Abstract: In this paper I explore the place of movement, particularly dance in communication and understanding of the lived experience. I look at the gap between corporeal sensation and the communication of that experience into wider social contexts. Drawing on narratives gathered from four case studies in British schools, I look at dance as a mode of language that can offer a methodological approach to understanding the lived experience.
I take the pragmatist starting point of embodiment to argue that the immediacy of empirical experience is limited by use of verbal languages alone to organise meaning making. Although this creates a deficit of means for expression, I focus more on the implications it has as a loss in terms of understanding and organising epistemologically. I suggest that different languages have a rhizomatic relationship, each having equal potential to add to the quality and ‘thickness’ of communication of the multi-layered experience of embodiment. A richness of communication seems to lessen social isolation and enrich collaboration and cooperation.
Keywords: embodiment, dance, communication, sensation, perception, language.
doi.org/10.1386/ejpc.4.2.101_1