Body and Performance

The Ontogenetic Body - makes us aware of developmental processes and gives us a way to embody the forms, mind states and movement patterns of our cellular histories. The Intersubjective Body - explores the inter-relationship between dancing bodies and the environment in the context of site-responsive performance practice. The Autobiographical Body - examines somatic performance practices that explore autobiography as a fluid experience based on relationships with other people and places. The Resonant Body - considers 'cellular-body-mindfulness' through site-responsive sound dance improvisation, paying particular attention to temporality. The Dwelling Body - sees the practitioner as a conduit: experiencing body and place as continually in process and recognising the vital inter-relationship of place and identity. The Vocal Body - moves beyond the idea of the body as a 'homebase' of vocal emission and offers an integrative approach to physiovocal unity. The Musical Body - re-intepreting Stockhausen's Tierkreis offers a physical approach to performance where the body is the driving force behind musical interpretation. The Resilient Body - through the adaptive capacity of the human body the performer can develop resilience and potential. The Imaginal Body - rooted in the Alexander technique, this approach uses anatomical images, specific thinking, touch and visualisations to let go of habitual restrictive patterns and release imaginative potential. The Learnt Body - proposes a training of the performer's body that can consciously transcend socially coded habits and movement patterns. The Kinetic Body - through Kudiyattam dance training, this approach demonstrates how, underpinning the kinetics of breathing, 'foot' produces temporality, which is the fundamental source of the presence of the body. The Cognitive Body - uses Damasio's body-minded brain and 'somatic marker hypothesis' to articulate methods of physical devising for performance