Degree Name

Master of Arts

Document Type

Thesis

Date Created

12-2020

Department

College of Performing and Visual Arts, Theatre Arts and Dance, Theatre Arts and Dance Student Work

Abstract

This research project relied on the use of interdisciplinary literature, surveys and interviews to explore the prevalence of the human body and its movement across a variety of disciplines other than movement-based practices, and also to explore perspectives of movement experts regarding the knowledge, skills, and capacities they believed might be related to their practice-based work. In other words, what do movement practitioners and movement experts know, and who cares? The materials gathered were analyzed with the aim of understanding the range of possibilities for future work, and identifying areas of potential discourse, engagement, or collaboration across disciplines. The outcomes of this research revealed a strong interest in the body and its movement across a number of disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience and technology. Although disciplines outside of movement-based practice are involved in interdisciplinary projects that work with the body in powerful and important ways, instances where movement experts are called upon to contribute their practice- and praxis-based knowledge remain an exception rather than the norm. Even where movement experts’ embodied knowledge is recognized for its depth and import, it continues to be approached largely from the outside-in, where the body remains a container, or top-down, where the intellect and linear thinking impose limitations on what is potentially a vast body of knowledge. This research revealed potential directions and synergies for future work, entrenched institutional resistance to interdisciplinary collaboration, and serious ethical questions concerning the aims of body-based knowledge and its use.

Keywords

embodiment, somatics, body studies, human ecology, interdisciplinary studies, evolution, epigenetic, psychology, anthropology, cognition

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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