Phenomenon of the Unknown
Research Project Topic
Exploring the Phenomenon of the Unknown through a Methodology of Play
Problem Statement
Deborah Hay encourages that the body should “trust the unknown,” that through “adaptation,” one can locate the essence of the mind-body connection (64). Today’s society operates in immediacy—at your fingertips access to information, both false and true, instantaneous blue screen entertainment for all, and devices that speak, write, and think for us. With the widespread use of the Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS), the concept of getting lost has become foreign, and as our children refrain from games in lieu of phone time and social media, there is little opportunity to explore the unknown and imaginary realms through play. As screen time only enhances an individual’s fears and vulnerabilities, there must be a willingness to embed the body in these “unknown, strange, demanding, and frightening” locations, such that the mind-body will “no longer [be] afraid” (Hay 64). By addressing these fears and through the implementation of play, adaptation will commence and practical benefits, such as a community’s overall health and wellness, will contribute to the phenomenon of the unknown.
Research Aim
The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of the unknown through implementation of play within the triadic’s (creator, performer, spectator) environment. Through this unique approach, I seek to know what meaning could arise from the interactions (play) of the triadic within site-specific locations and whether mind-body connectivity can interweave a path of shared embodiment and promote a healthy communal experience.
“Healthy communities are formed by teaching movement skills in the most appropriate fashion … and by asking critical questions that engage uncertain formations of original human experiences” (Dodds 102).
Guiding Questions
How does an individual enact in site-specific environments that highlight the unknown or getting lost, i.e., an intimate studio setting, a public park, an open field?
In what ways can the phenomenon of the unknown be adapted as a modality for the process of movement creation in order to stimulate a narrative for the triadic; how do these adaptations alter the perceptions and interpretations of the triadic?
When placed in an unknown environment, can an individual’s tacit knowledge and referenced memories serve as an avenue for a reawakening of the youthful self and what are the mental, physical, and emotional benefits of this revitalization?
Influential Readings
Hay, Deborah. My Body, the Buddhist. Wesleyan University Press, 2000.
Lamothe, Kimerer L. Why We Dance. Columbia University Press, 2015.
Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Penguin Random House, 2005.
Conceptual Framework via Research Design
Exploring the Phenomenon of the Unknown through a Methodology of Play
Part I: Reawakening the Mind-Body with a Methodology Inspired by Play
Population: Qualitative results will focus on the experiences of the creator and performers. If “the unknown self is inseparably connected with everything else that there is” (Watts 37), then varied age groups (lived bodies) must be considered.
The creator will work with the performers, preteen and teen dancers, to explore the unknown, the phenomenon of getting lost. Through game play and adaptation, the unfamiliar will appear and demand a restructuring of the mind-body awareness (Solnit 22).
Choreographic Methods for Studio Exploration with the Performers Include:
The Creator
Personal Agency: Mindful Work with a Goal in Mind
The creator’s works, also known as “mindful action” is “work purposefully rather than thoughtlessly undertaken” (Fraleigh, Dance and the Lived Body 174). The movers will strive for the “potential [to] come alive” (Lamothe 21) while the creator will stretch the dancers to comprehend their own “being-in-the-world” (Fraleigh, Dance and the Lived Body 175).
Through work and play, the creator’s intentional acts of dance will utilize her own creativity and metaphysical intuition to approach the work “freely and with love” (Fraleigh, Dance and the Lived Body 176). The “philosophical framework will be “not teaching for or to, but with” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 208).
The creator will participate in the iterations, forcing the performers to adjust to the unknown environment which embeds the creator in the movement study.
The Performers
Young Children as Messengers: Blank Walls & Canvases
Techniques such as mirroring, shadowing, and echoing will be employed to find each mover’s unique movement qualities—gestures, postures, rhythms, spatial framework, energies.
Phenomenological Prompts, such as questions, “What did you do in dance today?,” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 206) will be implemented in response to improvisational, choreographed, and creative sessions. Responses may be verbal, written, or drawn.
A blank scroll of paper will be unrolled at the back of the room to record answers.
A dialogue will be created between the young children and the teens about the improvisations and experiences.
Teens as Agents: Rehearsed Movements Lead to Authentic Movement
Through repetitive phrases performed over an expanse of time, physical exhaustion will lead to vulnerability and truth—self-awareness. Thus, emphasizing the need to adapt in the unknown.
Through presentation of a specified environment (color, sound, etc., use of five senses) and movement phrases (gestural and percussive), the body (object) and world will interlace and highlight subjectivity, integrating the self.
Part II: Recording Individual and Communal Results
While the explorations will culminate with an iteration, data must first be collected from each performer to produce a piece of work that details the individual’s mind-body connection as well as the shared communal experience.
A questionnaire will be presented to all performers.
Data from the questionnaires will be analyzed. The phenomenological analysis will be utilized to distill research findings.
Sample Questionnaire
List three words that come to mind after participating in the individual movement exploration.
List three words that come to mind after participating in the communal movement exploration.
When the environment presented was unknown, how did you adapt to your surroundings, to those around you? Do you feel that you moved authentically?
When did you feel vulnerable and how did your movement adapt based upon that fear?
What were your favorite movement games and did you experience any memories from times of childhood play?
Have you experienced any spiritual, psychological, or therapeutic results and if so, please describe?
Part III: Presenting an Engaging Experience for the Triadic
The creator and performer will shift their mind-body awareness to a site-specific location where a collaboration will ensue with the triadic.
A piece will be presented in May of 2024. The movers will embody their in-studio explorations and enter the unknown of a site-specific location where the spectators will become an extension of the performers’ movements.
There will be a time for discussion with the audience inquiring as to their “neurological and emotional responses to rhythmical movement” (McNeill 51). What emotional responses did the dance give rise to for the triadic?
The Collaborators
The Interconnection of the Triadic: Encounter Between People
Through intimate, site-specific environments (parks, fields, and studio spaces transferred to the proscenium stage), a conversation will be started between the creators, the movers, and the audience.
Vignettes, discussions, and questionnaires will further explain the world presented, the activities found in said world, and the emotions experienced.
