Moving Self: The thread which bridges dance and theatre

Abstract

This paper is a study of the impact movement education has had on prospective dance and theatre practitioners--how they think about, perceive, and experience movement. The purpose is to discuss the concept 'experience' as it relates to phenomena being considered during classes in dance improvisation and movement for theatre with the objective to become more 'body aware.' Over a span of three years I collected data from student interviews, self-assessments, video-taping of movement studies, and performances. I delineate concepts and strategies that focus on the following aspects of movement: 1) what is it about movement that heightens more than just our sense of sight or sound? 2) how sensory engagement develops our understanding of who we are as movers, our sense of self, and our sense of otherness; and 3) how, through the study of movement, the idea of self can be elaborated providing concrete practices that allow us to discuss and implement the concept of plural self identities. When we speak of self we must turn to the body. In this paper, the incorporeality or unseen apsects of the body--emotion, intuition, kinesthesia and imagination becomes corporeal as we investigate and apply theory into classroom practices. Based on the conjoining theories (Csordas, 1990, 1993) of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's (1962) continuum of perception, Pierre Bourdieu's (1990) socially informed body, and Thomas Csordas' (1993) somatic modes of attention, an embodiment paradigm is framed which is necessary for understanding self and other. The outcomes reveal that as students learn to attend to self and to others through movement, self-defeating arenas of judgement are released. Students discover that attending in this way empowers them to create their unique voice through movement, bringing them home to the inside where imagination and movement merge.