Ways of Being a Body

Volume 1

Nine Ways of Seeing a Body

Nine Ways of Seeing a Body

Sandra Reeve

9 different approaches to the human body as seen in movement, performance and psychotherapy.

The body as object (the Cartesian approach, linked to modern, Western individualism)
The body as subject (with reference to physical theatre and the work of Peter Brook, Grotowski and Eugenio Barba)
The phenomenological body (the body holds its own meaning - as discussed by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty)
The somatic body (familiar to Feldenkrais, BMC and somatics practitioners and clients)
The contextual body (paying attention to self-reflection and self-awareness in the context of the body's surroundings)
The interdependent body (introducing matching, guiding and kinetic mirroring )
The environmental body (the Santiago theory of cognition; incorporated habits)
The cultural body (culturally specific, daily-life movement; Csordas's view)
The ecological body (drawing on Amerta Movement/Joged Amerta, on Buddhist mindfulness and notions of 'interbeing'.

Volume 2

Body and Performance

Body and Performance

edited by: Sandra Reeve

12 contemporary approaches to the human body that are being used by performers or in the context of performance training.

This second collection brings together a wide range of contemporary approaches to the body that are being used by performers or in the context of performance training.

The intention is for students, dancers, performers, singers, musicians, directors and choreographers to locate their own preferred approach(es) to the body-in-performance amongst the lenses described here. The collection is also designed to facilitate further research in that direction as well as to signpost alternatives that might enrich their current vocabulary.

All 12 approaches represent the praxis and research of their authors. The chapters reveal a wide variety of different interests but they share the common framework of the notion of ‘body as flux’, of ‘no fixed or determined sense of self’ and of supporting the performer’s being-becoming-being as a skilful creative entity, emphasising the intelligence of the body at work.

Volume 3

Body and Awareness

Body and Awareness

edited by: Sandra Reeve

20 contemporary approaches to the study and experience of embodied awareness

The field of embodied awareness is transdisciplinary and multi-faceted: it has no academic subject listing, but is of central importance to those seeking to understand art, dance, the psychology of health, trauma, learning & development, the psycho-ecology of extinction and climate change, proprioception and interoception, ecological awareness, meditation, and the need for societal transformation in an age of multiple convergent crises.

Here 20 practitioners bring a wide range of perspectives to bear on the subject.