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Student Bodies: Dance Pedagogy and the Soma I was asked to write a chapter on the body in dance education. In contemplating such a task, the first question I asked myself was “How does one write a literature review on something like the body in dance education?” There are many bodies of literature on the topic. Any literature review on this theme will surely be limited. Additionally, I was faced with a word limit. So I decided to focus on a few broad areas and omit some major bodies of literature. For example, I did not include the research in dance science, but focused on the qualitative scholarship in dance education. I approached the task by attempting to look for broad areas of research on the body. Of course, I am coming from my own theoretical stance and paradigmatic viewpoint so the trends I see will certainly be colored by my perspective. I acknowledge that knowledge is socially constructed. So what I see will be what Patti Lather refers to as a partial truth (1986, 1991, 1995, 1999). Thus, there is much missing from this Moreover, I did not go into as much depth as I would have liked to (again since there was a word limit). In the future, I would like to use this chapter as a basis for a Thus, the structural limitations, breadth of literature on the topic, and acknowledgement of my own biases, affect what is included and what is left out of this literature review. With this in mind, I asked myself what stood out as the major themes in this area. I found a number of patterns. First, I realized that the topic was clustered in three large areas, Somatic Dance Research, Critical Pedagogy Research in Dance, and Postpositivist Research and Cultural Studies. Although Cultural Studies often falls outside the realm of dance education it certainly informs pedagogy. I did, however recognize that the boundaries of these categories are fuzzy and fluid. There is much overlap in these areas. Additionally, these areas are not distinct chronological phases but rather coexist and take circuitous routes. By titling one section of the chapter Somatic Dance Research, I am referring to the practices defined by Thomas Hanna as a field that generally views the body from a first person perspective (1998). With Hanna’s ideas seeping into dance in the 1960s and 1970s, many educators explored somatic practices such as Alexander, Feldenkrais, and Rolfing. Additionally, a number of dancers and dance educators and therapists such as Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (Body-Mind Centering), Lulu Sweigard (Ideokinesis), and Elaine Summers (Kinetic Awareness) created their own somatic systems, opening the field for research and study. Much of the theory and practice in this area were based on the individual’s experience of body, although some somatic theorists began to explore moving somatics to a socio-cultural context. I call this body of literature “social somatic Moving from social somatic theory, the second category Critical Pedagogy in Dance Research probes how the body is socially habituated through dance training and education. A number of scholars in this area investigate how issues such as body image, teacher and student power relationships, and pressure to meet aesthetic and bodily ideals, affect dance students and the ways dance is taught. As critical pedagogy tends to focus on social justice issues and marginalization regarding levels of status such as race, gender, culture, class, sexuality, ability, and so on, critical dance pedagogy often focuses on how these levels of status play out in traditional western dance training. The third category of research on the body in dance education moves from a critical perspective to a postmodern approach. Although the lines between these two categories can be fuzzy, basically, while critical pedagogy is concerned mainly with inequities and injustice, postmodern research moves to a more fluid positioning and fuller questioning of all paradigmatic stances. Postpositivist inquiry basically highlights the multiple views and perspective of those involved in a particular research setting. A number of dance education researchers have used poststructuralist displays, such as spilt page formats, poetry, etc. as a way of juxtaposing ideas about the body in dance Additionally, some dance educators have borrowed from themes in cultural studies such as performativity and post colonialism. Like critical pedagogy, this perspective reflects the shift in dance scholarship of operations of social and cultural power (Desmond, 1997) and the disciplining of the body. Like the postpositivist literature in dance education, it often addresses how the body is shaped and molded in dance. However, with this literature comes a move back to the idea of embodiment (as in the somatic literature). For example, Jane Desmond professes that this cultural analysis (which is often found in humanities literature), includes, “proprioception, kinesthesia, emotion, and the concepts of expressivity without lapsing into scientism or transcendent conceptions of subjectivity” (p. 16). Sub-categories of performance studies, anthropology, history, etc. (and dance education) fit into this definition and inform dance Thus,
this
body
of
literature
employs
a
cultural
context
for
looking
at
the
 body.

Since
so
many
indigenous
cultures
bring
reverence
to
the
experience
of
the
 body,
this
literature
tends
to
bring
back
the
body
as
a
soma,
or
living
and
breathing
 construction,
without
conceptualizing
it
as
a
static,
objectified
,
or
a
mechanical
 material
entity.

The
embodied
dancer
is
recognized
and
embraced
but
with
an
 awareness
that
all
bodily
experience
is
fluid
and
defined
by
the
culture
in
which
it
is
 danced.

