Movement-based Practices Research Articles

Dorsal Practices—Towards a Back-Oriented Being-in-the-World

Dorsal Practices is a process-based, interdisciplinary artistic collaboration between choreographer Katrina Brown and writer–artist Emma Cocker. This research enquiry explores the notion of dorsality and the cultivation of a back-oriented awareness in relation to how we as sentient bodies orientate to the self, others (human, more-than-human), and interconnected world. Since 2021, Dorsal Practices has unfolded through the interrelation of three fields of experimental, embodied research practice: movement-based practices, conversation practices, and experimental reading practices. Dorsal Practices explores how the tilt or inclination towards dorsal (dis)orientation might enable new modes of thinking–perceiving and being–with, and more connected, sustainable ways of living and aliveness based on the reciprocal, entangled relationship between self/environment. We ask: How does the cultivation of a back-oriented awareness and attitude shape and inform our embodied, affective, and relational experience of being-in-the-world? Rather than a mode of withdrawal, of turning one’s back, how might a back-leaning orientation support an open, receptive ethics of relation? Central to this enquiry is an attempt to explore how different linguistic practices might be developed in fidelity to the embodied experiences of dorsality: how the experiences of listening, languaging, even thinking, might be shaped differently through this embodied tilt of awareness and attention towards the back.

Analysis of the motor behaviour of people without specific dance training in improvisation tasks: Influence of mirror and partner

ABSTRACT This study aims to analyse the influence of the mirror and/or partner constraints on the motor creativity of women without specific training in dance during improvisation tasks, in order to contribute to the knowledge of creativity in the field of sports science and movement-based practices. We studied the exploratory behaviour and emerging movement patterns of 12 women who performed four improvisations under the following situations: individual without mirror; individual with mirror; partner without mirror; and partner with mirror. The dynamic overlap q d (t) was calculated to identify the exploratory dynamics composed of the exploratory amplitude and the rate of change between movement configurations. To determine emerging movement patterns, a principal component analysis was carried out by ad hoc routines prepared. A mixed linear model was performed to find out the influence of the different constraints on the exploratory behaviour. The results indicate that the presence of the mirror seems to provoke a decrease in the exploratory behaviour. In addition, partner improvisation favoured coupling and imitation dynamics among the participants. Likewise, the most recurrent emergent movement pattern was walking while moving the arms. It would be advisable to take the influence of these constraints into consideration depending on the improvisation purpose and the experience level of female participants.

Remembering learning to play: reworking gendered memories of sport, physical activity, and movement

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore young women’s memories of their experiences with sport, physical activity, and play during their childhood. Through collective memory work – sharing, discussing, writing, and analysing sporting memories/histories – we examine (re)constructions of young women’s experiences of gendered relations of power, bodily awareness, and regulation within movement-based practices. The approach taken explores relationships between theory and method, a feature of post-qualitative inquiry. Forming a collaborative memory workshop with six young women (aged 19–22) and two researchers, we illustrate how working memories facilitates the interrogation of taken-for-granted assumptions about women’s active bodies. Represented through two memories in this paper, their production, representation, and analysis were a collaborative effort, not solely representative of two individual experiences. Despite growing up within a period wherein women’s access to and engagement with sport and physical activity is more available, common, and diverse compared to the youth of past generations, young women’s experiences explored here illustrate the ways in which movement-based practices are located within the confluence of postfeminist sensibilities including, intensely scrutinised gendered body cultures, potent neoliberal configurations, and discourses of empowerment. It is these new sporting and active femininities and the gendering experiences of physical culture that are explored within this paper through memory work and collective biography.

Mindful Movement Intervention Applied to at Risk Urban School Children for Improving Motor, Cognitive, and Emotional-Behavioral Regulation.