Memories will be shared and evoked, “add[ing] another layer of enjoyment to the space” (Butterworth and Wildschut 305).
The challenge will be creating a tactile relationship between the triadic, a knowing. By repeating movement phrases, a unison should appear organically and as we move in cooperation, like soldiers marching or workers heaving a large object, the community will establish rhythms “lightened by working together” (McNeill 39).
Phenomenological analysis of data gathered from the process will be employed to distill research findings and make research discoveries about the cognition of the collaboration.
Written Expression of the Developing Topic
The Space: Creating the Atmosphere and Environment for a Site-Specific Dance
Cubing
Describe It
“The blue of distance,” as coined by Rebecca Solnit, refers to the “art of perspective” and thus, defines the open space between us and the object of our desires, our longings (29). Mountains at a distance only appear blue as the particles have effectively gotten lost over an expansive span.
Compare It.
The faraway, “the blue at the farthest reaches of the places where you see for miles,” resides in the unknown (Solnit 27). Water, while we see it as blue, is actually colorless until “this scattered light” touches it (Solnit 27). It is light that changes the color of the horizon and if we compare the sky to the ocean, the colors are hues of blue, the “blue of distance;” it is the “light that gets lost [and] gives us the beauty of the world, so much of which is in the color blue” (Solnit 27).
Associate It.
We as humans tend to associate blue with sadness and loss— “the color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, the color of where you are not” (Solnit 27).
Analyze It.
Leonardo da Vinci painted his first portrait of a young woman, Ginevra de’ Benci, over 500 years ago; he uses the color blue on the outskirts of the painting as that is how the edges of the horizon appear to the naked eye (Solnit 31). There are “atmospheric effects” at play and Leonardo encouraged painters to make the farther away bluer to create the distance and “‘represent the air as rather dense’” (Solnit 31). Does the space between become impenetrable?
In turn, should we risk the dive into the depths of the ocean or attempt the climb toward the mountain’s apex? Should we stay sedentary in our safety zones or take the leap into the unknown? Solnit surmises that “somewhere in this is the mystery of why tragedies are more beautiful than comedies and why we take a huge pleasure in the sadness of certain songs and stories” (29). If the “blue is the light that got lost” and it is created by the light of the world, then we must enter the darkness in order to find the light (Solnit 27).
Apply It.
How do I create a site-specific dance that presents and creates distance, the unknown? I had studied cyanotypes when I was penning my historical fiction novel and Rebecca Solnit also refers to them in A Field Guide to Getting Lost. John Herschel is credited as the father of photography. He would coat paper in iron salts, use contact printing, and wash the print in water, creating a “white image on a deep blue background” (Macgee). To represent this idea, the blues of stage lighting will be utilized in multiple ways while the white lines will be created with props. The movers can represent the unknown if costumed in blue as well.
Cyanotype example: Gohar Dashti’s Still Life Series (Riley)
Argue It.
Solnit remarks that “blue is the color where you can never go” as it is “not in the place those miles away” but resides “in the atmospheric distance between” (27). Dancers who are embedded in a site-specific location enter a defined atmosphere and extend into that airspace. As such, they experience “a reaffirmation of collective identity” (Butterworth and Wildschut 405). The blue is an illusion created by light particles, but what we find while embedded in the “blue of distance” (Solnit 27) may lead us to “nameless places [and] awaken a desire to be lost” (Solnit 38).
Mind Mapping: Meanings Associated with the Color Blue (Cherry)
Glossary of Terms (Encyclopaedia Britannica Company)
Cogito, Ergo Sum = I think, therefore I am. (as per René Descartes)
Partner-Graphic = Regarding Improvisation—allowing the tactile support of another
or oneself to remove habitual movement, thus moving in less
known ways (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 68)
Tertiary Directions = Intercardinal Directions, combining adjacent cardinal and
intermediate, such as NNE, NEBe
Sandwiching = “Inserting a second kind of material into an established phrase or
String” (Preston-Dunlop 154)
Vicissitude = An unpleasant change of circumstances or fortune
Venn Diagram
Phenomenological Writing
Moving Together in Space: “In order to judge them, and to like and make [the marvels] our own, they oblige us to take a phenomenological attitude” (Bachelard 248).
The Kinesphere: Being is Round (Bachelard 249)
The sphere surrounding each dancer, their “personal space, … has a center” (Preston-Dunlop 123) and follows “primary highways … up and down, right and left, forward and backward” as well “the in-between locations … intersecting crosses” (Preston-Dunlop 124).
Four dancers will be spread out in the space, creating the edges of a cross, but the affordances of tertiary directions may also be explored as free will and improvisation may be born out of the choreographed solo movement.
A lesson in solitude morphs into an “entire[ty] in the roundness of this being, we live in the roundness of life, like a walnut that becomes round in its shell” (Bachelard 248).
Techniques to explore spatial imagination will be utilized, enabling “an itinerary, before it actually happens, [to] create with that vision” (Preston-Dunlop 125).
While the movements are ordered in space, the dancers’ “curiosity” builds their confidence to “use how [they] will, creatively” (Preston-Dunlop 127).
In order to experience “full roundness,” a dancer must at first be concerned only with the internal. The solo choreography provides the skeleton, the external, but once the dancer embodies the movement and embraces the mind-body connection, causing the dancers to “collect [them]selves” and welcome a confirmation of “our being intimately, inside” (Bachelard 249).
Dematurizing the Dancer (Bachelard 251): Engaging with the Space
“The richness of friendship is explored … and danced with feeling” (Preston-Dunlop 120).
The four dancers enter a void (the unknown) and humanity is found through evoked memories of year’s past.
A spoken word instrumental, “The Wonder of It,” originally performed five years ago will revisit muscle memory thought forgotten and enable dancers to move out of their corners of solitude, emerging into a game of play and reminiscence.
“But when she has explored the vast universe of the boat in the middle of the ocean, does she return to her little house” (Bachelard 157)? A discussion will follow the iteration to allow a time of self-reflection and to explore the experience of the communal.
