This research began as I wondered to myself, what I could do as a dance and somatics university educator, researcher and artist to help young people in responding to environmental change. My fascination has been with moving and particularly responding to places and sites through dance. This means I practice paying attention and deepening my embodied awareness of the environment around me. It’s from these practices and the personal embodied awareness that somatic movement fosters that I began to connect with ideas from environmental education such as action competence.
Through interviews with somatic dance educators and artists, and dance making workshops with young people, I aim to learn more about how somatic dance can prepare young people to respond to the many environmental challenges ahead.
Action competence is crucial for young people facing a future of ongoing environmental change. Competence in identifying options, making informed decisions and taking action in response to change may be developed on a personal embodied level through somatic practices. Bringing somatic practices into community dance contexts, fosters both personal embodied and collective action competence in preparing for environmental change, while also nourishing wellbeing and creative expression. This research project aims to investigate the understandings of somatic dance practitioners and young dancers in the United States of America and in Aotearoa New Zealand. (This project was proposed and approved as research to be undertaken as a Fulbright New Zealand Scholar.)
OVERALL RESEARCH QUESTION: In the context of environmental change, how might somatic dance offer practices for developing action competence?
Dr Karen Barbour 