Preliminary evidence has supported the notion that mindful movement-based practices may offer benefits for self-regulation, particularly for vulnerable children. However, this evidence has principally stemmed from subjective assessments of behavioral change, leaving the underlying mechanisms undetermined. The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of an in-school mindful movement intervention (MMI) for at-risk children within an urban public school for enhancing motor, cognitive, and emotional-behavioral regulation, including control of disruptive and inattentive behaviors characteristic of ADHD. Participants included 38 (age 7-8years) children who received twice weekly, in-school MMI, including a modified Tai Chi sequence, yoga and biomechanical warm-ups, imaginative play, and reflection. Parent and teacher ratings of disruptive behaviors, and objective measures of motor and cognitive control, were collected at baseline and after 5months of MMI. Significant improvements in teacher ratings of inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, oppositional, and other disruptive behaviors were observed. Significant improvements were also observed for objective measures of both cognitive control and motor control with particular reductions in both right and left dysrhythmia. MMI was associated with improvements across objective and subjective assessments of motor, cognitive, and behavioral control. This proof-of-principle investigation provides preliminary support for the efficacy and feasibility of a novel MMI implemented as part of the school day in an urban school setting with 7-8-year-old children to augment development of at-risk youth. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-022-02063-7.

К ПРОБЛЕМНЫМ ВОПРОСАМ ФИЛОСОФИИ ТАНЦА: СЕМИОТИЧЕСКИЙ И ОНТОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТЫ ТАНЦЕВАЛЬНЫХ ДВИЖЕНИЙ

One of the core objectives of dance philosophy is research into dance movements as the main means of artistic expression in choreography. This article aims to break the tether of semiotic interpretation of dance movements, to analyze them outside the context of any corporal movement-based practice, and to determine their ontological base, being an irrevocable and immanent quality of human nature itself. Based on various research works in the fields of philosophy, culture studies and art studies, the nature and spe-cific features of the choreographic arts’ expressive language are defined. Semiotic approach to the expressive specifics of dance movements is critically re-evaluated. Its limitations connected with the inter-pretation of the nature of dance movements in the context of understanding the nature of art are substanti-ated. With the help of the method of phenomenological reduction, the dance is represented as an inde-pendent phenomenon. Three important qualities of the nature of dance movements are identified: they oc-cur spontaneously under the influence of positive emotions, have a connection with a person’s special mental state, contribute to the harmonization of a person’s lifeworld. Dancing is characterized by «happi-ness affect», being a source of an individual’s motional activity. This is the state of happiness, positive and joyful emotions that direct a person towards self-actualization. The research is novel in that it defines the ontological aspect of dance movements as those occurring as a result of the «happiness affect» and transferring the energy arising in the human body into an objectified form. Feeling the increased ability of their body to act and its internal energy, doing dance movements, a person experiences satisfaction and joy, and as a result harmony fills their lifeworld.

Mindfulness Meditation and Tai Chi Chuan on Sleep Disturbance in Chinese Older People: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Sleep disturbances are common during the aging process and can result in a reduced quality of life. Many older people who experience sleep disturbances would consider turning to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) due to the limitations of traditional pharmaceutical or psychological and behavioural treatments. Mindfulness Meditation (MM) and Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) are two common forms of mind-body based CAM. The former focuses more on mind-based practices whereas the latter emphasizes predominantly on body or movement-based practices. An etiological model of sleep disturbance (Shallcross et al., 2019) can lay the groundwork for a better understanding of the mechanisms of MM and TCC in relation to sleep disturbances. This study aims at comparing the effects of MM and TCC with Sleep Hygiene Education (SHE) control group. A three-armed randomized controlled pilot trial was conducted involving 45 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 to 82 with symptoms of sleep disturbance. Moderate effect sizes (Cohen’s d = 0.7 and 0.56) were found for the primary outcome of insomnia severity at post-intervention as comparing MM and TCC groups with SHE control group, respectively. More specific, participants in the MM group showed more amelioration on mental health status, introspective awareness, and objective measure of EEG-based brain arousal level; whereas participants in the TCC group showed better improvement on physical health status and subjective measure of hyperarousal. Findings demonstrate the unique therapeutic effects of MM and TCC on improving sleep problem in older people. The application in a Chinese context will be discussed.

