Mindful Movement

The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action

Martha Eddy

• Publisher: Intellect Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781783208432, 9781783205837
• eBook ISBN: 9781783205851
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In Mindful Movement, exercise physiologist, somatic therapist and advocate Martha Eddy uses original interviews, case studies and practice-led research to define the origins of a new holistic field – somatic movement education and therapy – and its impact on fitness, ecology, politics and performance. The book reveals the role dance has played in informing and inspiring the historical and cultural narrative of somatic arts. Providing an overview of the antecedents and recent advances in somatic study and with contributions by diverse experts, Eddy highlights the role of Asian movement, the European physical culture movement and its relationship to the performing arts and female perspectives in developing somatic movement, somatic dance, social somatics, somatic fitness, somatic dance and spirituality and ecosomatics. Mindful Movement unpacks and helps to popularise awareness of both the body and the mind. 

Part 1: Influences and Development of Somatic Education

Chapter 1

Introduction and Overview – The What and Why of Somatic Education

Introduction and Overview – The What and Why of Somatic Education

A soma is any individual embodiment of a process, which endures and adapts through time, and it remains a soma as long as it lives. The moment that it dies it ceases to be a soma and becomes a body.

(Hanna 1976: 31)

Mindful Movement provides one view of the evolution of a field of study and practice called somatic education. It describes how the somatic arts inform mindfulness and conscious action. It recognizes the scholars, teachers, creative artists, and most notably dancers, martial artists and actors who have been central in the development of somatic movement practices and emphasizes that therapeutic and educational benefits of movement are best achieved by developing nonjudgmental self-awareness, that is, mindfulness. Furthermore, it shares a perspective on mindfulness that emerges from the body itself, the living body – known as soma.

The theses in this book are varied:

1. Somatic awareness enhances any movement practice and reduces injuries.

2. A somatic approach to mindfulness underlies self-empowerment and critical thinking.

3. Engagement in somatic movement can be useful in activism.

4. Mindfulness that includes somatic awareness opens the gateway to various types of “connectedness:” within a person, between people, and with the mysterious or unknown, and does so through neurological pathways often related to aesthetics.

What Is Soma and What Is Somatic Education?

Thomas Hanna, philosopher and early student of the Feldenkrais Method^® – an approach to human movement and learning, popularized the terms “somatics” and “somatic education” by bringing attention to the Greek term, soma and relating it to the kinds of work that numerous people were doing with bringing awareness to the process of living inside the human body. As can be seen from the quote above, the soma signifies the “living body” as distinct from “body,” emphasizing the soma’s alive and changing status as a process, rather than an object. Hanna found meaning in the Greek root of the word soma as “the living body in its wholeness.” He rephrased it as “the body of life” (Hanna 1980: 5–6) and noted that the living body is able to be aware of itself. The experience of bringing attention to the living body while in stillness and moving came to be known as somatic education. Hanna developed a system of body re-education called Hanna Somatics (Hanna 1979), one branch of the larger field of somatic education.

The Body as Mind

In somatic education, the mind is perceived as existing throughout the body through nervous system connections (Bainbridge Cohen 1993; Juhan 1987). Therefore, by paying attention to the body, one is paying attention to the mind. This notion is further extended by studies in neuroscience indicating that the brain is only one part of the huge neural, neuroendocrine (nervous system and hormonal information exchange), neuro-enteric (gut-brain) and neuro-cellular network that extends throughout the body (Bainbridge Cohen 1993; Juhan 1987). This “mind of the body” has the ability to sense itself, interpret sensations as perceptions and then form thoughts, feelings, associations and imagery from these perceptions. Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, philosopher and dance scholar, contends that the beginning of consciousness emerges with the ability to choose whether to go toward or away from stimuli (2007). This basic action of going toward or away is foundational to all other actions in life (Kestenberg Amighi et al. 1999; Kestenberg 1977; Kestenberg and Sossin 1979; Lamb 1966; Loman and Brandt 1992). It shapes how animate life bonds with or defends against another influence (Bainbridge Cohen 1993).

The perception of one’s own body is known as proprioception and the perception of one’s own movement is kinesthesia. Proprioception and kinesthesia are basic senses, as omnipresent at the five exteroceptors: they are the “sixth and seventh senses” and make up the essential somatic awareness toolkit. Proprioception registers muscular tension and bodily position. Kinesthesia also registers information from the inner ear regarding speed of movement and whether one is aligned or falling. They are an untapped resource in the general public, but as neuroscience discovers more, the categorization and detailing of proprioception is expanding. For instance, a new term is graviception – experiencing the impact of gravity (Batson and Watson 2014) on the body and movement. When these “interoreceptors,” senses that pay attention to our inner experience, are consciously awakened, they allow for somatic awareness and bring “mindfulness” to movement. Extero-receptors are important in somatic education too – the five senses – vision, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching – connect humans to the outer environment providing information about the body in relationship to the world that people negotiate. With the five exteroceptors we perceive textures, temperature, location, color, shadow, vibration, sound, words, smells and more. Each of these perceptions shape knowledge. Ultimately, information about life is multi-sensory and ideally living includes a balance of both reading bodily sensations and cues (intero-reception) and being alert to external experience (extero-reception).¹ Somatic education supports this balance – teaching how to pay attention to body sensations and interpreting them with a perspective that aims to enhance a quality of life in which one stays present, mindful, even while moving; consciously acting.

