Exploring Embodiment Through Choreographic Practice.

Angela Pickard

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01920

Abstract

This pilot explored embodiment and gender representation through the lens of choreographic practice and sociology. The perspective derives from a comparative lack of status held by female (vs. male) choreographers in the United Kingdom. The pilot study specifically addresses how choreography itself embodies and perpetuates sociocultural values. This work is part of a larger, on-going ethnographic study into the social world(s) of choreography and choreographers. The method is a process of dance making called Sonnet that would expose habitual expectations of dance performances. The process aimed to heighten awareness of gender expectations and to challenge dancers and audience members to reflect on what they normally take for granted. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s critique and notion of habitus (embodiment), the study indicates perpetuating social hierarchy in dance training and practice. This is explored and framed from Bourdieu’s social and cultural perspective.

Highlights

Edited by: Gary Edward McPherson, The University of Melbourne, AustraliaReviewed by: Sarah Whatley, Coventry University, United KingdomJanet Karin, University of Canberra, AustraliaSpecialty section: This article was submitted to Performance Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in PsychologyReceived: 06 March 2018 Accepted: 18 September 2018Published: 15 October 2018Citation: Pickard A (2018) Exploring Embodiment Through Choreographic Practice
In 2013, Jennings discussed how fewer women achieve large-scale and high-profile commissions in the United Kingdom: ‘What the history of British classical dance overwhelmingly demonstrates is that while women may run ballet schools and become ballet company administrators and directors, they are rarely, if ever, invited to the choreographic high table. They are permitted responsibility, in other words, but not creative power. This Paper Explores Choreographic Practice and Sociology
As a female dancer I have to be perfect, feminine and more submissive to male dancers who tend to lead and control.’. This is a useful illustration of norms and expectations associated with ballet aesthetic, habitus of ballet training and bodily hexis (Bourdieu, 1990)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Specialty section: This article was submitted to Performance Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. ‘What the history of British classical dance overwhelmingly demonstrates is that while women may run ballet schools and become ballet company administrators and directors, they are rarely, if ever, invited to the choreographic high table They are permitted responsibility, in other words, but not creative power. Despite some shift in the profiles of female choreographers internationally, this debate is still a live one in the United Kingdom This pilot was an opportunity to begin to question the social world of choreography and taken-for-granted male dominance. Bourdieu developed the concept of habitus, as systems of habits and dispositions that become taken-for-granted and part of everyday life He linked agency (practice) with structure, via capital or resources, and field, as socially structured conditions or context.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

METHODS

CONCLUSION