Experimental Heritage as Practice: Approaching the Past through the Present at the Intersection of Art and Archaeology

This article presents the emerging transdisciplinary practice of Experimental Heritage as performed within an ongoing Irish-Swedish research project involving artists and archaeologists. The project is undertaken simultaneously in western Ireland and south-eastern Sweden. It explores the chosen Irish and Swedish landscapes of Clare and Öland, their similarities and differences, with the aid of combined and integrated artistic and archaeological practices. The starting points for common explorations are: stone and water, movement and time/the multitemporal, and the tangible and intangible aspects of landscape experience. In a transdisciplinary process we explore new ways of combining art, archaeology and heritage within and between these landscapes. One path towards fulfilling the aims is to explore art, archaeology and heritage through the senses. A phenomenological landscape perspective and an eco-cultural approach is combined with Performance Studies and movement-based practice. These perspectives and methodologies are paired with artistic and archaeological approaches to research such as those conducted through poetry, music, performance, visual arts, physical surveys, mapping and excavations. Methods of working have developed from walking in the landscape to sketching, through visuals, sound and movement, group dialogue, team building and exploring the materiality of making. Group movement-based workshops are used to support receptivity and inner listening for decision making through somatic principles and the senses. The project encourages transdisciplinary as well as translocal practice to arrive at new approaches and perspectives on how the past matters to us in the present and how it might have an impact on the future. To achieve both transdisciplinary and translocal ways of working through art and archaeology/heritage, we need to expand beyond conventional art and archaeology/heritage research, communication and presentation within the well-known framework of universities, cultural history museums and art institutions. The constraints of these conventions are substituted by alternative settings in the landscape. This landscape-based practice includes method development across disciplines, times and geographic distances. It also includes collaborations with people from local communities that can contribute their perspectives, experiences and stories to the explorations. The advantage of Experimental Heritage as practice in the landscape is its ability to challenge our current worldview to better understand other times and cultures as well as our own. This in turn provides us with new tools to create alternative futures resting on care and respect for the need for diversity and breaking not only with boundaries set up between nature and culture but also hierarchies of central and peripheral. We intend to find out more about the multitemporal layers in the landscapes surrounding us and how they relate to our inner landscapes of multitemporal perception. The combination and equal roles of artists and archaeologists as well as the contributions of researchers and members of the local communities in this work is crucial. Equality and diversity encourage transdisciplinary knowledge development.

A Web-Streamed Yoga Intervention for Breast Cancer Survivors.

Current research indicates that structured yoga practice may improve physical and emotional symptoms related to cancer treatment. Yoga is recommended for patients with cancer, yet there are barriers to participation in community- and hospital-based classes. Wellness interventions such as yoga are easy to access via the internet, but information can be overwhelming and not tailored to people with cancer. The purpose of this study was to develop a nurse-led, breast cancer-specific, web-based gentle yoga video for home use, and to understand the feasibility, utilization, and safety of the video in a sample of breast cancer survivors. Data was collected via open-ended telephone interviews three times over a 4-week period. The 14 women participating in the study reported that the web-based video was safe in that it resulted in no injury, and was easy to use, and convenient to access. However, most did not continue to practice the video for the full 4 weeks of the study. A knowledge deficit about gentle yoga as a structured mindful movement-based practice rather than a vigorous exercise was identified. Nurses can provide tailored wellness interventions for cancer survivors via video stream. Future work should include instruction that yoga is a mindfulness-based self-care activity requiring regular practice.

