PhD Thesis: The Ecological Body ~ extracts
Research ProjectsI decided to explore the movement dynamics within three of my professional roles: teacher, facilitator/director and movement artist. This would permit an exploration of shifting ‘perceptual positioning’ as part of my investigation into ‘notions of self’, and to allow other participatory voices (students, performers, colleagues and audience) to comment on my research.
So I created a research project for each role. First, I decided to run a residential movement workshop in Ireland called Strata: Autobiographical Movement, which would be an analysis of the workshop process, introducing the four movement dynamics into individual movement practice, group improvisations and movement in the environment. Strata is the fourth module within my current annual public programme of Move into Life movement workshops. This model of four modules had arisen in 2006, as a result of my evolving research. Second, I co-directed Being in Between, a performance project at Bristol Zoo which engaged with place and primates, where I was responsible for developing the movement - based score for the performers, embedded as a system within zoo life. Third, I initiated a series of three movement studies, each of which culminated in a shared movement piece. Each study gave me the opportunity to investigate one dynamic in depth, with a background awareness of how active/passive, as the fourth dynamic, influenced each project. I then created Borders of Humility and Humiliation, a final performance piece, from the research results generated by all three movement studies. |
Thesis pages
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