Dance, Somatics and Spiritualities: Contemporary Sacred Narratives

Dance, Somatics and Spiritualities brings together prominent authors and practitioners in order to elucidate how a wide range of sacred narratives/spiritualities are informing pedagogy, educational and therapeutic practice. As well as providing new insights and promoting creative/artistic awareness, this seminal text de-mystifies the spiritual/sacred and brings clarity and academic visibility to this largely uncharted and often misrepresented subject.

Our authors and contents:

Don Hanlon Johnson

Introduction xxiii

Amanda Williamson, Glenna Batson and Sarah Whatley

Part I: Moving Spiritualities 1

Amanda Williamson

Chapter 1: Embodiment of Spirit: From Embryology to Authentic Movement as Embodied Relational Spiritual Practice 9

Linda Hartley

Chapter 2: The Alchemy of Authentic Movement: Awakening Spirit in the Body 35

Tina Stromstead

Chapter 3: Dancing in the Spirit of Sophia 61

Jill Hayes

Chapter 4: Body Ensouled, Enacted and Entranced: Movement/Dance as Transformative Art 87

Daria Halprin

Chapter 5: Dancing on the Breath of Limbs: Embodied Inquiry as a Place of Opening 115

Celeste Snowber

Chapter 6: ‘Can They Dance?’: Towards a Philosophy of Bodily Becoming 131

Kimerer L. LaMothe,

Part II: Reflections on the Intersections of Spiritualities and Pedagogy 151

Sarah Whatley

Chapter 7: Reflections on the Spiritual Dimensions of Somatic Movement Dance Education 159

Martha Eddy, Amanda Williamson and Rebecca Weber

Chapter 8: Postmodern Spirituality? A Personal Narrative 195

Jill Green

Chapter 9: Working Like a Farmer: Towards an Embodied Spirituality 209

Helen Poynor

Chapter 10: Intimate to Ultimate: The Meta-Kinesthetic Flow of Embodied Engagement 221

Glenna Batson

Chapter 11: Permission and the Making of Consciousness 239

Sondra Fraleigh

Chapter 12: Conversations about the Somatic Basis of Spiritual Experiences 261

Sylvie Fortin, Ninoska Gomez, Yvan Joly, Linda Rabin, Odile Rouquet and Lawrence Smith,

Chapter 13: Inner Dance—Spirituality and Somatic Practice in Dance Technique, Choreography and Performance 283

Kathleen Debenham and Pat Debenham

Chapter 14: This Indivisible Moment: A Meditation on Language, Spirit, Magic and Somatic Practice 305

Ray Schwartz

Chapter 15: Global Somaticsâ„¢ Process: A Contemporary Shamanic Approach 327

Suzanne River, interviewed by Kathleen Melin

Part III: Cultural Immersions and Performance Excursions 349

Glenna Batson

Chapter 16: Dancing N/om 357

Hillary Keeney and Bradford Keeney

Chapter 17: Dancing with the Divine: Dance Education and the Embodiment of Spirit, from Bali to America 373

Susan Bauer

Chapter 18: The Sacrum and the Sacred: Mutual Transformation of Performer and Site through Ecological Movement in a

Sacred Site 417

Sandra Reeve

Chapter 19: Dancing and Flourishing: Mindful Meditation in Dance-Making and Performing 437

Sarah Whatley and Naomi Lefebvre Sell

Chapter 20: ‘What You Cannot Imagine’: Spirituality in Akram Khan’s Vertical Road 459

Jayne Stevens