Turfing, Desire Pathing, and Modes of Remembrance And Creative Citizenship Under Surveillance: Visuals Traveling Space—movement Traveling Time

Focusing on Oakland as the sociogeographical site, and on turfing as a hood dance practice performed in Oakland, this article discusses modes of resistance, remembrance, as well as the desire to challenge sociocultural and political landscapes. This article introduces the concept of movement-based remapping as a sociocultural and political strategy and in doing so incorporates the architectural concept of desire paths. It frames turfing as event in the sense of it being essentially significant to how a difference in the lives of those who turf and beyond is made and manifested through repetition and the establishment of a movement vocabulary. Through a reliance on a variety of different data types, including visual and (audio)visual data, in this article I will be studying turfing with a focus on the differences it creates and how, and additionally with an attention to the newness it invites to modes of social interaction and processes of creative world making. In doing so, I will be incorporating Hannah Arendt's concept of action. This article suggests that movement-based remapping has the capacity to address racial inequality within the social fabric and cultural architecture of the street as a designed urban site of multiactor flows. I suggest that a movement-based practice of remapping is a tool with which to challenge ideas of power within a space, and to question everyday movement scripts whether spatial, social, or political, through repetition, heightened visibility, and creating pathways for interactions.

Embodying Islam: The political, social and spiritual use of the body in performative practice

Abstract Attitudes towards the performing body in Islam are complex and varied. The highly codified ritual prayer salat is central to daily life, while dancing is oft regarded as an immoral and frivolous activity. Sufi Muslims embrace movement-based practices as part of a spiritual experience and receive harsh criticism from other Islamic denominations. Yet, many people enjoy dancing, at celebrations, for example, and those living in conservative countries put themselves at extreme risk to do so. This article explores this paradox by analysing the political, social and spiritual use of the body in Islam through three embodied practices: dance, salat and Sufi worship. How does belief affect Muslims’ experiential and everyday modes of being? How does it manifest in performative aspects of both culture and religion? What are the politics of performance in Islam? This research reveals how history, culture and Islamic ideology intersect to form dynamic and multifarious interpretations of the body and its boundaries.

Dance Dramaturgy in Theory and Practice

Dance Dramaturgy in Theory and Practice Ariel Nereson (bio) BANDONEON: WORKING WITH PINA BAUSCH. By Raimund Hoghe. London: Oberon Books Ltd, 2016; pp. 262. DANCE DRAMATURGY: MODES OF AGENCY, AWARENESS AND ENGAGEMENT. Edited by Pil Hansen and Darcey Callison. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; pp. 202. DRAMATURGY IN MOTION: AT WORK ON DANCE AND MOVEMENT PERFORMANCE. By Katherine Profeta. Studies in Dance History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015; pp. 284. Distinctions among theatre, performance, and dance studies are a matter of perennial debate. These distinctions are determined in part by the disciplinary structure of academia, as well as by the attendant, perpetual need to justify the individual training systems of the performing arts; at the same time, an ever-evolving field of performance-making is largely uninterested in upholding these distinctions. Dramaturgy has emerged as one site through which we might study and deepen the intradisciplinarity of our field. As contemporary creative practices erode divisions among artists working primarily in text and those working primarily in movement, a critical engagement with dance dramaturgy becomes increasingly relevant. The 2011 annual meeting of the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) was dedicated to "Dance Dramaturgy: Catalyst, Perspective, and Memory," and degree programs in dance and devised dramaturgy are being introduced by institutions around the world, evidence of the necessity of understanding the history, theory, and practices [End Page 103]of this growing field inside and outside of the academy. 1New histories and theorizations of dance dramaturgy provide scholars, educators, and artists with sharply focused lenses through which to understand the meaning-making that happens in movement-based practice and performance. The new crop of dance dramaturgy publications has much to offer, primarily in its vast yet precise toolkit of language for describing the body in motion, itself a critical element of performance regardless of genre and one that can often receive cursory treatment outside of dance studies. Operating in an overlap among theatre, performance, and dance studies, dance dramaturgs theorize rigorous models for understanding movement—models that are not necessarily bound to vocabularies specific to dance studies that could otherwise inhibit interdisciplinary thought about movement. The three volumes reviewed here share an aim of exploring the whatof dance dramaturgy, often indistinct from the how, consistently asking whatthe dance dramaturg does and howthe dance dramaturg does their work, whomight do dance dramaturgy, and, engaging with a perennial concern regarding the role of the dramaturg, what the dance dramaturg's status, power, or authority might be on a given project. In reviewing these texts, two additional questions arise: Why does dance dramaturgy matter, and what tools can it offer us as those engaged with performance's many meanings? In this review essay I will consider three significant contributions to dance dramaturgy: Pil Hansen and Darcey Callison's Dance Dramaturgy: Modes of Agency, Awareness and Engagement, Katherine Profeta's Dramaturgy in Motion: At Work on Dance and Movement Performance, and Raimund Hoghe's Bandoneon: Working with Pina Bausch. Hansen and Callison organized the landmark 2011 SDHS event, and their Dance Dramaturgyanthology developed out of the conference's conversations. The collection includes nine compelling essays and an overview from Hansen that serves to outline the (fuzzy, porous, kinetic) contours of dance dramaturgy in the twenty-first century. The essays describe the dance dramaturg using various theoretical and practical models practiced by the authors. Dance Dramaturgy, like most essay collections, necessarily offers breadth, touching down rather than diving deep into its subject, as Profeta does in her remarkable Dramaturgy in Motion, which recounts her career as dramaturg for the choreographer Ralph Lemon. This study offers much to consider for scholars, practitioners, and educators alike. I found myself frequently earmarking, underlining, and scribbling in the margins throughout the volume, inspired by Profeta's rigorous theorization of dance dramaturgy in, as, and through practice. Where she offers intense self-reflection on practices developed through years of collaboration, Hoghe's Bandoneonprovides an archive of a single work that tells us as much, if not more, about Bausch as it does about Hoghe, whose role—the earliest official dance dramaturg on record—retains an aura of mystery despite it being the supposed focus...

