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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.

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, 1 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. 1 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. 1 conclude by emphasizing iht: continuing relevance of performing arts in expressing individual human embodied experience in an increasingly virtual, self-destructive and global world.

In this paper we explore the potential of physical cultural studies for collaborative, interdisciplinary, theoretically-informed, reflexive research on the physically active female body. We use the metaphors of “wandering and wondering” to interrogate our experiences of movement within and across physical cultural fields and academic borders. Grounded in an ethnographic narrative approach, we revisit the ways in which different aspects of our identities were highlighted during our waka ama, snowboarding and basketball experiences. Drawing upon feminist readings of Bourdieu’s work, we challenged each other to reflect critically upon previously unquestioned or unexplored aspects of our subjectivities. While the paper focuses on the results of these discussions, we also offer insights into the collaborative process. Ultimately we argue that sharing narratives of our experiences and exploring them further with theory offers a good place to begin new interdisciplinary conversations that may push physical cultural studies research in new directions.

In this article, I demonstrate an approach to fusing autoethnographic writing and solo dance performance, advocating for a place for the female performer to stand as creative practitioner and researcher. While contemporary ethnographers and autoethnographers have actively engaged with issues of methodology and representational forms, and have gained some recognition within qualitative research communities, artists engaged in contemporary performance research still struggle for acknowledgement of the methodological rigor and representational innovation in their work. As in other art forms, dance artists have distinct bodies of knowledge, unique methods specific to dance, and diverse embodied and representational options for sharing knowledge. Referring to creative processes utilized in developing a particular solo dance performance, I weave together descriptions of movement activities undertaken to enhance awareness, literature on human developmental movement and on performance ethnography and excerpts of creative writing. To represent my dancing in this article, I include images from the solo performance. In this weaving I offer a partial representation of embodied ways of knowing and make a call to qualitative researchers to reconnect with their own beginnings – to return home.