PhD
The Dancing Self/Other: kinaesthesia and visual self-reflection in contemporary dance
The University of Manchester, School of Arts, Languages, and Cultures
External Examiner: Professor Sarah Whatley
Internal Examiner: Dr. Graeme Kirkpatrick
Primary Supervisor: Professor Dee Reynolds
Co-Supervisors: Professor Nick Crossley, Professor Amelia Jones (Year 1)
In this thesis I interrogate the meaning and value of kinaesthesia and visual self-reflection in contemporary dance, from the dancers’ perspective, using a phenomenological and sociological research approach. The main fieldwork informing the study is a series of interviews with fourteen professional dancers, in contemporary, ballet and hip hop and street dance, which include dancing, videoing movement, and watching the videoed movement (i.e. visual self-reflection). The interviews are placed in conversation with my own experience as a contemporary dancer and with theory from the phenomenological, sociological, and dance studies literature, primarily on the topics of kinaesthesia and visual self-image. The main focus of the study is contemporary dance, with ballet, hip hop, and street dance serving as contrast. Utilising Bourdieu’s (1980/1990, 1987/1990) idea of habitus, I argue in this work that the contemporary dancers’ kinaesthetic descriptions indicate that their experience is, in part, situated according to certain kinaesthetic values and practices specific to contemporary dance. The contemporary dancers indicate a particular type of kinaesthetic sensitivity, knowledge, and curiosity, what I refer to as a ‘kinaesthetic mode of attention’, which is not expressed by the ballet and hip hop/street dancers to the same extent. After describing and framing a ‘kinaesthetic mode of attention’, I then identify and discuss key practices and values which I argue develop and nurture this style-specific mode of attending. I focus in more detail on the issue of kinaesthesia as it is valued in contemporary dance, and challenge its constructed polarisation with the visual, principally by showing how the contemporary dancers’ kinaesthetic descriptions are expressed as multi-dimensional and include a visual facet, particularly in performance-related contexts. This argument extends philosopher Barbara Montero’s (2006) concept of proprioceiving aesthetically and philosopher Shaun Gallagher’s (2005) definitions for body image and body schema framed in terms of non-dancer experience. I further evidence an inter-relationship of kinaesthesia and visual self-image by discussing the ways that the dancers indicate there is both an intertwining and a disruption between their kinaesthetic experiences and self-image perceptions. Here my analysis moves to Merleau-Ponty’s concept of reversibility in perception (1945, 1968). I foreground the imagination and Kaja Silverman’s (1992) idea of ‘the productive look’ to conclude that kinaesthetic and visual self-reflections are important for these dancers and contribute, in part, to their sense of agency and becoming professional dancers.
External Examiner: Professor Sarah Whatley
Internal Examiner: Dr. Graeme Kirkpatrick
Primary Supervisor: Professor Dee Reynolds
Co-Supervisors: Professor Nick Crossley, Professor Amelia Jones (Year 1)
In this thesis I interrogate the meaning and value of kinaesthesia and visual self-reflection in contemporary dance, from the dancers’ perspective, using a phenomenological and sociological research approach. The main fieldwork informing the study is a series of interviews with fourteen professional dancers, in contemporary, ballet and hip hop and street dance, which include dancing, videoing movement, and watching the videoed movement (i.e. visual self-reflection). The interviews are placed in conversation with my own experience as a contemporary dancer and with theory from the phenomenological, sociological, and dance studies literature, primarily on the topics of kinaesthesia and visual self-image. The main focus of the study is contemporary dance, with ballet, hip hop, and street dance serving as contrast. Utilising Bourdieu’s (1980/1990, 1987/1990) idea of habitus, I argue in this work that the contemporary dancers’ kinaesthetic descriptions indicate that their experience is, in part, situated according to certain kinaesthetic values and practices specific to contemporary dance. The contemporary dancers indicate a particular type of kinaesthetic sensitivity, knowledge, and curiosity, what I refer to as a ‘kinaesthetic mode of attention’, which is not expressed by the ballet and hip hop/street dancers to the same extent. After describing and framing a ‘kinaesthetic mode of attention’, I then identify and discuss key practices and values which I argue develop and nurture this style-specific mode of attending. I focus in more detail on the issue of kinaesthesia as it is valued in contemporary dance, and challenge its constructed polarisation with the visual, principally by showing how the contemporary dancers’ kinaesthetic descriptions are expressed as multi-dimensional and include a visual facet, particularly in performance-related contexts. This argument extends philosopher Barbara Montero’s (2006) concept of proprioceiving aesthetically and philosopher Shaun Gallagher’s (2005) definitions for body image and body schema framed in terms of non-dancer experience. I further evidence an inter-relationship of kinaesthesia and visual self-image by discussing the ways that the dancers indicate there is both an intertwining and a disruption between their kinaesthetic experiences and self-image perceptions. Here my analysis moves to Merleau-Ponty’s concept of reversibility in perception (1945, 1968). I foreground the imagination and Kaja Silverman’s (1992) idea of ‘the productive look’ to conclude that kinaesthetic and visual self-reflections are important for these dancers and contribute, in part, to their sense of agency and becoming professional dancers.