Be still and know: Authentic Movement, witness and embodied testimony

Abstract

Abstract The article looks at dance narratives and the body, investigating the somatic and spiritual practice of Authentic Movement. Be Still and Know: Authentic Movement, Witness, and Testimony considers the movement practice of Authentic Movement as a possible creative source for ‘bodily becoming.’ This article also traces the practice of Authentic Movement, which sits on the intersections of dance and spirituality, from its origins to new applications, and even its application to Body Theology. To view this physical practice as a way of meaning-making in the context of dance knowledge, and as a methodology for analyzing the body, arguably adds new ways of reflecting on biblical knowledge. As a bodily practise, Authentic Movement has the possibility of grounding a reflective theologising through the somatic body. This article uses a phenomenology of testimony as a performative mode of providing both location, context, and proof for the experiences that are documented through Authentic Movement practice. In this article I unfold the term ‘witness’ used prolifically in Authentic Movement in relation to my own religious embodiment growing up in the South as a child of a minister, demonstrating how terminology in Authentic Movement slips its taken-for-granted understandings. Thus, I expand the practice of Authentic Movement beyond its useful application and normative usage.