On locating interculturalism and somatics: Looseness, holding on and swimming

Abstract

This article addresses how improvisation and somatics are methods of movement research that permit the overlap of Jewish and African diasporic practices and coalitions outside of the bounds of language. Improvisation and somatics are queried as ways of making dance and as shifting spaces of coalition, of standing with others, and standing also for myself as a Jewish woman. I articulate a viewpoint on overlapping diasporas between Jewish and African diasporic populations which is asserted in tandem with analyses of the ways in which diasporas, and interculturalisms, make present for me implicit power dynamics through improvisation, technique and somatic practices. This analysis of my own practices permits a deeper rendering of the plurality of diasporic Jewish female identity as it relates to my body, interculturalism, spirituality, anti-racism and decolonization implicit in somatics, technique and improvisation.