Although my interest in movement began a few years before I discovered post-modern dance (see background) and is much broader then it alone, it is largely in this context that I have been studying and working with movement. Within months of discovering the Feldenkrais Method (1991), I found contact improvisation (1991) through it became interested in the field of post-modern dance (1992) which I have been working with ever since. My study of it has included a number of somatic practices. Some, like Body Mind Centering, are forms which have found a place in post-modern dance training, while others, like contact improvisation and release technique, have evolved from within the field of post-modern dance itself.
Brief History
Over the last 30 years or so in the dance world, contemporary and modern dance have been joined by what has become known as post-modern dance (also know as new dance). It has its direct roots in the work of some contemporary and modern dancers who, in the 1950s and 1960s, began to question the place of the body in those forms. Contemporary and modern dance were typically more concerned with how the body looked from the outside than on exploring the organic movement potential of the human body.
In seeking to broaden their body knowledge, these dancers looked to forms from the East such as Tai Chi, Yoga and Aikido, as well as Western, often therapeutic, bodies of work of those like FM Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais, and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, or the pioneering work of Mabel Todd and Elsa Gindler that preceded them back in the 1920s and 1930s.
This influx of ideas led to the creation of post modern dance techniques and practices such as release technique, authentic movement and contact improvisation. Post-modern dance trainings have been developed which include developmental movement and experiential anatomy and there is interest in improvisation both as a performance art form in its own right and as a way to devise material.
Intelligent Bodies
These post-modern-dance practices are all directed towards developing an intelligent body. In respecting the different potentials of different physiques rather than seeking to impose uniformity, these educations therefore tend to be more inclusive. They emphasise self-development, self-awareness, interaction skills, choice making skills, creative process, health and well-being of the dancer.
What the practices of much post-modern dance training share is a somatic approach. I believe that many of the practices that have arisen with post-modern dance now have much to offer beyond the confines of the world of dance.
I have never been particularly comfortable with describing myself as a “dancer”. I prefer to use the term “mover” since movement is what I am really concerned with. I never learned steps. Instead I study improvisation as a performance technique and take a somatic approach to improving movement range and quality both in my own studio research and in my teaching.