PhD Thesis: The Ecological Body ~ extracts
Ecological LensesAll my work with movement, whether in performance, education or therapy, is engaged with developing personal awareness, potential and choice and therefore with acts of transformation.
It takes a systemic view of a human being as one part of a social and cultural situation, and ultimately as one part of an environmental context. I have always worked within educational, artistic, intercultural and therapeutic fields, with many cross-references, as well as significant distinctions between the priorities in each field. How could I select lenses which would be specific and yet wide enough to view this breadth of work? What was the paradigm implicit in my selection of movement dynamics? Which lenses would allow me to look at individuals-in- their-context, a view honouring intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics equally? It occurred to me that what I needed was an ecological framework. Ecological lenses would be compatible with my background in Buddhist Mindfulness practice, and Shiatsu (which works with the Five Elements) and would also correspond with the root of Amerta Movement, which is inspired by moving in natural environments. Within the discipline of ecology, I found some fundamental principles that would provide useful lenses for my work. I selected niche, emergence and pattern as ways of reflecting on my different projects. |
Thesis pages
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