Subject Area: Dance Studies

Body Practices: Thinking through the Body will focus on specific practices (3 @ 1.5hrs per week) drawn from a range of dance techniques and body practices. Techniques may include modern dance styles, contemporary dance, ballet, non-Western techniques such as Kathak, Indigenous dance styles and African. Body practices may include kinesiology, Body Weather, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Yoga, Contact Improvisation, Ideokinesis and Suzuki technique. Incorporated into the studio work, an introductory seminar and ongoing lecture-demonstrations will provide the contexts (social, clinical, cultural, political and creative) in which the approaches developed, anatomical information, associated theories and practical application. Information on how body practices have fuelled choreographic invention and research will also be included in the course. Links to therapy, movement analysis and dancer-driven research will be covered. An understanding of bodily intelligence and movement as a way of thinking are implicit in these practices and will be fore-grounded.