Toward mind/body unity: Seeking the deeper promise of dance education

Abstract

Culture is an intricate web of assumptions and practices that profoundly influence the meanings that humans give to their experience. Through sheer repetition, systems of belief may begin to pass as fact or truth, thus blinding individuals to the arbitrary or prejudicial nature of dominant discourses. This is an issue in the current practice of Western dance forms.

Although it seems to represent an alternative sub-culture, dance's intimate connection to the body determines a complex and inescapable sociocultural text that must be explored if it is to be revised. One means of exploration is to examine approaches that seem to challenge received meaning in dance. This has been the impetus behind my personal and empirical investigation of the Alexander Technique.

In this work I explore the cultural construction of dance and the possible revisioning of dance practice suggested by a metaphoric reading of my experience within dance and the Alexander Technique. I strive throughout to interrogate my personal beliefs and to negotiate a delicate middle way between the polar opposites that characterize Western epistemology. In attempting to peel away the layers of culture that limit my awareness of possibilities, I seek fuller ownership of my work as a dancer, scholar, and teacher. Knowing that this is not a final place one arrives, I offer this as one phase of a life-long project.