What happens in the encounter between a human performer and a three-dimensional textile artwork that seems to possess a body, presence and sense of being of its own? In this interview, visual artist Alexandra Deutsch and somatic movement artist Hiie Saumaa discuss their collaborative performances with Deutsch’s large-scale textile objects and the ways these objects influence movement, imagination, emotions and life stories. The conversation explores the role of the artist’s body in creating the artworks, the effect of somatic practices on artistic process and the impact of indoor and outdoor environments on performances with the objects. Fundamental ontological and ethical questions emerge from these encounters: Who are you? How do I approach you? How do I move with you?
This mixed-methods study examines the effects of Cortical Field Re-Education ® (CFR) on dancers’ dynamic alignment and experience. Eight dancers completed a fourteen-week programme with weekly CFR lessons and pre/post gait and alignment assessments analysed with Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis. Quantitative results showed significant weekly improvements in connectivity patterns and more balanced free-flow and bound-flow regulation. Rater reliability was strong and increasing. Qualitative findings revealed greater sensory awareness, reduced habitual tension and enhanced coordination and ease. These findings suggest that CFR may support movement reorganization through developmental patterns, where foundational coordination enables integration. Consistent with somatic approaches like Feldenkrais Method, these changes emerge through attention-driven sensorimotor learning rather than prescriptive assignments towards change. As the first empirical study of CFR in a dance population, this research advances scholarship on somatics and integrative dance training.
This article argues that ecosomatics informed Anna Halprin’s work during the 1960s. Following a definition of ecosomatics grounded in current theoretical frameworks, it aims at showing that Anna Halprin developed her own set of conceptual tools to approach the interaction between body and environment. Various intellectuals who influenced her art point to a porous boundary between the interior and the exterior of the body – whether from the standpoint of philosophy as in the case of John Dewey, psychology as regards Fritz Perls or architecture with respect to her husband Lawrence Halprin. The artistic and cultural context of that decade also offers tools for thinking about and experimenting with an ecological conception of the relationship between bodies and space. Moreover, Anna Halprin is not the only choreographer dancing outside traditional theatre spaces during that characteristic moment of the emergence of environmental ethics. Finally, a creative critique of a happening that took place in a San Francisco park in 1966 seeks to capture the full range of the spectator experience it engendered, from boredom and distraction to participation.
This article is an edited version of a reflective conversation between independent artists Lisa Dowler, Louise Klarnett and Cai Tomos. The exchange focuses on their lived experience of practising in the clinical setting, sharing the complexities of their work, in a way that is rarely captured in formal research. This process highlights their embodied, tacit knowledge, bringing forth artists’ voices, often absent in clinical literature. We suggest these insights are valuable to artists initiating a practice in the clinical setting, arts organizations and hospitals developing arts and health projects, and health professionals collaborating with artists. The trialogue reveals how moment-to-moment decision-making enables creative engagement with diverse individuals in complex situations, through both verbal and non-verbal negotiation. The discussion traversed a range of issues, including the significance of improvisation and somatic approaches in this setting, ethics and consent, the scope of practice, working with touch and differentiating the artist and art therapist and self-care.
Review of: Essential Not Optional: Celebrating the Creative Arts in Higher Education, University of Lincoln, 26–27 June 2024