One example of this integration of an exteroceptor and interoceptor is mesopic vision, which happens at dawn and dusk. During these times when light is more diminished, the dynamic shifts of light are perceived not by the receptors of the eyes but by the body. This perception helps guide energy levels through the day. This is a circadian response to the ganglion cells that absorb photons. The sensation by-passes the visual cortex and instead sensitizes the body and kinaesthetic sense directly to light. It is common, especially in urban environments, to have to adapt to a lack of normalized light. With odd sleep patterns and the omnipresence of electrical light humans are missing this mesopic cuing and often drained of the recuperative resources needed to effectively engage in daily demands (King 2015; Lockley and Gooley 2015).

Another example is the importance of keeping alert to the sensations of the inner ear, which registers ranges of sound and shifts in movement – stopping and starting, swinging, turning, being off-vertical and changes in speed. Conscious movement helps us learn from these vestibular sensations, learning to not fall, or to fall gracefully, or to regulate speed of action – as is especially needed when a person has hyperactivity or attention issues.

In somatic studies, the body is perceived as the source of human intelligence – one learns through the living body. It is exactly because the soma is alive and conscious that it can remember experiences as well as respond with awareness to life events. The body awareness senses of proprioception and kinesthesia form the underpinning of communication networks within the living body, the soma. When being mindful about one’s actions and behaviors, somatic information from the body is constantly integrated with information from the outer senses. The types of information gleaned are:

What is more comfortable (pain-free)?

More relaxed?

More natural?

More efficient?

More capable of full expression?

People familiar with this type of exploration will report that by paying attention to the personal physical somatic experience, vitality improves (Foster 2007; Franklin 1996a, 1996b; Wolf 2013), pain diminishes (Hanna 1997; Peterson 2011), and new patterns of behavior emerge (Dimon 2011; Fitt 1996). With somatic activity, new patterns of movement are explored, opening up different neural pathways (Bainbridge Cohen 1993; Batson and Watson 2014; Eddy [2005] 2011; Hartley 1995; Murray 2005). By definition, somatic movement is done with self-awareness and self-reflection. The result is that new behavioral choices often become apparent. When one is locked into habitual patterns, it is common to feel stuck. Somatic education is one way to unlock such blocks. Sometimes new information about one’s health and even about wants and desires are discovered from the body – this is called “body wisdom.” The release of tension that can come from somatic movement may be accompanied by an increase in energy or a wave of feelings and ideas supporting creativity.

Somatic education assumes that humans are self-regulating and recognizes that the process of self-regulation is often overridden by thoughts and lifestyle practices. When the body is disregarded and physical discomfort, exhaustion or frustration becomes the norm, the somatic skill of listening to the body and realigning one’s lifestyle is useful. However, staying present with the body somatically is not always easy – consciousness means acknowledging stress and pain or even trauma. This is quite different from self-medicating with alcohol, drugs, and other forms of escapism. The supports and stresses of a given culture or milieu are formative of somatic awareness skills and determine whether or not the culture values “somatics.” When one lives in a culture where the “felt sense” (Gendlin 1982) is not taught or known to exist, it is easy to see why people don’t perceive proprioceptive and kinesthetic awareness as a resource.

Somatic work did not begin in a vacuum, it arose synchronistically in disparate locations around the globe from the turn of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. Brilliant randomness, beauty, balance and natural intelligence were the stray seeds that became the strong survivors, establishing a steady presence of somatic art and education (Eddy 2009a). Its antecedents go back many more centuries and will be discussed throughout this book.

The field of somatic education emerged out of several streams before being further developed into three branches: somatic bodywork, somatic psychology and somatic movement (Eddy 2003, 2009a). While somatic bodywork and somatic psychology will be referenced throughout, the main focus will be on somatic movement and how movement explorations and systems inform mindful movement and conscious action. The importance of conscious action within the bodywork and psychological branches of somatic education is also referenced.