Upon consideration of choreutics, the space would normally require boundaries, but the exploration of the unknown would only allow for the properties of the space to be defined; the borders are boundless (Preston-Dunlop 121). Bodies in space will alter an empty space, “turning the void into a place” (Preston-Dunlop 121). This approach will require improvisation and will represent “an ‘ever-renewed experiment’ and perennial investigation” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 69). Thus, the dancer must be vulnerable and as such, the movement study must act as a guide but without limiting boundaries.
“Trust and risk” become paramount and as demonstrated in partner-graphic rubrics, our habitual movement patterns must be put aside in order to know new ways of moving, to explore new paths of becoming (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 69). Sondra Horton Fraleigh offers a somatic exercise where the mover must allow release, actually giving the weight of their legs into the literal hands of another, thus, handing over mobility and control to someone else (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 67). In this case, the internal becomes external and the coming alive is found by releasing what is accustomed, “attempting to bring forward the attitude of the perceptual beginner” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 68).
Through this individual risk-taking and offering trust to another being, the methodology of play is employed. The dancer closes her eyes and feels the weight of her own legs in the palms of another, their fingertips offering support. Now, the dancer can begin a daydream, an internal rumination, while still experiencing the external through the tactile. Returning to feelings and games of childhood (reminiscent of the game, Light as a Feather), the mover “has just discovered that she is herself, in an explosion toward the outside … to certain concentrations in a corner of her being” (Bachelard 157); “here the past can be recaptured” (Bachelard 159).
Gaston Bachelard's consideration of daydreams reminds those of us who hid away in corners or in wardrobes, such as the one found in C.S. Lewis’s novel, of times of boredom turned to joy and exploration through the gift of imagination (Bachelard 158). We embodied those spaces in our mind’s hideaways. Now, older and no longer considering ourselves as children, our “imagination wander[s] through the crypts of memory … we recapture the bemused life … in the … shelter of [day]dreams” (Bachelard 160). The result—the unknown through the methodology of play brings us back and “inhabiting,” coming alive, “constitutes the link between full and empty” (Bachelard 159).
We support one another and in turn, fill in the missing pieces. By allowing the comfort of another human, we become. Our mind thinks while our body is supported, enhancing a mind-body awareness. The internal and the external merge. The weight is shared, “strengthen[ing] the message”: We think and thus, we are (Preston-Dunlop 140). Taking a slightly new slant on Descartes’s summarization, we enhance our own becoming by leaning on others, “balancing against them” (Preston-Dunlop 140). We adapt, find new pathways, and embrace the “unscripted,” the unknown (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 63).
Fraleigh states that “phenomenology … never knows where it is going” (59). Thus, the research is open to “temporal change” and as such, it fits well into the process of improvisation as one must adapt to the environment, the space presented at any given time (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 59). Through enlivening the space, we again come alive.
Beginning, Middle, End
“We experimented with what dancers could say, and what felt natural. Because there were so many ideas under the work, I didn’t feel the show could exist without context” (Butterworth and Wildschut 131).
If this iteration is the end of a story, what might the story be? As four dancers consider moving away from their home studio and into the next chapter of their lives, how does that manifest itself in my practice-based-research?
The Creator’s Musings: This collaboration between four dancers began in 2019 with the dancers in seventh and eighth grade. Currently, the young women are juniors and seniors in high school. They have danced as a small group for as long as we can all recall. “The Wonder of It” was the first spoken word piece I had created with them. The video iteration shows an overlay of improvisation and set solo choreography. The dancers were given a skeletal structure indicating that they start with their solo choreography. They were dressed in hues of blue and lit by whites and shades of indigo. If they wished to embody the music in some way—to improvise with or without partners, to revisit past choreography, or simply to remain in stillness, observing—those affordances were allowed and encouraged.When the music began, I hoped to transport the movers back to a time of their youth, when play had not been soured by the stresses of puberty and growing up. But, would the music serve the performers well?
Honestly, I was a bit surprised that the dancers kept to their solo choreography with added improvisation but didn’t revert back to the original “The Wonder of It” choreography. Perhaps this was a sign of maturity and their developed comfort with their own authentic movement and personal narratives. Perhaps I helped them find their paths as I know in many ways, these girls, now women, have always been my muses; they give me “answer[s] in the maze of lostness” (Butterworth and Wildschut 133).
The Performers’ Perspective: The subsequent discussion revealed light as the movers reminisced about the past four to five years of embedding themselves in the same space and extending their movements one into the other. In fact, after they danced their solo movement in tandem, they walked through the choreography for the original performance, “The Wonder of It.” This iteration was overlaid in the video, such that the viewer can experience both the mature movement of the dancers’ solos and improvisation work as well as see the smiles and laughter of rediscovering old movement phrases. Both their youth as well as their coming-of-age is represented.
When the movers discussed the experience, they used words such as storytelling, fun, emotional, and the realization of being a part of something bigger than themselves. “The repertoire of the specific site grows and accumulates emotional and embodied experiences as remembered by those visiting the site again” (Butterworth and Wildschut 306). Since the quotes of Alex Grey have played an important role in this practice-as-research, I once again defer to him: “Shared goals create a transformative, interwoven past” (“Alex Grey Quotes”). The past is now a reflection, similar to the cheval mirror prop that the dancers picked up near the end of the iteration. They can see their growth and maturity, but they can still laugh and dream together like those young girls of 11 and 12 did not so long ago. They can reflect back even as they step forward.
For a Link to the Discussion, click below … https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tBFo9yWREY9nfqtGO6lwM2UEVE_zzx0S/view?usp=drive_link
Module Reflection
If I have learned anything from this module’s Practice-Based Research, it would be that I have wanted to study the phenomenon of the unknown for years and I have been doing so through my choreography, the literature and texts I have been reading, and also through discussions I have had with my students. When I referred back to this song choice, what I had originally entitled “The Wonder of It,” I was reminded of its initial impact both upon myself and the four dancers. In fact, I have since choreographed a solo incorporating another discourse as presented and read by Guy Burgs, who offers a spiritual and meditative approach to his readings.
