Being in Pieces: Integrating Dance, Identity and Mental Health
01 Jan 2016-
TL;DR: In this article, a reflective narration of one of the authors explores ways in which his career in dance has been challenged through mental ill health and the physical and emotional disruptions of age, through embodied memory, dancing nostalgia, loss, reluctance, mental illness, and difference.
Abstract: Informed by reflective narration of one of the authors this chapter explores ways in which his career in dance has been challenged through mental ill health and the physical and emotional disruptions of age. The aim is to ‘position’ the performer as self, writer and researcher researched. Through the process the reader glimpses a reflexive dialogue concerned with transitions in ‘identity’ traced through embodied memory, dancing nostalgia, loss, reluctance, mental illness, and difference.
In framing what they call a 'lifespan model', Myers, Sweeney and Witmer define wellness as '…a way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being in which the body, mind, and spirit are integrated … to live more fully…”(1998: ). In order to explore this realm we engage with a construction of selves, where performance is not separated from the experience gained in making meaning of life, to paraphrase Kaprow and Kelly (1992). Our interest is to embrace realms of personal knowledge through appraising being-embodied and being-imaged and where being multiple and being singular tasks us with the curious phenomena of self-recognition. To address the affective resonance of self-recognition Being in Pieces utilises the material archive from the performances and installations of Falling Apart at the Seams (2008), Council House Movie Star (2012) and Dying Swans (2013) by delving into a distant dancing self and the somatic archaeology of performing past(s) retrieved, re-negotiated and re-languaged.
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TL;DR: The authors made a case for connecting knowledge of the sense(s) of self-movement with understanding psychology's subject matter in terms of relations and made a connection between the two.
Abstract: This article makes a case for connecting knowledge of the sense(s) of self-movement with understanding psychology’s subject matter in terms of relations It first outlines the history of the sense
26 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that public health services for those identified as obese and overweight need to draw on public pedagogy approaches by creating shared learning spaces for ethical and respectful knowledge exchange about physical activity, health and wellbeing as opposed to a stigmatising weight-centric ideal of weight management service delivery.
Abstract: Physical activity is typically part of public health weight management programmes in the UK, but despite critical debate about obesity science and discourse, fatness and physical activity, the focu...
19 citations
TL;DR: Overall feedback from the pilot workshop is discussed in relation to prior research, giving credence to the potential for incorporating arts into therapy, in an attempt to develop a new therapeutic intervention for depression.
Abstract: Introduction:Research over the last decade has identified both strengths and limitations in the use of routinely prescribed psychological therapies for depression. More recently, a focus on how cre...
17 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a discussion of women's embodied experiences of wellbeing in intergenerational somatic dance classes is presented, with a focus on women's empowerment and empowerment in dance.
Abstract: Engaging a feminist ethnographic methodology, this article offers a discussion of women’s embodied experiences of wellbeing in intergenerational somatic dance classes. Somatic dance classes aim to ...
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Abstract: Dance pedagogy has expanded into hybrid contexts such as the arts and health in elderly care, calling for a review of the current state of the role and professionalism of dance ambassadors ...
13 citations