Book Overview

This first chapter introduces the word “somatic,” gives an overview of the entire book and discusses in more detail what somatic education is, defining many of its terms. The evolution of somatic education is introduced in Chapter 2 through telling the story of the founders of the field − the first eight people to develop codified somatic systems that still are actively used today (Eddy 2009a). The choice of the eight pioneers who turned inward to listen to their “alive and intelligent bodies” led to a wide range of experiences: better alignment and posture, improved movement efficiency and performance, decreased pain, increased health and most remarkably the ability to go from inaction to walking, speaking, performing and helping others (Alexander 1932; Bartenieff 1980; Dewey 1932; Feldenkrais 1977; Hackney 1998; Johnson 1995; Murphy 1992; Todd 1937; Trager and Guadagno 1987). With these revitalized actions also came a sense of agency. After regaining basic health, it was not uncommon for somatic practice to lead to numerous creative developments. In reflecting on the emergence of somatic education, one of the most striking features is how many of its leaders have a background in dance and modern dance, in particular (Eddy 2009a; Mangione 1993). Chapter 3 tells the story of two of the protégés of the first generation, dancers and unique women who also created their own somatic movement systems – Anna Halprin and Elaine Summers. Included in this “second-generation” section is the history of two other women who promoted the use of somatic movement awareness within the art of dance – Margaret H’Doubler and Martha Myers. The cultural climate in northern Europe and the US sets the initial tone for the advent of the somatic arts including explorations within the visual and performing arts. Chapter 4 describes the immediate twentieth-century European influences on the somatic pioneers, sharing how the lifework of the dance and theater artists Francois Delsarte, Genevieve Stebbins, Elsa Gindler, Rudolf Laban and Mary Wigman impacted somatic methods, and their relationships to the somatic arts that became popular in the twentieth century (Eddy 2009a; Mullan 2012, 2014; Ruyter 1999). In order to dig deeper into the antecedents of this fertile time, Kelly Mullan, historian of the “Movement Cure,” was invited to describe the influence of earlier centuries including the advent of “Physical Culture” in northern Europe. Since there have been multicultural influences on the evolution of the somatic arts, it was essential to speak of movement practices such as yoga, chi gung and Haitian dance. Therefore, Chapter 5 – written by Sangeet Duchane, an expert in contemplative practices from Asia – investigates diverse Asian and Caribbean movement forms that have impacted somatics. This chapter is included to locate these ancient forms as distinct from the somatic methodologies, to demonstrate respect for the influences they have had on the development of somatics and to share how somatic education has since influenced the way they are being taught worldwide today.

Chapter 6 begins Part 2, which reveals the central role of dance in the evolution of the somatic movement field. Dancers, actors and athletes are trained to feel their bodies, have motivation to take care of their bodies and are inspired to keep moving even with injury, illness or aging. It continues with the second generation of somatic founders, the women who used modes of inquiry from dance education and performance, often derived from other cultures, to heal, express and teach somatically – Joan Skinner, Sondra Fraleigh, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Emilie Conrad and Nancy Topf.

Each contributed to the improvement in health and performance through somatic movement informing the new field of “dance somatics” and impacting all somatic arts. The practice of physical art forms such as dance establishes discipline, provides an environment that fosters greater awareness of the body, anatomy, physiology and movement, and motivates inquiry about the body-mind connection. Speech, theater, martial arts and instrumental music have also been important venues for cultivating somatic awareness. This section discusses how somatic movement and dance have also led to offshoots such as “somatic fitness.” It discusses Judith Aston, who like Emilie Conrad applies her work to a unique approach.

In Chapter 7, the amalgams unfold. The “third generation” of somatic training programs are often a blending of first- and second-generation somatic movement systems, also often informed by dance. How dance is taught in order to increase somatic awareness and empowerment is discussed. Examples of how the universities around the world, including somatic psychology and dance departments, fostered the growth of somatic education is the aim of Chapter 8. It begins with stories from the UK, France and Canada. In Chapter 9, Rebecca Nettl-Fiol shares a vignette from a seminal somatic dance Mecca in the US – The University of Illinois, Urbana – where the Alexander Technique, the work of Joan Skinner and Nancy Topf come together with Laban/Bartenieff studies. Chapter 10 discusses the ways in which somatic education approaches can influence early childhood and youth education. It speaks to diverse subject areas, as well as diverse types of movement education within Montessori schools, Rudolf Steiner’s Eurhythmie in Waldorf Schools, and the work of Ruth Doing at City and Country School in New York City. The interplay of the influence of John Dewey, forefather of current-day constructivist education, is made evident.

Part 3, Chapters 11–14, places somatic awareness in the twenty-first-century context of basic neuroscience and neurophysiology. It then shares various forms of applications of somatic education, dance and the somatic arts. This includes a form of social activism that is steeped in somatics, body conscious design, eco-somatics and the emergence of another new field – dance, movement and spiritualities. The Part concludes with concerns about the place and future of somatic inquiry vis-à-vis health, education and artistic expression.

This book tells stories of each of these trajectories, painting one picture of the history that came to shape the new fields of somatic education, somatic movement education and therapy, somatic movement dance education and their wide applications. This book, from its first chapter to its conclusion:

1. Defines the field of somatic education and its terms (Amory 2010), including the emergence of somatic movement education and therapy

2. Describes the stories of the original founders of somatic systems and the ensuing second generation of somatic dance ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Part 1: Influences and Development of Somatic Education
• Part 2: The Emergence of Somatic Movement Education and Therapy
• Part 3: Current Trends in Somatic Thinking and Being
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Notes on Contributors
• Index
• Back Cover