What I realized as I circled back was that I had been chasing simplicity and less of the muddle to which Burgs refers, but I had been searching within the realm of comfort. I needed to enter the “blue of distance,” the space between here and where I could see far off, in order to find enlightenment. Consequently, I must be open to adaptations, alterations, and surprises along the journey. In addition, while the idea of placing myself in these unknown environments unnerves me, I am aware that I represent an important link in this process.
Not only am I taking this realization to heart, but I also want to produce work where others can learn the same. Challenges and the dark are scary, but only through entering into the fear can one grow. As Burgs reminds us: “Then you’ll discover quite quickly just how extraordinary a life was meant to be” (00:01:31-00:01:38). There is often doubt that anyone is listening, but observing these four young women who I have known since early childhood, really solidified the validity of practice-as-research. I find that I have been on the right track for years, that I have been attempting to locate enlightenment by interweaving the dark and the light, the solo and the communal. You cannot have light without darkness and you cannot have a community without multiple individuals.
Therefore, as we learn, grow, and mature, we should be proud and voice aloud our accomplishments, but we should never be afraid to implement play again, to adapt, to reach our hand out to another, and to look back. As my students said, “[We] knew how to tell [the story] now” and we’re a part of something bigger. So, while they can still say, “Wow, that’s me” as Burgs says, they can also say that someone else has their back and they can count on that. The world is heavy with the weight of humanity’s struggles, so if we can look back and implement play, some of that weight may just be lifted.
For me, I am ready to tell my story now. I think it is a weight I have carried for too long. Who knows … maybe somewhere along the way I can help another “begin to heal [their] long held scars” (Solnit 18). “Who others think you are” does not have to define you, and as I watched these young women realize their own power and how that was born out of support from their tight-knit community, I couldn’t help but feel that I have already succeeded in so many ways (Solnit 16). As a result, I conclude that my know-how is omnipresent, has been for years, and should be trusted, my know-what through evaluative reflections is supported by the texts to which I refer and through my presented movement compositions, and the know-what that the performers as well as the audience offer to my work is certainly invaluable. My practice reinforces this inference.
Works Cited
“Alex Grey Quotes.” Brainy Quotes. www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alex_grey_177346. Accessed
30 June 2023.
Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Penguin Classics, 2014.
Bryson, Madison. Personal Interview. 6 Nov. 2023.
Burgs, Guy. “How Extraordinary a Life Was Meant to Be.” YouTube, uploaded by Mt. Wolf, 14
Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2RWfF7YOU8.
Butterworth, Jo, and Liesbeth Wildschut. Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader.
2nd ed., Routledge, 2018.
Cherry, Kendra. “The Color Blue: Meaning and Color Psychology.” Very Well Mind, 22 Nov.
2022, www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-blue-2795815#:~:text=
Blue%20meaning%20in%20life%3A%20Blue,%2C%20 sincerity%2C%20
imagination%2C%20and%20 enthusiasm. Accessed 4 Nov. 2023.
Dodds, Sherril. The Bloomsbury Companion to Dance Studies. Bloomsbury, 2021.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Company. Merriam-Webster, 2023, merriam-webster.com. Accessed
6 Nov. 2023.
Fraleigh, Sondra Horton. Back to the Dance Itself: Phenomenologies of the Body in
Performance. University of Illinois Press, 2018.
Fraleigh, Sondra Horton. Dance and the Lived Body: A Descriptive Aesthetics. University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1987.
Hay, Deborah. My Body, the Buddhist. Wesleyan University Press, 2000.
Lamothe, Kimerer L. Why We Dance. Columbia University Press, 2015.
Macgee, Spike. “Cyanotype History—John Herschel’s Invention.” Alternative Photography,
7 Feb. 2021, www.alternativephotography.com/cyanotype-history-john-herschels-
invention/. Accessed 4 Nov. 2023.
Preston-Dunlop. Looking at Dances. Noverre, 2014.
Riley, Katherine. “Gohar Dashti Explores the Process of Canotypes in Summer Exhibition.”
Hundred Heroines, hundredheroines.org/exhibition/gohar-dashti-explores-the-process-of-
cyanotypes-in-summer-exhibition/. Accessed 4 Nov. 2023.
McNeill, William H. Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History.
Harvard University Press, 1995.
Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Penguin Random House, 2005.
Watts, Alan. The Tao of Philosophy. Tuttle Publishing, 1999.
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Written Expression of the Developing Topic
Cubing
Describe It
Hermeneutics - “a tradition, an approach used to examine the meaning of a text and how its meaning is constructed” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 163)
Compare It.
The two predominant approaches are the objectivist theory and the anti-objectivist theory. The objectivist says that “meaning resides within the text itself and that a valid interpretation … discerns the meaning of the text” and the anti-objectivist “emphasize the value of understanding the very essence of the subject itself, within its various settings” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 163). Thus, the “true” interpretation of the texts itself is not the focus, but rather it is through “the process of the interpretation itself … one's own pre-understandings, the text, as well as the traditions and cultural contexts of the text” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 163).
Associate It.
Phenomenological hermeneutics places the individual as perceiver and says that “to exist is to interpret” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 164). Within the dance world and Practice-Based Research, the creator, performers, and audience must be placed into the world. This does not have to be so deep as an ethnography year-long submersion, but in order to interpret, the practitioner may
access “dances and other works of art, language, nonverbal body movement, texts, objects, or social interactions” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 164).
Analyze It.
What makes my understandings valid is the fact that I “am capable of understanding in the first place” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 165). If “movement is the defining character of matter” (Lamothe 22), and my wish is for the movers to “create and become themselves” (Lamothe 33), then Martin Heidegger’s suggestion that “being [is] an embodiment of preunderstandings” (Horton Fraleigh and Hanstein 165) lends itself to my research. The tacit knowledge of myself, the performers, and here, particularly the audience, will be drawn upon—along with their own consciousness—to offer their perceptions of the created world (Fraleigh and Hanstein 165).
Apply It.