Editorial: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Movement-Based Embodied Contemplative Practices.

Compared to the extensive body of neuroscientific work on seated meditation practices, far fewer studies have investigated the neural mechanisms underlying movement-based contemplative practices such as yoga or tai chi. One likely reason is the inherent challenge of dealing with their multifaceted nature, typically involving specific movement sequences, regulation of the breath, and modulation of attention. Movement-based practices have, however, been found to be effective for relieving the symptoms of clinical conditions as diverse as cancer, Parkinson's disease (PD), chronic pain, fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, and anxiety-related disorders. In addition, they have been shown to elicit measurable changes in physiological stress parameters, cognitive, and physical functioning as well experienced emotional states in healthy individuals. An important challenge for contemplative science is therefore to advance our understanding of the neurophysiological and neurocognitive mechanisms underlying these observed effects. The current Research Topic aims to make a contribution in this regard by outlining the state of the art of research on movement-based practices including yoga, tai chi, the Feldenkrais Method, as well as dance. The featured articles present empirical data, propose novel theoretical frameworks, and address the clinical implications of research within the field.

First-person experience and yoga research: studying neural correlates of an intentional practice.

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the scientific study of contemplative practices. While seated meditation practices have historically been at the center of inquiry in contemplative sciences, movement-based practices, such as yoga, t'ai chi, qigong, and others, are currently coming to the forefront of this discourse. In her introduction to the present Research Topic, Schmalzl et al. (2014) introduce movement-based contemplative practices (MBCP) and present their essential qualities: MBCPs are embodied and attentive to kinesthetic and proprioceptive sensations; are structured by intentional movement; and are contemplative, that is, characterized by deliberate observation and non-judgmental awareness. In this opinion paper, I focus on the necessity of studying intentional and experiential aspects of yoga as a MBCP, and on the role of first-person experiential reports in the neurophenomenological investigation of yoga and other MBCPs. I propose that the difference between yoga as a contemplative practice and yoga as a form of physical exercise needs to be assessed through nuanced investigation of subjective experience aimed at illuminating short- and long-term intentions and goals underlying yoga practice as well as dynamic variations within the lived experience of yoga.

