A Gentle Dance Force: Contemporary Dancers’ Embodied Experiences of Gentleness Through Improvised Dance

• Author / Creator

  Day, Mariel

• This study sought to map contemporary dancers’ embodied experiences of gentleness through an improvisational dance process. Scholars highlight the continued harshness of the dance training and performing environment (e.g., Aalten, 2007; Barr & Oliver, 2016; Markula, 2015; McEwen & Young, 2011; O’Flynn, Pryor, & Gray, 2013; Thomas & Tarr, 2009). Yet, the word, gentleness, is rarely seen in the dance literature, apart from research on warming up (e.g., Malina, 2012) and somatic techniques (e.g., Ahsan, 2010; Diaz, Chatfield, & Cox, 2008; Eddy, 2009; Fortin, Long, & Lord, 2002; Williamson, 2009; Wozny, 2012). I situated my research within a humanist, interpretive approach and the concept of embodiment, employing an arts-based methodology to explore my research questions: 1) How do contemporary dancers make sense of gentleness for themselves?; 2) What are contemporary dancers’ embodied experiences of gentleness, as explored through dance improvisation?; 3) How does gentleness manifest through the body in a dance improvisation process?

  I anchored the design and findings of my study within the literature on embodiment, particularly in dance (e.g., Alexias & Dimitropoulou, 2011; Barbour, 2011, 2016; Batson, Quin, & Wilson, 2011; de Lima, 2013; Fraleigh, 2015; Tsouvala & Magos, 2016; Warburton, 2011), as well as literature on dance improvisation (e.g., Crickmay, 2008; Harrop, 2014; Sheets-Johnstone, 2017). I designed, facilitated, and participated in a five-day dance improvisation workshop, collecting data through group discussion, field notes, and one-on-one semi-structured interviews following the workshop. I worked with three dancers – two women and one man, with ages spanning 23 to 56.

  Dancers defined gentleness in familiar terms, but also through new understandings. The data revealed a dichotomy of gentleness and harshness, with gentleness seen as difficult to maintain or establish within the harshness of dance culture. Dancers accessed greater body awareness and sensorial perception in the workshop. They understood gentleness differently according to their background, age, dance training experience, and preconceived notions of gentleness. In this way, the perceived limitations of one’s body also affected how a dancer accessed gentleness. Through the improvisation process, I relied on my own body’s sensations and intuition to guide the flow of the workshop. The gentle workshop structure facilitated openness and vulnerability amongst all participants, and I remained self-reflexive in my simultaneous roles of researcher, facilitator, and participant. Continuing in the tradition of researching somatic processes of the dancing body, this study proposes the concept of gentleness as a framework to explore possibilities for dancer well-being.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Contemporary dance
  • Dance improvisation
  • Gentleness
  • Arts-based research
  • Embodiment

• Graduation date

  Spring 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-pp9v-v338

• License

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