Personal reflections on somatic practice and education as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Abstract

This article discusses the author’s experience as a Certified Laban Movement Analyst (CLMA) teaching Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals to Dance BFA, BA and Dance Education majors at Brigham Young University (BYU), a private religious university sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located in Provo, Utah. Reflecting global trends, Latter-day Saint Millennials and Gen Z-ers are increasingly disaffiliating from organized religion. Drawing on teaching observations, lived experience, interviews with other self-identifying Latter-day Saint CLMAs, I reflect on this trend in the context of polarities, doctrinal polarities commonly upheld within Christianity and embodied polarities articulated through the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (L/BMS) system. Change, Knowing and Wholeness frame the reflection. Pedagogical practices, including assignment descriptions and guided movement explorations, provide some contour around the relevance of Laban’s theories within the context of a twenty-first-century religious education.