Embodied writing: choreographic composition as methodology

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine how embodied methodological approaches might inform dance education practice and research. Through a series of examples, this paper explores how choreographic writing might function as an embodied writing methodology. Here, choreographic writing is envisioned as a form of visual word choreography in which words move, pause, gain emphasis, and flow as if dancing across the open page. To explore writing as choreography, this paper primarily draws from three theoretical perspectives on embodiment: phenomenological, new materialist, and Deleuzian. For each of these perspectives, this paper describes its approach to embodiment, provides choreographic writing examples, and discusses the implications thereof for dance education practice and research. Given the increasing importance of practice-as-research and creative arts inquiry, this paper finds that choreographic writing provides an alternative mode of communication for dance writers and qualitative researchers alike. Significantly, choreographic writing also offers new pedagogies for dance education researchers. In so doing, dance provides a venue for written arts-based research. IntroductionDance practitioners-as-researchers and dance scholars continue to explore how one might write dance. I wonder how dance might reshape writing. I situate these questions within the editors' invitation to explore how differing embodied methodological approaches might inform dance education practice and research. By creating examples of choreographic writing, I engage practice-based and academic composition through the lens of embodied methodological writing. Given the significance of embodied knowledges within dance education research, the development of new writing methodologies might help practitioners and researchers find new ways of not only writing about their practice, but also write in a style that perhaps is more aligned with the creative spirit of dance. Additionally, alternative approaches to writing might increase understanding of how theories and philosophies are increasingly relevant within the context of practice-as-research (Barrett and Bolt 2007).To work within the tensions that exist between writing movement and dancing movement, I follow Stinson's (2006) call for scholars to approach writing as

Propositions for an Environmental Arts Pedagogy: A/r/tographic Experimentations with Movement and Materiality

“…Trying to capture what a/r/tographic fieldwork looks like gave way to what it feels like. As Ulmer (2015) states:…”

Composing Techniques: Choreographing a Postqualitative Writing Practice

“…The technique of not writing is one of the most productive parts of my writing practice. This frequently involves shaping ideas or remixing materials into something I can think with: choreographies, photographic cartographies, or interactive sketchbooks with images and transparent overlays (in Ulmer, 2015Ulmer, , 2016; see also Koro-Ljungberg & Ulmer, 2015). The selection of photographs to use in a manuscript, for example, often is a precursor to determining the topic of the manuscript itself.…”

“…For me, writing is choreography that remains in motion as it spills over and unfolds in multiple directions at once. Writing is something that has the ability to move, and as it moves, I move with it (Ulmer, 2015). Manning (2016) might describe this as choreographic thinking, or an "everyday activity that tunes habits and invents techniques" (p. 127).…”

Embodied collaborative writing in graduate dance education

“…In our view, researching dance as a social and cultural bodily practice requires multidisciplinary learning that utilizes embodied writing. Moreover, including embodied writing practices as a part of the dance students’ graduate education can increase the methodological and writing choices in their research [e.g., ( 4 )].…”