"Does it mean anything?" and other insults: Dreadlocks, tattoos and feminism.

Drawing on feminist theorizing, phenomenological investigation of lived experience, and embodied ways of knowing, I interrogate my own creative and political acts moving in the world. As a dancer, my understandings of movement as epistemologically significant provide the basis for my re-creations of self, and for my play with the markings of gender, identity and culture. While dance performances provide a means for personal embodied theatrical engagement in issues of gender, culture and identity, my everyday encounters with others are also a rich context for interpretation, re-creation and play, In particular, my manner of dress, dreadlocks and tattoos provide markings of gender, culture and identity that seemingly confront others' stereotypes and generate encounters that can be either positive or negative. This presentation, utilizing personal experience narratives or autoethnographies, provides a context for personal reflection, interrogation and interpretation, moving towards more politicized embodied understandings

Embodied ways of knowing.

In this article I present an argument for `embodied ways of knowing' as an alternative epistemological strategy, drawing on feminist research and embodied experience. To present my argument, I begin by considering a number of problematic dualisms that are central to Western knowledge, such as the separation between mind and body and between knowledge and experience. In critique of mind/body dualism, feminists and phenomenologists claimed that Western understandings were based on a profound ignorance about and fear of the body. Mind/body dualism needed to be challenged and articulated differently, potentially through valuing and understanding `embodiment'. In critique of the knowledge/experience dualism, feminists and phenomenologists have suggested that `knowing' could be based on lived experience. From lived experience, knowledge could be constructed by individuals and communities, rather than being universal and resulting strictly from rational argument. Research on women's ways of knowing and on movement experience provided valuable insights into alternative ways of knowing. Just as lived experience and movement experience could be ways of knowing, I argue that `embodied ways of knowing' could also contribute specifically to knowledge. The relevance of understanding `embodied ways of knowing' for those involved in education and movement studies may be the further appreciation, development and advocacy for the role of movement experience in education

Standing strong: Pedagogical approaches to affirming identity in dance

In this paper, I reflect on research undertaken with third year University students in dance. To contextualise my research, I begin by providing a brief introduction to my specific approach to feminist and phenomenological research in dance, outlining an epistemological strategy of embodied ways of knowing. Discussion of narrative methodologies follows, leading into an autoethnographic narrative based on the research with students. Rich material drawn from students’ assessments, my class plans and teacher’s recollections are woven together in the form of an autoethnographic narrative. This narrative allows me to feature the students as characters and to highlight their specific experiences of masculinity and femininity, cultural difference and embodiment within their varied dance knowledges. Reflecting through and on the narrative, I derive key pedagogical approaches from my own teaching and learning experiences. I conclude by suggesting that pedagogical approaches involving embodied ways of knowing may potentially support students to affirm their identity through dance

Dancer-researchers interpreting themselves: Moving towards an anthropology of contemporary “art" dance

It was in 1984 with a single reading of Kealiinohomoku's seminal text on ballet's ethnicity (1969/70) that I was drawn irresistibly into the field of dance anthropology. This new "cultural framework" for my practice as a postmodern dancer precipitated a vital shift in perception. This panel be thought of as a continuation of ideas that were set into motion in Kealiinohomoku's essay. While reviewing the literature for my recent doctoral research, through meetings at CORD conferences, and most recently from within the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Pratiques Corporelles Universite Blaise Pascal de Clermont-Ferrand, I have unearthed a growing group of dance researchers from various corners of the world (so far Brazil, Taiwan, USA, England, France and New Zealand) who are also contemporary "art" dance insiders choosing to study "their own kind." We are grounding our research in theories of cultural anthropology and ethnographic methods (among others) as we move into fieldwork among artistic colleagues, and within the familiar ground of our own dance worlds. What kinds of understandings are emerging about the nature and function of these kinds of Euro-American rooted dances as "we" study "ourselves''? How are we situating ourselves in the field, as we negotiate etic (dance insider) and emic (dance researcher) positions and experience being insider ethnographers? What insights, approaches, frameworks and models are emerging for the study of a dance form that has an extensive history of criticism and analysis over the 20th century, a tradition of re-invention and "new creations," for which researchers' bodies and minds are repositories of knowledge about the practice

Reflections: An education of my own, or learning to be resistant.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of training as a dancer and being able to reflect and understand her experiences in dance education

Sustainable dance making: Dancers and choreographers in collaboration

In this paper I explore the notion of sustainability, drawing from environmental policy and activism, and apply this notion to the process of dance making. I begin by defining sustainability, and move to exploring both the professional and community contexts of dance making and the practices of collaboration. In many ways, the motivation for this paper comes from a deeply felt concern I have regarding the practices of dance making in the professional dance ‘industry’, particularly as I have observed in New Zealand; practices which I regard as not only unsustainable but sometimes even harmful to dancers and choreographers. I begin by sharing a brief story about my experiences as a dancer as background to my argument

Review: Interject, Disrupt, Vanish

Review of the performance: Interject, Disrupt, Vanish

Creative research in the arts: introduction to the special section.

Then article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one on the role of teachers and artists in research in arts and education and on the potential of the artist to contribute to the generation of new knowledge in art education

We are not struggling, we are thriving!

Dance in the Waikato region is thriving, particularly in Whaingaroa (Raglan). Soul Speed, as they introduce themselves are "a dance and theatre troupe from Whaingaroa, Waikato. " We are mothers, fathers, children, friends and family brought together" initially to raise awareness through performance about the critically endangered Maui Dolphin, the Popoto

Embodied engagement in arts research

The focus of this paper is to argue the case for embodied ways of knowing in arts research. Recognition of embodied ways of knowing and embodied research has been relatively recent. For too long, arts research had been marginalized in academia, particularly performing arts, due in part to the somatophobia of Western academic cultures. While grounded in dance research myself, I argue that embodied engagement is crucial for performing arts and arts research in general. It is through rigorous and reflective practice that theoretical knowledges and lived experiences can be embodied, made meaningful, and thus contribute to the generation of new understandings. I contend that such embodied knowledge is then available to artists and researchers for subsequent expression and aesthetic communication via a wide range of mediums and interdisciplinary practices. I discuss embodied ways of knowing and suggest some guidelines for undertaking embodied research. I conclude by emphasizing the continuing relevance of performing arts in expressing individual human embodied experience in an increasingly virtual, self-destructive and global world