choreographic  processes  and  our  knowledge  of  cognitive  neuroscience.      

1530  –  1600  ET221:  Closing  Remarks  &  Conference  Ends    Sarah  Whatley  and  Natalie  Garrett  Brown  

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3  

Throughout  the  conference    The  Emergence  of  Form  This  experimental  framework  proposes  to  explore  the  emergence  of  form  in  the  context  of  an  intertwined  exploration  of  different  somatic  practices  and  time-­‐space  related  strategies  for  an  extended  period  of  time:  the  duration  of  the  complete  conference.  It  would  consist  of  a  continuous  and  open  process  articulated  as  a  sequence  of  frames.  Form  emerges  when  the  actual  experience  is  perceived  as  operationally  coherent.  Form  is  understood  here  not  as  produced  or  constructed  but  as  perceptive  emergence,  defined  as  spontaneous  appearance  arising  from  the  interaction  between  the  performed  movements,  their  environment  and  the  perception  of  both.  “The  emergence  of  form”  will  create  conditions  to  research  this  subtle  process  through  its  immediate  observation.  The  main  questions  to  be  addressed  are:  when  and  how  does  form  emerge  in  the  practice  of  somatics?  Which  are  the  conditions  of  this  emergence?  And:  how  does  this  kind  of  experience  change  our  concept  of  form?    Aesthetic  Practice  and  Embodiment  Research  Group  (Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin  –  HZT),  represented  by:  Elisabeth  Molle,  Katja  Münker,  Ka  Rustler,  Alex  Arteaga    Elisabeth  Molle's  dance  background  is  Ballet,  the  Cunningham  technique,  Trisha  Brown  and  the  "post-­‐modern  dance".  After  spending  6  years  in  New  York,  where  she  also  graduated  as  an  Alexander  teacher  (ACAT)  in  1983  she  moved  to  Berlin.  There  she  developed  her  work  connecting  the  Alexander  Technique  to  movement  and  improvisation,  teaching  and  performing  in  a  process-­‐oriented  way.  She  teaches  presently  at  the  Master  for  Choreography  at  the  Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin  (HZT),  has  a  private  praxis  for  the  AT  and  has  been  working  on  Alexander  Technique  training  schools  for  over  20  years.    Katja  Münker  is  a  freelanced  dancer/choreographer,  Feldenkrais-­‐Practitioner,  physiotherapist  based  in  Berlin;  New  Dance  +  performance  training  with  Keriac;  movement-­‐studies  +  performance  projects  with  Amos  Hetz;  self-­‐organized  learning  +  research  in  dance  et  al.  during  ‘Transploration’  with  Ingo  Reulecke  +  Martin  Nachbar  as  mentors;  performance  projects  +  regular  teaching  in  various  context;  part  of  the  artists  collective  ‘Bergrecherche’.  www.MOveMENT-muenker.de    Ka  Rustler  is  a  dancer,  performer,  choreographer,  movement  educator  and  researcher.  Her  work  experience  also  includes  somatic  psychotherapy  and  worldwide  top  management  trainings.  She  teaches  internationally  applications  and  methods  derived  from  BMC®  and  their  relevance  in  Movement  &  Artistic  Research,  Choreographic  Exploration  and  Embodiment.  At  present  she  is  in  the  Team  of  the  HZT  in  Berlin.    Alex  Arteaga  is  a  researcher  in  the  fields  of  aesthetic  practice  and  embodiment  theories.  He  develops  his  research  through  his  artistic  practice,  as  academic  researcher  at  the  Collegium  for  the  Advanced  Study  of  Picture  Act  and  Embodiment  (Humboldt  University  Berlin)  and  as  visiting  professor  at  the  Master  of  Choreography  (Inter-­‐University  Centre  for  Dance  Berlin).    