Ballet as a movement-based contemplative practice? Implications for neuroscientific studies.

There is a rising scientific interest in the neuroscience behind contemplative practices (see e.g., Vago and Silbersweig, 2012 for a review), including movement-based practices such as yoga and tai chi. Given that, it becomes important to ask how such contemplative practices differ from Western movement practices such as dance. In both dance training and contemplative movement, one learns to control the body very precisely, and this requires an assortment of mental skills as well. As a practitioner of both classical ballet and contemplation, and as a neuroscientist who studies contemplation, I will examine how the neural and mental causes and consequences of movement training differ between dance and contemplation. Ballet, rather than modern dance, serves as a good contrast for contemplative practice, because modern dance itself has been influenced substantially by contemplative practice (Hay, 2000). I will compare classical ballet and movement-based contemplative practice on the dimensions of (i) cultivation of attention, (ii) development of interoception, (iii) cultivation of meta-cognition, and (iv) emotion regulation. To date, there are limited studies of movement-based practices, for the obvious reason that movement tends to create artifacts in neuroimaging and EEG measures (e.g., Gwin et al., 2010). I will point out important gaps in our neuroscientific understanding of these phenomena. The results have implications for how we conduct studies of contemplative practitioners and dancers.

Seiki jutsu: Transformation and healing through spontaneous movement

Abstract Seiki jutsu is a unique self-healing and revitalization practice based on spontaneous expression. The transformative art of handling seiki, the presumed vital life force, consists of transmitting enhanced seiki, a daily practice for its development, and healing modalities that address body movement and therapeutic conversation. Seiki jutsu differs from other movement-based practices in that it emphasizes spontaneity over choreographed form, and has little concern with explanation. This ­article introduces a brief history of seiki jutsu, and its relevance and application as a member of the somatic and conversational healing arts.

Seeking spirituality through physicality in schools: learning from ‘Eastern movement forms’

This paper argues that we might learn from the ways in which Eastern movement forms with a self-cultivation focus approach the development of spirituality through physicality. It also argues that these movement forms have potential to assist in the development of children’s spirituality in school and Physical Education (PE) settings. First, the paper highlights a distinctive orientation to self-cultivation at the heart of which lies a focus on uniting body and mind through regular movement-based practice. Next, differing relationships between these movement forms and spirituality are identified as: fragments of established religious spirituality; spiritual exercise; and secular religious spirituality. Finally, three common pedagogic principles of these movement forms are highlighted and applied to the school and PE context: identifying self-identity and emotions; prioritising direct experience and changing the body-self through practice. It is suggested that these understandings of self-cultivating Eastern movement forms may help sensitise educators to approaching the cultivation of spirituality through physicality in schools using, not only Eastern movement forms but also Western activities delivered in accordance with these principles.

Yoga asanas as an effective form of experiential learning when teaching musculoskeletal anatomy of the lower limb

Physical movement as a conduit for experiential learning within the academic context of anatomy is a strategy currently used in university dance education. This same approach can be applied to other movement-based practices, for example, yoga. The primary purpose of this study was to pilot a novel teaching curriculum to yoga practitioners, based on Bruner's Theory of Instruction, which incorporated the four adaptive modes of Kolb's Theory of Experiential Learning. The secondary purpose was to assess the applicability of anatomical knowledge within the participants' yoga practice. Following the development of a curriculum appropriate for a spectrum of academic backgrounds, participants were recruited to attend a 2-hour learning session within the Department of Anatomy at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The learning session guided participants through the bones and muscles of the lower limb pertaining to five specific yoga poses. Based on participant feedback, the sessions were positively received and consistent. In addition, learning session participants were able to apply the anatomical information they were taught to their yoga practice 1-month later. Bruner and Kolb's independent theories on curriculum design and effective learning practice were successfully incorporated to create a 2-hour learning session. The potential use of experiential learning to compliment and/or enhance traditional didactic teaching in the academic context of anatomy should be further explored.