The present study explored 12 womens experiences in five community-based improvisational movement sessions. The study was two-pronged in nature, attending to the experience of expressive movement and somatic awareness exercises as well as the experience of gathering together as women. Session activities were taken from movement and somatic practices such as Authentic Movement, the 5Rhythms®, YogaDance®, the Big Fat Ass Dance Class®, theatre-based exercises, contact improvisation and African Dance. The chosen methodology was hermeneutic phenomenology using a weekly sharing circle, post-session interviews, and journal entries as data. Although inquiring into both psychological and movement experiences, the study did not derive from a formal Dance/Movement Therapy perspective but instead, prioritized the womens own voices in order to elucidate the inherent experience and worth of expressive movement within a community framework. Three core constructs arose from my analysis: Conscious Embodiment, Conscious Play and Conscious Connection. The underlying role of relationality is highlighted in the final chapter. Findings contribute to a preventive and resiliency orientation as opposed to the more typical clinical and therapeutic research found in the field of Dance/Movement Therapy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:usask.ca:etd-02182009-191151 |
| Date | 22 April 2009 |
| Creators | Davison, Mischa Louise |
| Contributors | Nicol, Jennifer A. J., Martin, Stephanie, Kipling Brown, Ann, Kalyn, Brenda |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-02182009-191151/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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