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3   Stopping  in  Interesting  Places  A  series  of  works  by  Antony  Wall  drawn  from  movement  explorations  in  the  natural  environment  and  studio  practice.    An  exploration  of  arriving  in  moving  and  in  stillness  as  an  ongoing  practice  through  visual  art.  The  works  chosen  for  this  exhibition  focus  around  a  sense  of  moving  and  of  arriving  both  in  my  own  movement  practice  and  within  the  creation  of  the  works  themselves.  My  inspiration  stems  from  a  connection  to  the  natural  environment  through  embodied  and  somatic  movement.  The  aim  is  to  convey  a  sense  of  pure  experience,  perception  and  event  through  a  grounding  of  awareness  in  the  moving  body.  The  title  comes  from  a  quote  by  Paul  Gardner  "A  painting  is  never  finished  -­‐  it  simply  stops  in  interesting  places".  This  what  I  have  been  doing  in  my  practice  and  through  this  exhibition  you  are  invited  to  share  in  the  journey!  I  suffer  from  that  primal  drive  to  find  meaning  in  the  world  and  to  somehow  capture  it  in  image,  in  word,  in  movement  or  event.  In  a  sense  to  express  ones  very  soul  and  in  doing  so  recognizing  the  soul  nature  of  everything.    Antony  Wall  brings  the  full  weight  of  his  many  years  training  as  a  visual  artist,  Shiatsu  therapist,  Martial  Artist  and  movement  artist  to  his  work.  He  graduated  from  Winchester  School  of  Art  in  1998,  is  devoted  to  exploring  creativity  as  fundamental  to  the  human  experience.    He  has  recently  been  training  with  Helen  Poynor  in  the  Walk  Of  Life  training  programme.      everything  is  at  once  everything  is  at  once  is  a  collection  of  photos  from  a  collaborative  site  project,  Enter  &  Inhabit.  This  project  seeks  to  explore  our  changing  experiences  of  the  outdoor  spaces  that  we  pass  through  by  drawing  on  durational  movement  improvisation,  photography  and  writing.  In  January  2011  Enter  &  Inhabit  began  a  project  in  Kenilworth  Common.  In  these  woods  -­‐  a  popular  thoroughfare  local  to  our  homes  -­‐  we  are  beginning  to  translate  processes  from  previous  sites  and  projects,  further  afield.  Interests  in  the  processes  of  sensory  perception  and  the  shifting  textures  of  the  seasons  are  feeding  into  our  scores  for  the  site.  The  images  in  this  collection  evolve  from  the  ongoing  project  process  which  involves  inhabiting  space  and  place,  through  a  practice  of  staying  open  to  the  present.  Through  simple  camera  movements  the  colours  and  textures  of  the  woodland  merge  and  layer.  Created  from  and  by  the  site,  existing  forms  are  transformed  into  images  which  are  abstract  and  familiar.  Characterised  by  a  sensorial  playfulness,  the  resulting  images  are  not  the  place,  the  dancer  or  the  dance,  but  are  something  parallel,  folding  back  into  collaboration  with  the  site  and  each  other.  The  images  considered  here  seem  to  gently  resonate  with  the  outdoor  movement  practices  being  explored.    Enter  &  Inhabit  www.enterinhabit.com  Natalie  Garrett  Brown,  Christian  Kipp  &  Amy  Voris        

Dance  &  Somatic  Practices  Conference  2011:  Sun  10TH  July  –  Day  3   Natalie  Garrett  Brown  lectures  in  Dance  at  Coventry  University  where  she  is  associate  head  for  Performing  Arts.  She  is  associate  editor  for  the  Journal  of  Dance  and  Somatic  Practices  and  she  is  on  the  editorial  board  for  the  Dancelines  section  in  Research  in  Dance  Education.  She  has  just  completed  her  Somatic  Movement  Educators  Training  in  Body-­‐Mind  Centering.  Her  research  interests  are  theoretically  situated  within  Feminist  understandings  of  embodied  subjectivity  and  is  focused  on  the  ways  in  which  Somatic  practices  inform  performance  making,  creativity  and  writing.  Informed  by  the  work  of  Helen  Poynor  and  others  her  most  recent  performance  projects  have  explored  moving  outside.  These  include  an  ongoing  collaboration  with  photographer  Christian  Kipp  and  dance  artist  Amy  Voris.    Christian  Kipp  is  a  photographer  based  in  Essex.  He  splits  his  time  between  working  on  his  own  in  the  natural  landscape  and  collaborating  with  a  variety  of  dance  artists.  He  is  interested  in  the  ways  that  these  two  areas  feed  and  reflect  each  other.  For  Christian,  photography  feels  like  a  way  of  connecting  more  strongly  with  nature  and  people.  www.christiankipp.com    Amy  Voris  is  a  dance  artist  based  in  the  West  Midlands  and  assistant  organiser  for  the  Summer  Dancing  Festival  in  Coventry.  Her  current  practice  is  inspired  by  authentic  movement  and  by  collaboration  with  other  artists.  She  was  a  founding  member  of  Rose's  Thoughts  Dance  Company  (choreographer  Ruth  Segalis,  London  1996  -­‐  2003).  She  currently  teaches  at  Coventry  University  and  is  training  in  Integrative  Bodywork  and  Movement  Therapy  with  Linda  Hartley.