| Popis: |
This chapter traces the history of the development of Somatics training from its early twentieth-century pioneers through to its contemporary use globally as a system for training dancers. Throughout it pays special attention to the ways that Somatics pedagogy made the case for its efficacy through appeal to the natural body. Pioneering teachers developed Somatics by studying the musculoskeletal functioning of the body, and they argued that this structure was universal, lying beneath any cultural and social influences. At the same time, they incorporated references to mystical Eastern practices and primitive peoples, and in so doing established the Somatics body as white and heterosexual. The chapter considers how Somatics opened dance training to many new bodies and how it excluded other bodies. It also exposes the way that Somatics continually reinvented itself through appeal to a universal naturalness. |