This idea of a “blueprint” presented by the practitioner allows for the movers “total immersion into the intuitive/logical/reflective consciousness” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 170-171). Through experimentation and “logical argumentation” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 171), there is artistic freedom here, and even while the practitioner faces many challenges, this approach leads to the unknown and the ability to find renewal (Hay 64). Implementation of games such as hide and seek, will locate the unknown and help the “unfamiliar appear” (Solnit 22).
Argue It.
Results will be “qualitative and experiential” and will observe not only my own lived experiences but those of the movers and audience (Fraleigh and Hanstein 173). The subjective rendering will locate themes—not predetermined or with prejudice. The environment of the unknown will be presented and data will be gathered (internal and external) of the phenomenon (Fraleigh and Hanstein 172-173). The analytical approach will be imperative as vignettes, interviews, and questionnaires will provide much of the data, searching for the “meaning of an experience that one shares with another,” not the “experience itself” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 179).
Mind Mapping: Critical Points of Play
Glossary of Terms (Encyclopaedia Britannica Company)
Affect (psychology) = A collection of behaviors that describe a person’s emotional state.
Eye contact, vocal & facial expressions, energy levels
Metaphysical Intuition = The Natural knowing capacity, the wisdom of the heart.
Cultural Relativism = Not judging based upon our own standards of right and wrong.
Instead, use cultural context to promote understanding.
Lifeworld Existentials = Per Max van Manen: “lived body, space, time, human relation or
commonality” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 211)
Pre-reflective Awareness = “Being aware of what it is like to feel a particular way” (Fraleigh,
Back to the Dance 11)
Linear Diagram
Phenomenological Writing
The Benefiting Population: If “the unknown self is inseparably connected with everything else that there is” (Watts 37), then varied age groups (lived bodies) must be considered.
Blank Walls & Canvases: Young Children as Messengers
Rather than dismissing children, theoretical physicist Karen Barad acknowledges children’s “insatiable sense of curiosity, unabated ability to experience pure joy in learning … and loving attentiveness to life … [which] are key ingredients to making possible futures worth remembering” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 206).
Techniques such as mirroring, shadowing, and echoing will be employed to find each mover’s unique movement qualities—gestures, postures, rhythms, spatial framework, energies.
Phenomenological Prompts, such as questions, in response to improvisational, choreographed, and creative sessions. Responses may be verbal, written, or drawn.
“What did you do in dance today?” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 206).
A blank scroll of paper will be unrolled at the back of the room to record answers.
A dialogue will be created between the youngest children and the teens about the improvisations and experiences.
Rehearsed Movements Lead to Authentic Movement: Older Children (Teens) as Agents
Per Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s “notion of phenomenological method as ‘making the familiar strange’” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 213), curious gestures and peculiar ways of moving the lived body will lead to memory and familiarity.
Through repetitive phrases performed over an expanse of time, physical exhaustion will lead to vulnerability and truth—self-awareness.
Through presentation of a specified environment (color, sound, etc., use of 5 senses) and movement phrases (gestural and percussive), the body (object) and world will interlace and highlight subjectivity, integrating the self. “Body, self, and world are inextricably entwined” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 11).
Mindful Work with a Goal in Mind: Personal Agency
Sondra Horton Fraleigh believes that “when work is freely undertaken with love, it is called play” (Dance and the Lived Body 175).
The creator’s works, also known as “mindful action” is “work purposefully rather than thoughtlessly undertaken” (Fraleigh, Dance and the Lived Body 174).
The movers will strive for the “potential [to] come alive” (Lamothe 21) while the creator will stretch the dancers to comprehend their own “being-in-the-world” (Fraleigh, Dance and the Lived Body).
Through work and play, the creator’s (I) intentional acts of dance will utilize her own creativity and metaphysical intuition to approach the work “freely and with love” (Fraleigh, Dance and the Lived Body 176). The “philosophical framework will be “not teaching for or to, but with” (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance, 208).
Encounter Between People: The Interconnection of the Triadic
Through intimate, site-specific environments (parks, fields, black box theatres), a conversation will be started between the creators, the movers, and the audience. “Simply appreciating being together, sharing life basically and intimately, they understand one another at a level far beyond ordinary needs and wants and arguments” (Fischer 11).
Vignettes, discussions, and questionnaires will further explain the world presented, the activities found in said world, and the emotions experienced. A “crossing over, the ‘intertwining of phenomena’” will occur, bringing the “visible and the invisible, [the] body and world” into view through multiple lenses (Fraleigh, Back to the Dance 11).
Memories will be shared and evoked, “add[ing] another layer of enjoyment to the space” (Butterworth and Wildschut 305).
The challenge will be creating a tactile relationship between the triadic, a knowing.
By repeating movement phrases, a unison should appear organically and as we move together, like soldiers marching or workers heaving a large object, the community will establish rhythms “lightened by working together” (McNeill 39).
Beginning, Middle, End
If this iteration is the beginning of a story, what might the story be?
Words such as joy, fun, youth, and play were all voiced. Images of surfers riding a wave, scuba divers lying on the ocean’s bottom and looking up, and young children holding their noses to avoid a head full of water all abounded. The movers reminisced about beach movies. For them, Teen Beach from 2013. For myself, I recall my mom watching movies about Frankie Avalon and Annette. The Beach Party franchise of the 60s inspired what the teens watch today.
The more literal interpretations were brought about by the music “Splosh”—faucets dripping slowly and echoing in the house late at night, the comforting rhythms of a light rain versus the percussion of the thunderstorm, and hands reaching out the window to catch raindrops. The vibrations of the choreography create the spin and oscillation of the clothes washer as the drum rearranges the garments or a dog shaking off the water from an unwanted bath.
The results of the Q&A were less about the overall theme and more about impressions, feelings, and the composition of water as well as our preconceived notions surrounding it. While it is transparent, tasteless, and odorless, making it sound rather bland, the force of a tidal wave can wipe out a city. While we love to float it in and it makes us giggle with delight, we continue to pollute the oceans which cover more than 70 percent of Earth. Thus, the story should incorporate and offer symbols for these larger issues and while embodying play, needs to showcase the conservation efforts that must continue. If we want to play in communion, our environment must be cared for and respected.
