Terrestrial Resonance: Exploring Earth Through Dance

Abstract

The geologic theory of plate tectonics, sometimes referred to as "the dance of the continents," proposes a vision of Earth as dynamic body in motion that is constantly shifting and altering its form. Geophysical research during the 1950s and 1960s, especially in relation to Harry Hess's seafloor spreading hypothesis, Fred Vine and D. H. Matthews' geomagnetic reversal hypothesis, and J. Tuzo Wilson's classification of new faults in Earth's crust, established enough scientific evidence to suggest a viable model of this dance of the continents. This led to the geoscientific community widely accepting the theory of plate tectonics by the end of the 1960s. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how the idea of Earth as a dynamic body in motion can be connected to the experience of one's own body in motion and in movement practice. Emerging from my work as an artist and an educator, this research analyzes the creative processes and the phenomenological essences of two geologically inspired dances, and develops a pedagogical application of geosomatic movement practices in an undergraduate course entitled Dancing Earth, Dancing Body. I use a phenomenological method of analysis informed by Max van Manen and Clark Moustakas to examine what it means to embody terrestrial forces, entities, and landscapes, and how geologic structures and scientific ideas can be translated into anthropomorphic movement. In chapter 4, "Sediments of Meaning: Phenomenological Analysis of Pieces of Pele," I devise a theoretical structure for critical reflection upon and development of the choreographer's creativity, which I call a meta-choreographic process. This essentially hermeneutic method of reflection allows choreographers to more deeply understand their creative process and aesthetic criteria, and how they construct meaning through movement. The analysis in chapter 5, "Continental Shift: Phenomenological Analysis of Tectonic Suite," illuminates the profound role of metaphor in both the creative process and the viewing experience in relation to this particular dance from my GeoDance repertoire. Using the framework of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's analysis in Metaphors We Live By, I demonstrate how dance can function to create coherent metaphors. In chapter 6, "Dancing Earth, Dancing Body: Experiential Learning of Geologic Concepts," I use an ethnographic framework to examine student perspectives of Dancing Earth, Dancing Body. This analysis reveals that, as the instructor of the course, I fostered, and students applied, three distinct modes of creative inquiry in the classroom: imagistic, language-based, and collaborative. Embedded within these three modes of creative inquiry were a variety of somatic experiences and refocused dance-based exercises that amounted to a technique of sorts, with the specific goal of awakening and fostering the development of our body-mind-environment connection. I theorize this collection of experiences and exercises as a geosomatic movement practice. Illuminated throughout this dissertation are key sources from the fields of dance, geology, somatics, ecology, phenomenology, eco-phenomenology, and ethnography--evincing the interdisciplinary nature of this study. At the heart of this interdisciplinary inquiry lies a fundamental awareness that our experience of our bodies is integrated with our experience of atmosphere, terrain, and gravitation. Therefore, by deepening our understanding of how we can cope with these physical aspects of our environment, we can deepen our understanding of Earth and its processes.