Body of knowledge

The underpinning body of knowledge
The team is constantly developing the practice it offers. The starting point for all areas is this body of knowledge which spans several fields of body, movement and perceptual-motor theory, but also draws on particular kinds of dance work – especially improvised forms. The inspiration for the development of JABADAO practice came from a dancer. ‘Everyday dancing’ continues to be a key theme and the spontaneous, physical, often playful, response to ordinary life lies at the heart of our work.

For most Westerners, ‘dance’ means particular ways of moving – techniques of body training that bring about particular performance aesthetics, or the learnt steps of social dances. The activity is inherently visual, concerned with what the dancer looks like, rather than what they feel.

At JABADAO we are concerned with the nature of embodiment, and the experience of dancing as a focus for the feeling of life itself. Our work asks “How do we come to know our world and ourselves?” and explores the role of sensory motor experience in this process. A range of existing areas of knowledge and practice influence this ongoing inquiry.

The Lived Body: existential phenomenology
The existentialists rejected the primacy of mind (Descartes: ‘I think therefore I am’) and replaced it with a concept of body as lived, or experienced, in action. Marcel, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty each developed a systematic phenomenology of the ‘animate organism’, fully opposed to the dualism of mind and body as separable entities, and against the ‘message theory’ of perception ie that perception is a passive response to incoming messages. They suggest that perception is active, often no less active than imagination, and that we constitute the shape and meaning of our world as we consciously engage with it. 1

Modern Dance
Developed in the 20th century, primarily in the United States and Germany, dancers were concerned to move away from the rigidity of classical ballet and ‘show’ dance to explore more about what it is to be human - to inspire audiences to a new awareness of inner or outer realities. (Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, and Ruth St Denis in the United States, Rudolf von Laban and Mary Wigman in Germany).


Dance Therapy
Dance/movement therapy emerged as a distinct profession in the 1940's, growing out of the understanding that modern dancers were developing. It is based on the belief that movement reflects an individual's pattern of thinking and feeling. The therapist supports an unfolding learning process in which movement is the means of exploration, communication and change. Focus on kinesthetic awareness is a core part of the practice with therapists learning techniques for bringing attention to what is communicated (to others and to self) through movement.

Contact Improvisation
Developed first by Steve Paxton, and then collectively around the world, Contact Improvisation is ‘a contemporary game’ 2 that began in the 1970s. It is consciously concerned with exploration of key aspects of human existence – natural movement and improvisation as a fundamental condition of life. It encourages a study of awareness, communication and gravity. Every dance is different since each dancer brings to the dance their own experience and current state of mind.

Authentic Movement
Originally called Movement-In-Depth by its American founder, Mary Starks Whitehouse, Authentic Movement is a practice that grew from the founder’s roots in dance, Jungian studies, and pioneering work in dance/movement therapy. Authentic Movement offers the opportunity to develop a deep self-sensing awareness, offering a process of learning that interweaves with all others. 3

Body Mind Centering™
Developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, BMC is an ‘experiential study based on the embodiment and application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical and developmental principles, utilizing movement, touch, voice and mind.  The study of BMC includes both the cognitive and experiential learning of the body systems - skeleton, ligaments, muscles, fascia, fat, skin, organs, endocrine glands, nerves, fluids; breathing and vocalization; the senses and the dynamics of perception; developmental movement (both human infant development and the evolutionary progression through the animal kingdom); and psychophysical integration’. 4 (Body Mind Centering is the registered trademark for a patented system.)

Sherborne Developmental Movement
Sherborne Developmental Movement was developed by Veronica Sherborne drawing together her training in physical education and physiotherapy, as well as training she did with Rudolph Laban and Lisa Ullmann at the Arts of Movement Studio in Manchester where she learnt a ‘different understanding and awareness of the human body and its movement’. 5

Seattle Developmental Movement Centre perceptual-motor approach
The work draws on research and development work carried out by Temple Fay, Glen Doman, Carl Delacato and Florence Scott and suggests that children - given good health and opportunity - proceed through a series of neurological stages of growth and development.  Specific developmental activities facilitate the establishment of specific abilities.  These abilities are acquired as critical reflex patterns and are established in the central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord.  Once the reflex patterns are acquired in one stage, the individual is ready to move onto the next stage of neurological development. 6

Sensory Integration
The concept of Sensory Integration comes from a body of work developed by A. Jean Ayres, PhD, OTR, an Occupational Therapist interested in the ways in which sensory processing and motor planning disorders interfere with daily life functioning and learning. She developed her theory of sensory integration during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s analysing literature from the fields of neuro-psychology, neurology, physiology, child development and psychology. She also conducted basic and applied research. The term ‘sensory integration’ refers to both a theory and a therapeutic intervention. 7

Community Dance
Community Dance is not a particular practice, but more a set of values about the potential for many different dance styles to ‘transform the lives of individuals, groups and communities’. 8 Community Dance practitioners seek to involve people (often with limited previous experience of dance) in activities that ‘contribute positively to health and well-being, personal motivation and social relationships’. 9 Many practitioners work in ways that can be identified as humanistic learning theories, practitioners understanding their role as ‘increasing the range of experience so that … participants can use it in any way they please to achieve their own desired learning changes’. (Rogers 1986) 10

Humanistic Personality Theory
The theory of Carl Rogers concerning education (and counselling) aims for the ‘fully functioning person’ who is ‘open to experience, able to live existentially, is trusting in his/her own organism, expresses feelings freely, acts independently, is creative and lives a rich life’. 11 This is not a goal but a process, a direction not a destination. Rogers sought ways to enable people to be ‘capable of evaluating the outer and inner situation, understanding herself in its context, making constructive choices as to the next steps in life, and acting on those choices’. Rogers lays out the ‘core conditions’ for facilitating this practice as ‘congruence (realness), acceptance and empathy’. 12

A feminist approach
Within a range of feminist approaches some researchers and writers, instead of denying the differences between men and women, aim to highlight those ‘feminine’ identified characteristics that are undervalued in our patriarchal society – such as the significance of felt experience in coming to understanding, subjectivity, connection to the natural environment and things of the body. Those which dominate - such as individualism, competition, objectivity, abstraction, rationality and valuing mind over body, culture over nature are seen as problematic not only because they deny women power, but also because they create unhealthy systems and institutions.
The goal of such feminist thinking is to find ways not only to empower women to participate fully in the world, but also to change that world. 13

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