The sounds of the environment were discussed: water droplets, thunder, the gentle flow of a small creek, birds flying overhead. Our skin felt the wind of rain coming at us on a diagonal pounding our skin with pinpricks. We saw others floating next to us in the water and longed for an inner tube upon which to perch while also wishing to dunk another or splash them. The movers wanted to be lit in the blues of the ocean and the warm ambers of the sun.
As the imaginary lands took shape, the next step becomes drawing them or speaking them. What sounds are in this world? What kind of world is this? In turn, what might the story be?
7. Reflections
Texts by Rebecca Solnit, Kimerer L. Lamothe, Deborah Hay, and Sondra Fraleigh have proved instrumental in guiding my work throughout this module. Edmund “Husserl projected his [phenomenological] philosophy as a transcendental science” or method (Fraleigh 26). The word science can muddy the waters a bit as the method is not an exact one. As such, the methodologies are varied. It is this concept that has allowed me to trust my instincts—the approaches that may not work and thus need alteration, the ones I must abandon, and the ones that have been adapted enough to remain as part of the process. Through the realization that I needed to use adaptation in my work, I allowed myself to move into more philosophical readings.
This integration had already begun with my interest in Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Upon adding Kimerer L. Lamothe’s Why We Dance, the answer became evident—I had been searching for explanations about the phenomenon of the unknown for years. I had felt lost and I knew that some important keys to this feeling, my current realization, must be out there somewhere. Deborah Hays writes: “my body likes rest” (49) and through that rest she found her “body reconfiguring itself evenly” (51). I could feel the truth of her words, could empathize and relate. Finally, I realized that if I turned to the correct sources, I would find solace in other practitioners who thought like me and put those thoughts down in words.
This realization was grasped further while studying Lamothe’s Why We Dance. She speaks so eloquently about dance as a vital art and her line, “dancing in my studio … at the moment, feels too small” (Lamothe 39), hit me with a jolt. For the past five years, I had felt lost in my own studio. It was only through the beaches of Florida, the walks and movement phrases by the river, and the meditations enacted outside in a park where I could breathe anew, where I could possibly imagine using dance again as a means to make a difference—to impact, to reach my potential. I had already studied Karen N. Barbour’s Whispering Birds and the idea of site-specific dances. The studio was a known entity, and not always one where I found peace. I needed to incorporate additional locations if I wanted to explore the unknown.
The methodology of addressing these locations has been on my mind. Even as I wrote my Iterative Process, I questioned the environments for the final performance. As I return to this question, I “come to know it again” with each reading and my responses to it; “the phenomenon of investigation becomes better known” (Fraleigh and Hanstein 180). Simply put, I trust the process. Honestly, it is not that much different from writing a work of historical fiction. Within that process, there is required research as the work necessitates credible facts. Yet, the creative process, in my opinion, adds in another layer of joy as I find knowing in both the research and my own ingenuity.
As I consider the best way in which to utilize my interpretation of site-specific locations, I find excitement in creating those environments on the proscenium stage—fields of sunflowers or wheat lit by warm ambers, an arched bridge continuing the movers down a path in a park, or the sounds and blues of an underwater environment. My work has included both structured technical phrases as well as the freedom of improvisation. Thus, there would be some structure for the movers but also allowances as they move in these previously undetermined, unknown worlds. The triadic comes in through additional movers not familiar with any of the previous iterations as well as through audience reactions which would be collected through discussion, questionnaires, etc. Obviously, this represents an ongoing process.
As such, how does one define the unknown and is it full only of fear or is there both joy and play present? Just as Solnit believes, I have also found that the “door into the dark” (4), the room in which I was stuck, held the answers; “the unfamiliar appear[ed]” (22) and I have since explored new surroundings and found a confidence in my own tacit knowledge and continuing education. I believe in my Practice-Based Research. I see that the process has merit and I look forward to the upcoming chapters in this new stage of my education and my life. I have hope for this transcension, this going beyond what I already know and what I believe I can accomplish.
Works Cited
Burrows, Jonathan & Jan Ritsema. “Weak Dance Strong Questions: From the Notebooks of
Jonathan Burrows & Jan Ritsema.” Academia, www.academia.edu/29092591/Weak_
Dance_Strong_Questions.
Butterworth, Jo, and Liesbeth Wildschut. Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader.
2nd ed., Routledge, 2018.
Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. Harper Perennial, 1989.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Company. Merriam-Webster, 2023, merriam-webster.com. Accessed
1 Oct. 2023.
Fischer, Norman. When You Greet Me I Bow. Norman Fischer, 2021.
Fraleigh, Sondra Horton. Back to the Dance Itself: Phenomenologies of the Body in
Performance. University of Illinois Press, 2018.
Fraleigh, Sondra Horton. Dance and the Lived Body: A Descriptive Aesthetics. University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1987.
Fraleigh, Sondra Horton & Penelope Hanstein. Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Inquiry.
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999.
Hay, Deborah. My Body, the Buddhist. Wesleyan University Press, 2000.
Lamothe, Kimerer L. Why We Dance. Columbia University Press, 2015.
McNeill, William H. Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History.
Harvard University Press, 1995.
Solnit, Rebecca. The Faraway Nearby. Penguin Random House, 2013.
Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Penguin Random House, 2005.
Watts, Alan. The Tao of Philosophy. Tuttle Publishing, 1999.
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Brainstorming
Cubing
Describe It
Burnout - “Crushing exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and alienation, and a sense of ineffectiveness … a once-hot fire that has been reduced to ashes” (Maslach and Leiter 3-4).
Compare It.
The individual’s response to the context of the work environment will often produce warnings that go unheeded by said individual. How do those red flags impact not only the individual but also the coworkers? Individual vs. community reaction (Maslach and Leiter 7).
Associate It.
The context of the environment impacts the individual and as such, we need to focus on the setting in which we place the individual. For choreographic iterations, the lighting, the music used to set the tone, and any additions, such as props, alter the reactions and affect the endorphins produced or heightened heart rates of the participants.
