The doing of dancing: Kinaesthetic attention, the dancer and agency

Abstract

The focus of this research is kinaesthetic attention understood from the point of view of a dancer. The research is practice-led, body-first thinking that resulted in three choreographic experiments. Given that kinaesthesia does not have a single reference point, this dissertation intentionally puts forward a multiplicity of questions and viewpoints to understand the world of kinaesthesia. In cohesive work with attention, I attempt to highlight the relevance of kinaesthesia for dance scholarship, note its current flight under the theoretical radar, and ask how kinaesthetic attention enables dancers’ agency. The studio research examines how kinaesthetic attention may be useful via two modes of being – with movement: the daily practice of a dancer, and within choreographic processes. Present in the body of the paper are fragments of voices from the fields of dance, phenomenology, philosophy, physiology, psychology and history.