The dance curriculum seeks to include guided exploratory practices where sensory awareness of the anatomical relationship is designed to improve coordination. These embodied approaches added a whole new dimension to body investigation. In the twentieth century, these approaches were included within the dance education with influences derived from Contact, Skinner Release Technique and other forms of “Release” work. This creates solo and collaborative movement exploration but sparked the use of creative stimulus like imagery, touch, voice, music and technology to expand the arena of mind-body and dance training.
Somatic education differs from tradition dance in its philosophical basis of dismembering mind-body dualism in pursuit of personal autonomy. One must exercise a self-awareness, self-control and active application of the will in the process. Key elements of somatic training include Novel Learning Context, Sensory Attunement and Augmented Rest.
1. Novel Learning
2. Sensory Attunement
3. Augmented Rest
Novel Learning
Somatic learning context removes a dancer from the space-time-effort constraints and the psychological demands of a dance class. Class often begins by quieting the mind-body and focusing the attention on the body’s sensory stimuli. This may include generating attention to muscle tension, breath, contact of the body with the floor, etc. The general mood of the somatic learning environment is meant for self-acceptance, personal exploration and non-competitiveness.
During the class, the dancer learns to move from the “correct” embodied source instead of striving to perform the “right” movement. One learns to be fully receptive and responsive in that moment of that movement. This allows the dancer to release from rigid holding patterns or other constraints that bind one’s thought, feeling, and action. Time is given for pausing and self-reflection. By extending the intervals from sensing and moving, the dancer can explore sensory feedback from stillness and movement in an ambient freed from goal-striving.
The somatic learning context is designed to refine muscular effort. The restful contexts help dancers discover maladaptive postural and movement habits that have gone unnoticed during dancing.
Sensory Attunement
Somatic approaches emphasis on sensory awareness and paying attention to sensing over action. It is more important of how one move than what the movement is. The dancer can explore inner sensations that foster “sensory authority”, a baseline for self-guidance and control. Sensory authority promotes movement autonomy that provides the capacity to self-organize movement internally. This differs from external cues of learning dance steps like teacher’s cues or using mirrors. Somatics and dance share a kinesthetic awareness. In Somatics, kinesthetic awareness functions as a potent agent of change, as a way to alter habits.
Augmented Rest
Augmented rest is a concept that distinguishes Somatics from the traditional dance. Dance often focuses on repetition or reinforcement in their training methods but hardly counterbalanced with rest. Somatics instill resting intervals between phrases of physical activity. This is designed to allow the nervous system for processing and integration and physiological systems to recover.
The pausing of rest can range from:
· very brief (Alexander Technique’s pausing and inhibiting),
· brief (2-3 minutes rest between repetition and variation of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement)
· fairly long (20 minutes or more of Ideokinetic Constructive Rest)
· or longer (a full night’s sleep)
Somatic resting phrases are important for motor programming and a strategy for physical recovery. Periods of rest can consolidate memory and improve motor recall in a person. A minimum of a 10-20 minutes of constructive rest period is highly recommended to recuperate from a day of dancing to replenish physiological processes and restore depleted energy. The rest also allow programming of neuromuscular patterns within the brain. Rest gives time to the dancer to listen to the body, clarify sensations within, getting rid of unwanted stimuli and consolidate motor learning. Visualizing with motor patterns at rest combined with the physical practice is a powerful tool to enhance motor skill learning and performance.
Somatic practices that have been integrated readily into dance curriculum include Ideokinesis, The Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander Technique and the Body-Mind Centering. All these approaches have a common goal that is enhancing kinaesthetic awareness in a non-judgmental and non-competitive environment. The use of sensory awareness to modulate or constrain movement range and effort helps to uncover new mobility.
Somatics is a fluid movement science, and it is in a constant state of growth. It is frequently assimilated in the dance field and used as a tool or improvisation. The principles of Somatics encourage the dancer to cultivate awareness during dance training.
Somatics is carried out at a super slow pace. Somatic practitioners specialize in asking questions, and it is a trial and error process to infuse dance class with the same practical understanding that it takes to move the whole selves.
According to Martha Eddy, the dance class is a good environment to teach concepts like dynamics of movement, development and body systems. Eddy founded Body Mind Dancing in 1986, a somatic dance technique that combines Somatics practices of Body-Mind Centering, Laban Movement Analysis, Graham, Limón and Hawkins dance technique. Body Mind Dancing start from the floor to the barre, following the path of human development.
In Eddy's classes during standing, she brings attention to the released quality from the floor to the vertical body. Time is essential to give students the opportunity to work the material. Eddy teaches with Somatics concepts rather than a particular dance style allows her to have mixed abilities in one classroom. She uses improvisation, a crucial part of somatic technique.
Martha Eddy explains that “Somatic inquiry focuses the awareness process on ‘the whole person’ inclusive of his or her associated physical and emotional needs, inviting the wisdom ‘from the within’ to inform decisions.” This would require the student to go deep within themselves to create quiet contemplation and investigate the within, making decisions from there. Hence, Somatics empowers the student to listen to their bodies and sense where it is going before making a decision to act.