Analyze It.
In order to produce psychological wellness, we need to feel a sense of “belongingness [which] refers to the basic human desire to achieve close relationships with other people and a sense of connection with them” (Maslach and Leiter 65). The term “psychological safety” is used as no one wants to be “bullied, humiliated, or marginalized” (Maslach and Leiter 65). If burnout affects our relationship with our jobs and we all wish for a sense of belonging, how can the context of the environment be adjusted such that the well being of the individual within the society is paramount? Each human wishes for “autonomy, … ownership of one’s own behavior” and also wishes to find “meaning” within their community (Maslach and Leiter 64-65).
Apply It.
Ways to implement positive change involve the ability to “collaborate, customize, [and] commit” (Maslach and Leiter 174-175). There also needs to be the identification of problems, pivots offered for change, and starting with “attainable” goals (Maslach and Leiter 176). Try not to overwhelm the iteration with too many factors and expect that the results will take “time, effort, and extra modifications” (Maslach and Leiter 183).
Argue It.
A facilitation practice can be helpful: “Strengthening a Culture of Respect and Engagement (SCORE)” wherein there is a “reflect[ion] on … social dynamics” (Maslach and Leiter 204). Civility can be embedded within a community by playing first, creating mutual respect, and then engaging together to accomplish tasks. If we all find our ikigai, our life purpose and reason for being, then we will be fulfilled and “know our core” (Buettner 28:35-30:00).
Glossary of Terms (Encyclopaedia Britannica Company)
Atelier = A workshop or studio used by an artist or designer.
Autoethnography = Personal Narrative which connects a private experience to a
broader social and cultural understanding.
Autopoietic = Capacity to reproduce and reorganize via creative explorations of
people and concepts.
Exegesis = Archive of the overall project: exposition, explanation, critical
analysis.
Kinaesthetic = Relates to an individual’s awareness of the position and movement
of the body by means of sensory organs in the muscles and joints.
Kinesthetic Empathy = Recognizing experiences and relating to them personally as the
dancer becomes the viewer.
Proprioceptors = Receptors for self which relay continuous information about the
positions of the muscles and joints.
Mind Mapping
Venn Diagram
Inspiration for Score to Choreographic Iterations
Phenomenological Writing
When formulating the phenomenological question, the focus had to be on play. Whose experience was I trying to recall? Mine was the answer and therefore the concluding question: What is the experience of play? Here I would pull on my tacit knowledge of the experience of play whether it be with a toy or a game of imagination. My happiest reminisces are of balloons floating in the air, being hit back and forth between two people, or the orb taken for a ride by the wind. This made me lift my hand and begin to draw a circle, a re-creation of times past.
Of course, it is not enough to simply recall the game I played; I needed to present a score that allowed play to exist in the present environment. I wondered at the word, balloon. “Nietzsche once observed that language, and therefore all truth and error, is metaphoric in origin” (Van Manen 48). If I lift my pointer finger and draw a circle in the air, and thus can see it, does that make the circle real? Is the balloon then unending as a circle is infinite?
My mind moved from balloons to other games of play involving circles—bubbles and the round wand ends through which we blow air, mirrors shaped like elongated ovals where we catch our reflections in movement, a smooth circular rock that we skip atop a pond, hands entwined as we sing “Ring Around the Rosie,” a parachute of two different shades held by numerous hands as it fills with air to the sky and then floats back to the earth. There is a mystery in play that I want to unravel, to hear it speak and reveal the next layer (Van Manen 50).
Within the iterations, a few lines of Paul Celan’s poetry are uttered … “and look at my hand / how it draws the only possible circle” (qtd. In Burrows and Ritsema 1). The game becomes about the possibility of more circles, more connections. As the dancers embed themselves within the environment, their anatomy creates circles—their shoulders forwards and backwards, their elbows drawing small, quick rings. An image of a sparkler dances in my own head as my six-year-old self rotates her wrist round and round, the circles a bright glow of light until they fade out, barely a memory. The smoke creates more orbs. While play had been in my life prior, this is where I recall it entering my life and possessing me.
I hope to hear verbalizations when I bring sparklers into the movers’ world. Their gasps or giggles would glue together those “broken bits” that Paul Celan referred to earlier in his poem (qtd. In Burrows and Ritsema 1). The discussion afterwards may show that this game with sparklers healed the earlier wounds of the day from some disagreement in the school hallways, erasing the mental and emotional strain and replacing it with a safe environment of communal play. What is it like to play? What does it mean to play a game?
William H. McNeill refers to the “emotional arousal of dance … [the] fundamental … widening [of] … social bonds among our species. Its primary manifestation was to strengthen and stabilize small, isolated communities … defin[ing] … their differing identities as well” (66). The results of communal moving are individuals embodying their authentic selves while also interweaving and extending themselves into each other. The individual finds freedom while also bonding and sharing within their community.
As our hands no longer reach up to draw the imaginary or perhaps real circle and instead hold our cellphones, societal bonds can no longer be forged through rhythmic moving. Now, we have social media apps. If “repetitive work bec[omes] far easier to bear when done together rhythmically,” how are we going to live and work effectively in today’s society (McNeill 51)? Once upon a time, our concurrent tempos allowed us to get more done in less time (McNeill 51). Fast forward, the average daily screen time for an American in 2023 is seven hours and four minutes (Ruby). That leaves minimal time for movement, conversation, etc. As life expectancy in the United States has dropped for the second year in a row, concern for the future heightens.
When researching solutions, I found multiple sites on healthcare, firearms, addiction, etc., but no one talked about heading out to the backyard for a simple game of catch. If we put down our phones, bask in the glory of the outdoors, and partake in childhood games, not only will we be moving but also interacting with our environment and those around us. Endorphins will support an analgesic effect naturally. As pain lessens, our spirit and bodies will be reinvigorated. The mind-body connection is no longer blocked by discomfort and the individual can fully embody the environment and those who share it.
