DOCTORAL THESIS Changing perspectives through somatically informed dance praxis reflections of one to one dance and Parkinson’s practice as home performance Brierley, Melanie Award date: 2021 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 1 Changing perspectives through somatically informed dance praxis: Reflections of one to one Dance and Parkinson’s practice as ‘Home Performance’. By Melanie Brierley: MA, RSME/T, BA, PGCE. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Dance University of Roehampton 2020 2 The research for this project was submitted for ethics consideration under the reference DAN 13/008 in the Department of Dance and was approved under the procedures of the University of Roehampton Ethics Committee on 22/07/13. 3 Acknowledgements I would especially like to thank my Director of Studies, Professor Emilyn Claid, and my PhD Supervisor Dr Sara Houston for their advice during the research and writing of my thesis. I am very thankful to my research participants Robert Hey (Bob), Lynne Alexander, Margaret Rigg (Peggy), Connie Matheny, Barry Illsley, Mick Buckel, Adrian Wood, Angela Dockerty, Angela Blade, Anne Purvis, Bill Houlsworth. Without sharing wonderful dancing moments with you, and without your steadfast encouragement, none of my thesis would have been possible. Much appreciation to John Argue, Pamela Quinn, David Leventhal and team at Dance for PD, Dr Martha Eddy, Mary Abrams, Carol Fisher, Debbie Sternbach, Viviana Diaz, Lynda Sheridan, Susan Weber and team at the Berkeley Ballet Theater, and Claudine Naganuma at dNaga Dance Company, Berkeley, California. I treasure the experience of attending your classes and discussing ideas about practice. Many thanks to the Churchill Fellowship and the Baring Foundation for my award (2014) in the Arts and Older People category. This enabled me to gather such rich evidence for my thesis. Much love to my children Zee, Poppie-Jo, and Elvis for supporting me through my thesis journey. I know that it was often difficult. Many thanks also to my wonderful neighbour Julie Smith, who looked after my children when I was researching in the United States. Lastly, I would like to dedicate my thesis to Dr. Jill Hayes, my late and dear friend who was a shining light in our shared lives and fields of practice. 4 Abstract How does somatically informed dance practice support health in people with Parkinson’s? As a process of change, how might somatically informed practice alter the perspectives of the dance artist and people living with Parkinson’s? As research practitioner, what can I learn about the relationship of dance to health through the creative process of one to one Dance and Parkinson’s practice? Valuing the person with Parkinson’s, the creative process, and the art form of dance, my thesis examines one to one, co-creative, and somatically informed dance practice. It aims to support health in people living with Parkinson’s and promote change in the perceptions of the dance artist and research participants. Through my Action research project ‘Home Performance’, shared dance practice creates embodied knowledge through which a new framework of one to one Dance and Parkinson’s practice emerges. My approach to practice is compared with the work of three eminent Dance and Parkinson’s artists from the United States and triangulated through Somatic inquiry. My methodology explores a Deleuzian informed feminist perspective which parallels Somatic theory and practice. Dance supports health in the whole person and changes perspectives in people with Parkinson’s through a shifting, unfolding, bio-psycho-social process. One to one practice is performative and intra-active, with explorative dance encounters connecting partners through spatial and haptic engagement in the home environment. A corporeal exchange, and means of promoting power-sharing relationships, the creative process of one to one Dance and Parkinson’s practice promotes health and alters perceptions through processes of change, connection, and flow. Empathy and understanding grow through shared dance experiences, with one to one Dance and Parkinson’s practice a process for promoting self-care, and care for the ‘other’. 