Eddy adds that a challenge is to apply somatic techniques without breaking the flow of the class. A simple somatic exercise using a real hand brush can enhance a tendu sequence by stimulating a sensory experience to wake the feet up. This type of exercise is linked to the pioneering works of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.
Somatics’ assimilation into dance has desired effected, spreading relevant body knowledge and improving the health of dancers. Somatics is an essential component in the development of a well-rounded dancer and majority of dancers are already becoming soma-savvy, whether they or not they are aware of it.
Most somatic practices have these two common components:
1. Deals with fundamental concepts and principles about the way the body works and moves. This same truth supports all movement and re-education systems.
2. Improve alignment and awareness for greater movement efficiency and maximize movement potential. Increased capacity for expressivity in the individual.
Somatics as defined by The International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (2009):
“Practices of somatic movement education and therapy encompass postural and movement evaluation, communication and guidance through touch and words, experiential anatomy and imagery, and the patterning of new movement choices…to enhance human processes of psycho-physical awareness and functioning through movement learning.”
The primary aim of Somatics is to enhance movement quality, improve the well-being of the body and the way of life. As stated, the benefits of Somatics are enormous for a non-dancer as it is for a dancer. More benefits of Somatics and its practices will be discussed later on.
References
Batson, G. (2009) Somatic Studies and Dance. International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. Available at: www.iadms.org [Accessed 10 January 2015]
Lobel, E. and Brodie, J. (2006) Somatics in Dance- Dance in Somatics. Journal of Dance Education, 6 (3) 69-71. Available at:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8abceabc-1a47-4e99-b3ba-9517cc750abf%40sessionmgr4003&vid=17&hid=4204 [Accessed 12 January 2015].
Kearns, W. (2010) Somatics in Action How I “feel three-dimensional and real” improves dance education and training. Journal of Dance Education, 10 (2) 35-49. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8abceabc-1a47-4e99-b3ba-9517cc750abf%40sessionmgr4003&vid=14&hid=4204 [Accessed 15 January 2015]
Wozny, N. (2012) The Somatic Infusion. Dance Magazine, 86 (5) 36-39. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8abceabc-1a47-4e99-b3ba-9517cc750abf%40sessionmgr4003&vid=4&hid=4204 [Accessed 28 January 2015].
Wozny, N. (2010) Taking Somatics off the Mat. Dance Teacher, 32 (3) 38-42. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8abceabc-1a47-4e99-b3ba-9517cc750abf%40sessionmgr4003&vid=10&hid=4204 [Accessed 28 January 2015].
Somatic education differs from tradition dance in its philosophical basis of dismembering mind-body dualism in pursuit of personal autonomy. One must exercise a self-awareness, self-control and active application of the will in the process. Key elements of somatic training include Novel Learning Context, Sensory Attunement and Augmented Rest.
1. Novel Learning
2. Sensory Attunement
3. Augmented Rest
Novel Learning
Somatic learning context removes a dancer from the space-time-effort constraints and the psychological demands of a dance class. Class often begins by quieting the mind-body and focusing the attention on the body’s sensory stimuli. This may include generating attention to muscle tension, breath, contact of the body with the floor, etc. The general mood of the somatic learning environment is meant for self-acceptance, personal exploration and non-competitiveness.
During the class, the dancer learns to move from the “correct” embodied source instead of striving to perform the “right” movement. One learns to be fully receptive and responsive in that moment of that movement. This allows the dancer to release from rigid holding patterns or other constraints that bind one’s thought, feeling, and action. Time is given for pausing and self-reflection. By extending the intervals from sensing and moving, the dancer can explore sensory feedback from stillness and movement in an ambient freed from goal-striving.
The somatic learning context is designed to refine muscular effort. The restful contexts help dancers discover maladaptive postural and movement habits that have gone unnoticed during dancing.
Sensory Attunement
Somatic approaches emphasis on sensory awareness and paying attention to sensing over action. It is more important of how one move than what the movement is. The dancer can explore inner sensations that foster “sensory authority”, a baseline for self-guidance and control. Sensory authority promotes movement autonomy that provides the capacity to self-organize movement internally. This differs from external cues of learning dance steps like teacher’s cues or using mirrors. Somatics and dance share a kinesthetic awareness. In Somatics, kinesthetic awareness functions as a potent agent of change, as a way to alter habits.
Augmented Rest
Augmented rest is a concept that distinguishes Somatics from the traditional dance. Dance often focuses on repetition or reinforcement in their training methods but hardly counterbalanced with rest. Somatics instill resting intervals between phrases of physical activity. This is designed to allow the nervous system for processing and integration and physiological systems to recover.