Outside In
Hobbies/Interests Thesis Explorations
Reading---------------Words as Vehicles of Expression-------------→ Utilize Verbal Cues/Prompts
Writing----------Silence as Communication----------------→ Write Words/Express via Movement
Exploring 5 Senses------Blindfold, Use Touch, No Music------------→Take One Away & Discuss
Playing Games-----------Leapfrog, Tag, Mirroring---------------→Childhood Games as Exercises
Writing----Scream, Silent Cry, Whisper, Converse-----------------→Utilize Verbal Cues/Prompts
Writing------Animal Action, be the Animal--------------------→Childhood Games as Exercises
Reading-----Whisper down the Alley after Reading a Quote-----→Childhood Games as Exercises
Playing Games-----------Twister--------------------------------------→Utilize Verbal Cues/Prompts
Considering the various connections available, the world of play is huge. How many times have you heard that on Christmas Day a child may prefer playing in a large empty box, creating a fort, rather than putting a new toy together and engaging with it? Have we lost imagination as our children stare at screens constantly (not to mention the adults who follow suit)?
While I see the connections above, my takeaway from this exercise is how to use imagination as I incorporate games of wordplay which touch upon enhancing the five senses. Could letters be handed out to create words and then dance those created words? The movers and their experiences are paramount here and thus their mind-body connection must be enhanced. Dance each experience more than once and make sure that different letters are given to various individuals. Change the groups and thus alter the interactions. Offer different music or no music at all, allowing the movers to speak and offer verbalizations. As demonstrated, encourage play and fun but also create a safe space where each individual can contribute to the game and the resulting data.
Reflections
If “meaningful innovation can only occur at the speed of trust,” I find that each writing practice helps enhance the confidence within myself and within practice as research (Maslach and Leiter Review Excerpt on book cover). The differentiation between practice that is research and practice as research highlights the dance as the end result. As artists, the resulting work represents our legacy, the lens through which our careers will be judged.
The biggest surprise for me during this segment of research is the varied sources through which I am gaining understanding of my own aesthetics: documentaries regarding centenarians and how they achieve healthy, extended lives, a text describing burnout in the workplace, and the history of dance and drill. These are journalists, historians, and researchers who become my credible sources, but as I approach my own practice from a unique vantage point, I can contribute to the conversation.
The word collaboration kept recurring and that can only be achieved through community involvement. As we grow older and normally more cynical, I find it imperative to add the elements of play into my research focus. The SUMMIT One Vanderbilt exhibits support my claim that we feel lighter, happier, in an interactive environment and one that allows for us to get lost. I surely agree that the “comfort of the familiar can numb curiosity and stifle the search for better alternatives” (Butterworth and Wildschut 117). As “getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing” (Solnit 22), I realized that my statement in the discussion practice was untrue: “While I don’t want to get caught in the unknown …”. Actually, I wish to revel in what is not known.
Rebecca Solnit refers to Virgina Woolf’s summarization that “getting lost was not a matter of geography so much as identity, a passionate desire, even an urgent need, to become no one and anyone, to shake off the shackles that remind you who you are, who others think you are” (16). Children appear to understand this as they get lost in their imaginary environments of play; they “are good at getting lost” (Solnit 11). Or, were they good at getting lost once upon a time? Solnit “describe[s] snow-covered yards in which the footprints of animals are abundant and those of children are entirely absent” (7). This is a sad state in our world today.
How can I use my practice as research to help this decline in play, to offer inspiration and promote wellness and community? This means creating an environment where individuals can go missing but in a safe space. We can get lost in our dreams, in stories, in conversations, in movement, in darkness and in light; the list goes on and on. Yet, there must be trust present, which means that the environment must be conducive to positivity, without a fear of judgment or prejudice.
My research into Mimetically-Cued Recall (MCR) and other facilitation practices offers guidance on providing a safe space. This will also lead into the body’s physiology and perpetuate healthy reactions that will allow for enhanced mental, physical, and emotional health. If our endorphins react to joy and create an analgesic reaction, the right environment, one of laughter or one highlighting understanding and acceptance, can help us thrive and perhaps even live longer lives. The Blue Zone communities have taught me a lot about this phenomenon.
Through my practice-based research, I will search for a connection back to our youthful selves and the carefree nature of childhood. “Socrates says you can know the unknown because you remember it; all enquiry and all learning is but recollection” (Solnit 24). If we can locate the child within us, then perhaps we can find the compass through our recollections—a true north guiding us into what seems unknown, but is actually where we come to know ourselves again.
Works Cited
Buettner, Dan. Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones. Netflix, 3rd Episode, 2023.
Burrows, Jonathan & Jan Ritsema. “Weak Dance Strong Questions: From the Notebooks of
Jonathan Burrows & Jan Ritsema.” Academia, www.academia.edu/29092591/Weak_
Dance_Strong_Questions.
Butterworth, Jo, and Liesbeth Wildschut. Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader.
2nd ed., Routledge, 2018.
Dodds, Sherril. The Bloomsbury Companion to Dance Studies. Bloomsbury, 2021.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Company. Merriam-Webster, 2023, merriam-webster.com. Accessed
1 Sep. 2023.
Horton Fraleigh, Sondra & Penelope Hanstein. Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Inquiry.
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999.
Maslach, Christina, & Michael P. Leiter. The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s
Relationships with Their Jobs. Harvard University Press, 2022.
McNeill, William H. Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History.
Harvard University Press, 1995.
Ruby, Daniel. “61 Screen Time Statistics for 2023.” Demand Sage, www.demandsage.com/
screen-time-statistics/. Accessed 13 Sep. 2023.
Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Penguin Random House, 2005.
Van Manen, Max. “Practicing Phenomenological Writing.” Phenomenology & Pedagogy, vol.
2, no. 1, 1984, pp. 36-54.
“Visit SUMMIT One Vanderbilt.” SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, 2022, summitov.com/visit/?gclid=
Cj0KCQjwxuCnBhDLARIsAB-cq1qWaH1MGnVeiVUioqLCpy1LrHXet7E8GxYQVaEYRA8VbiHhFvGhAUsaAjWUEALw_wcB. Accessed 1 Sep. 2023.