Deidre
Sklar,
for
example,
often
refers
to
somatic
experience
when
 describing
her
research
methodology
as
a
cultural
ethnographer.
Her
description
of
 communal
sacred
time
as
“a
somatic
mode
of
attention”
(Sklar,
2001,
p.
184)
is
 similar
to
my
“somatic
sensitivity
as
a
research
tool”
(Green,
2004).
Thus,
these
 ideas
move
through
and
across
fields
and
disciplines.
 Although
these
authors
write
from
an
anthropological
perspective,
they
 share
many
aspects
addressed
in
the
work
of
educational
and
somatic
researchers
 in
dance.

Some
even
write
about
dance
training
and
institutions.

For
example,
 Susan
Foster’s
experience
is
grounded
in
her
own
bodily
experience
and
dance
 training
(1997).

This
allows
her
talk
about
the
body
and
dance
training
as
a
social
 that
cultural
study
in
dance
may
provide
a
critical
dance
scholarship
that
asks
new
 questions
about
key
concepts
of
embodiment,
identity,
and
representation,
through
 an
investigation
of
the
operations
of
social
power.
It
does
not
neglect
bodily
 experience,
but
questions
rigid
binaries.
It
refers
to
dance
as
an
“embodied
social
 There
are
many
other
performance
scholars,
as
well
as
educational
scholars
 who
write
about
the
body
in
dance
performance
and
practice.
The
field
is
ripe
and
 So as I began to research these major bodies of literature, I began to notice some trends. I will share from the published chapter to conclude my remarks and to share what Within discussion about these rather fluid categories of Somatic Dance Research, Critical
Pedagogy
Research
in
Dance,
and
Postpositivist Research and Cultural Studies, one may find some overriding trends or movements. Two major developments/shifts may become apparent. First, there is a movement from the body as individualistic and essentialist—devoid of social meaning and influence—to an emphasis on an awareness of the social construction of bodies. This social/theory/language approach is then followed by an emphasis back to the body as an embodied (but not essentialized) concept, which still regards social power as a major influence. Secondly, the study of the body in dance moves from a more certain (grand theory) viewpoint through critical analysis of dominant paradigms to more self-reflective and reflexive modes of inquiry. These movements are not dictated by any particular area or type of research though critical, postmodern, and cultural/social bodies of literature tend to provide these One final point in the chapter is related to dance scholarship and categories in general. It may be apparent that these separate categories that I discussed are used as a device to clarify different types of scholarship from different arenas in dance. However, these categories may be problematic as well. I trouble or problematize categorical distinctions which directly divide the scholarly disciplines and halt the dissemination of bodies of knowledge throughout disparate academic disciplines. I contend that by focusing on what many in performance studies have referred to as “dance studies,” without acknowledging the broad and relevant body of literature in fields such as education and somatics, these “outside” disciplines may be marginalized. I call on dance scholars to break disciplinary boundaries and include the body in dance education in the overall work done on the body in dance. Only through an understanding of how we can explore categories and boundaries of dance scholarship without abusing or leaving behind any one particular field of study can we enrich the Desmond, J. C. (1997). Introduction. In
J.
C.
Desmond
(Ed.),
Meaning
in
motion:
New
 cultural
studies
of
dance
(pp.
1‐25).
Durham,
NC:
Duke
University
Press.
 S.
L.
(1997).
Dancing
bodies.
In
J.
C.
Desmond
(Ed.),
Meaning
in
motion:
New
cultural

 studies
of
dance
(pp.
235‐257).
Durham,
NC:
Duke
University
Press.
 Green,
J.
(2004).
Postpositivist
inquiry:
Multiple
perspective
and
paradigms.
In
R.
F.
 Cruz
&
C.
F.
Berrol
(Eds.),
Dance/Movement
therapists
in
action:
A
working
guide
to

 research
options
(pp.
109‐124).
Springfield,
Ill:
Charles
C.
Thomas.
 Hanna,
T.
(1988).
Somatics:
Reawakening
the
mind’s
control
of
movement,

 
flexibility,
and
health.
Reading,
MA:
Addison‐Wesley.
 Lather, P. (1986). Issues of validity in openly ideological research: Between a rock and a soft place. Interchange, 17(4), 63-84. Lather, Patti (1991). Getting smart: Feminist research and pedagogy with/in the postmodern. New York and London: Routledge. Lather, P. (1995) Post-Critical Pedagogies: A Feminist Reading. In: McLaren, P. (Ed) Postmodernism, Postcolonialism and Pedagogy. Albert Park: James Nicholas Publishers, pp. 167-186. Lather, Patti & Smithies, Chris (1997). Troubling the angels: Women living with Sklar,
D.
(2001).
Dancing
with
the
virgin:
Body
and
faith
in
the
fiesta
of
Tortugas,
New

 Mexico.
Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press.

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