5 Contents Introduction The field of Inquiry 9-16 Aims, Hypotheses, and directions 16-22 Research questions 22-23 Research Chapters 23-27 Chapter One: Dance and Health: a literature review Introduction 28-29 1.1 Dance and exercise 29-32 1.1a Dance genres 33-35 1.2 Introduction to health in Dance & Parkinson’s 35-36 1.2a Dance, health, and Parkinson’s motor-symptoms 36-38 1.2b Psychosocial benefits 38-39 1.2c Participant experiences of dance and health 39-42 1.2d Multidimensional aspects 42-44 1.3 Summary 45-46 Chapter Two: Methodology 2.0 Ontology and Epistemology 47-51 2.1 Feminist/Somatic perspectives 51 2.1a Equality 51-54 2.1b The Body 54-58 2.2 Dance as a process of becoming 58-62 2.3 Introduction to Action research 62-63 6 2.4 Constructivist theory 63-65 2.5 Action research Method 65-70 2.6 Reflections on Action research 70-72 2.7 Introduction to research design 73 2.8a Purposive sampling 73 2.8b Research progression 74-76 2.8c Interviews 77-79 2.8d Analysis 79 2.8e Ethics 79-83 Chapter Three: Somatically informed Dance and Parkinson’s practice 3.0 Introduction 84-85 3.1 Dance and Parkinson’s practice in the UK and US 85-91 3.2 My engagement with Dance and Parkinson’s practice 91-96 3.3 Locating somatically informed dance practice 96-98 3.4 Health in Somatics 98-101 3.5 Health and changing perspectives 101-113 3.6 Changing thinking 113-118 3.7 Changing feelings and perceptions 118-126 Chapter Four: One to one Dance and Parkinson’s practice 4.0 Introduction 124-128 4.1 Community dance, Somatics, and DMP 128-134 4.2 Person-centred dance 134-140 4.3 Presence, attunement, attention, awareness 137-140 4.4 Sharing the dance: the intersubjective experience 140-147 7 4.5 Empathy and Kinaesthetic empathy 144-145 4.6 Mirror neurons 145-146 4.7 Mirroring 147-149 4.8 Participatory sense making 149-153 4.9 Matching 153-154 4.10 Mutual witnessing 154-155 4.11 Witnessing and moving 155-156 4.12 Comparing approaches 157-165 4.13 Research participants 165-170 4.14 Common experiences 170-174 Chapter Five: Connection and Re-Connection 5.0 Introduction 175 5.1 Grounded connection 175-180 5.1a Whole body connectivity 180-183 5.2 Connection to the home environment 183-184 5.2a Sensing weight with hand-held objects 185-186 5.3 Connection and proprioception 186-188 5.4 Naval radiation 189-195 5.5 Connection with breath 195-198 5.6 Body-mind connection 198-201 Chapter Six: Flow 6.0 Introduction 202 6.1 Flow: Rudolf Laban 202-204 6.2 Flow: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 204-208 8 6.3 John Argue: Movement Visualisations 209-214 6.4 Language and flow 214-218 6.5 Flow, humour, and improvisation 218-220 6.6 Momentum and flow 220-227 6.7 Musical groove 227-233 6.8 Imagination and flow 234-237 6.9 The fluid body 237-241 Chapter Seven: Conclusions 7.0 Introduction 242-245 7.1 Significant themes 245-253 7.2 Supporting health and changing perspectives 253-256 7.3 Dealing with loss 256-258 7.4 A framework of one to one practice 258-264 7.5 Ways forwards 265 7.6 Final perspective 266-267 Bibliography 268-297 Websites and Practitioner Interviews 297 Appendices 1-8 298-313 9 Introduction Introduction: The field of inquiry. Parkinson's1 is a common neurological condition affecting more than ten million people worldwide. In 2018, approximately 145,00 people had a Parkinson’s diagnosis in the United Kingdom (UK).2 Parkinson’s is characterised by progressive degeneration of the central nervous system which affects neurons in the brain and causes widespread changes to motor function, cognition, mood and other non-motor symptoms.3 Altered motor behaviour often presents as tremor, freezing gait, and bradykinesia, where people experience a general slowing down of movement, with all symptoms increasing falls risk. People with Parkinson’s are more prone to falls and hip fractures because they have a lower bone mineral density than the general population (Critchley et al., 2015), a factor which advances morbidity and mortality rates in this population (Westheimer et al., 2015). Parkinson’s symptoms are particular to each person, with the condition concentrated in the older population, but increasingly prevalent in younger age groups. Yet, as a result of the disconnect between brain and body, all those people living with Parkinson’s will experience widespread physical and cognitive change. Specifically, they will sense acute muscular rigidity and lack of flow in movement and thinking. Such systemic bodily reshaping also impacts people’s feeling states and sociality, factors which may 1 In 1817, the English doctor James Parkinson was the first to establish characteristics of Parkinson’s Disease in his paper on shaking palsy.