The pausing of rest can range from:
· very brief (Alexander Technique’s pausing and inhibiting),
· brief (2-3 minutes rest between repetition and variation of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement)
· fairly long (20 minutes or more of Ideokinetic Constructive Rest)
· or longer (a full night’s sleep)
Somatic resting phrases are important for motor programming and a strategy for physical recovery. Periods of rest can consolidate memory and improve motor recall in a person. A minimum of a 10-20 minutes of constructive rest period is highly recommended to recuperate from a day of dancing to replenish physiological processes and restore depleted energy. The rest also allow programming of neuromuscular patterns within the brain. Rest gives time to the dancer to listen to the body, clarify sensations within, getting rid of unwanted stimuli and consolidate motor learning. Visualizing with motor patterns at rest combined with the physical practice is a powerful tool to enhance motor skill learning and performance.
Somatic practices that have been integrated readily into dance curriculum include Ideokinesis, The Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander Technique and the Body-Mind Centering. All these approaches have a common goal that is enhancing kinaesthetic awareness in a non-judgmental and non-competitive environment. The use of sensory awareness to modulate or constrain movement range and effort helps to uncover new mobility.
Somatics is a fluid movement science, and it is in a constant state of growth. It is frequently assimilated in the dance field and used as a tool or improvisation. The principles of Somatics encourage the dancer to cultivate awareness during dance training.
Somatics is carried out at a super slow pace. Somatic practitioners specialize in asking questions, and it is a trial and error process to infuse dance class with the same practical understanding that it takes to move the whole selves.
According to Martha Eddy, the dance class is a good environment to teach concepts like dynamics of movement, development and body systems. Eddy founded Body Mind Dancing in 1986, a somatic dance technique that combines Somatics practices of Body-Mind Centering, Laban Movement Analysis, Graham, Limón and Hawkins dance technique. Body Mind Dancing start from the floor to the barre, following the path of human development.
In Eddy's classes during standing, she brings attention to the released quality from the floor to the vertical body. Time is essential to give students the opportunity to work the material. Eddy teaches with Somatics concepts rather than a particular dance style allows her to have mixed abilities in one classroom. She uses improvisation, a crucial part of somatic technique.
Martha Eddy explains that “Somatic inquiry focuses the awareness process on ‘the whole person’ inclusive of his or her associated physical and emotional needs, inviting the wisdom ‘from the within’ to inform decisions.” This would require the student to go deep within themselves to create quiet contemplation and investigate the within, making decisions from there. Hence, Somatics empowers the student to listen to their bodies and sense where it is going before making a decision to act.
Eddy adds that a challenge is to apply somatic techniques without breaking the flow of the class. A simple somatic exercise using a real hand brush can enhance a tendu sequence by stimulating a sensory experience to wake the feet up. This type of exercise is linked to the pioneering works of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.
Somatics’ assimilation into dance has desired effected, spreading relevant body knowledge and improving the health of dancers. Somatics is an essential component in the development of a well-rounded dancer and majority of dancers are already becoming soma-savvy, whether they or not they are aware of it.
Most somatic practices have these two common components:
1. Deals with fundamental concepts and principles about the way the body works and moves. This same truth supports all movement and re-education systems.
2. Improve alignment and awareness for greater movement efficiency and maximize movement potential. Increased capacity for expressivity in the individual.
Somatics as defined by The International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (2009):
“Practices of somatic movement education and therapy encompass postural and movement evaluation, communication and guidance through touch and words, experiential anatomy and imagery, and the patterning of new movement choices…to enhance human processes of psycho-physical awareness and functioning through movement learning.”
The primary aim of Somatics is to enhance movement quality, improve the well-being of the body and the way of life. As stated, the benefits of Somatics are enormous for a non-dancer as it is for a dancer. More benefits of Somatics and its practices will be discussed later on.
References
Batson, G. (2009) Somatic Studies and Dance. International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. Available at: www.iadms.org [Accessed 10 January 2015]
Lobel, E. and Brodie, J. (2006) Somatics in Dance- Dance in Somatics. Journal of Dance Education, 6 (3) 69-71. Available at:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8abceabc-1a47-4e99-b3ba-9517cc750abf%40sessionmgr4003&vid=17&hid=4204 [Accessed 12 January 2015].
Kearns, W. (2010) Somatics in Action How I “feel three-dimensional and real” improves dance education and training. Journal of Dance Education, 10 (2) 35-49. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8abceabc-1a47-4e99-b3ba-9517cc750abf%40sessionmgr4003&vid=14&hid=4204 [Accessed 15 January 2015]
Wozny, N. (2012) The Somatic Infusion. Dance Magazine, 86 (5) 36-39. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8abceabc-1a47-4e99-b3ba-9517cc750abf%40sessionmgr4003&vid=4&hid=4204 [Accessed 28 January 2015].
Wozny, N. (2010) Taking Somatics off the Mat. Dance Teacher, 32 (3) 38-42. Available at: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8abceabc-1a47-4e99-b3ba-9517cc750abf%40sessionmgr4003&vid=10&hid=4204 [Accessed 28 January 2015].