From Conversation to Discourse

... the aesthetic has long located art within a science of sensuous knowing. What neurosciences and cognitive science are now adding to the equation is this exciting possibility of getting closer to the underlying conditions fueling that ancient relationship. ...

(Barbara Stafford 2011: 1)

Overview

At the turn of the twenty-first century, dancers found themselves in a new and compelling conversation around the topic of cognitive processes within dancemaking. The now-global dialogue on embodied cognition has opened a space for artistic and scientific exchange. Synthetic theories and emergent technologies have charted new methodologies for researching embodied processes. The results have been tangible, spawning new movement creation, bolstering interdisciplinary studies and benefiting sociocultural, scientific and medical sectors. This chapter highlights early formal initiatives in this exchange.

Focusing in ...

• What topics are dancers currently researching within embodied cognition?

• What exchanges are happening globally in research, choreography and pedagogy?

• What forms are these exchanges taking – artistic, scientific, social/humanitarian, synthetic and beyond?

• What benefits have been realized in different sociocultural and technological sectors?

• What potential obstacles to future development merit our attention?

Experiential prelude

From where do you draw choreographic inspiration outside of dance praxis? How do you work with other fields of study, social networks and digital or other technologies to enhance your growth and development, personally and professionally? Where do you locate your work within history and historicity, from conservation (archiving) at one end to preservation (sustainability) at the other?

Create a 'mind map' – a graphic drawing of your tree of knowledge. Are you surprised by the results? Make a list of words that embrace embodied cognition in dancemaking. Now consider these questions: Where are you positioned within this conversation? What challenges do you see within the conversation and exchange? In what ways is dance influencing perspectives on embodiment in science or other disciplines?

Open-sourced dance

'May you live in interesting times' is a colloquial Chinese proverb containing within it the paradox of opportunity and curse. These times are interesting, indeed. Today, globalization and technology are driving a culture of continuous innovation. The message (overt or covert) is a call to constantly change. Within western post-modern dance, this spirit of innovation is a potent modus operandi. The processes of dancemaking have been likened to an irrepressible 'evolutionary urge' (Mason 2009: 27), struggling to thrive through complex processes of selection and variation. One major difference exists, however: Compared to the actual process of Darwinian evolution, the timeline is sped up exponentially.

As various trends continue to shape the evolution of dance, the threat of ossification and extinction loom. Tension exists between preserving the past and future survival (Lansdale 2005). Over the last century, dance has made an enormous impact on social capital and community cohesion. Meta-analyses have shattered the perception of dance as an esoteric, elite discipline devoted solely to art making (Guetzkow 2002; Mitchell, Innoue and Blumenthal 2002; Reid 2011; Burns 2007).

Paradoxically, the impact of continuous innovation offers the promise of sustainability in dance. Simultaneously, it demands that dancers lead 'hybrid lives', (Risner 2012: 185). One emblem of survival has been the thrust towards open-sourced knowledge and interdisciplinarity. Relational and cooperative in its ethos (Warburton 2011), dance largely has challenged single discipline hegemony (Melrose 2009). Throughout the last half of the twentieth century particularly, dancers sourced from everywhere for inspiration and artistic development (Borgdorff 2009). Collaborations have ramified into a system with many interacting parts offering multiple possibilities for connection (Stafford 2011). Dancers engaged in cross-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary, post -disciplinary and even anti-disciplinary collaborations (Liu 2010; Burt 2009). These were remarkable for their heterogeneity, diversity, originality (Borgdorff 2009: 3, 13) and debatable success (Liu 2010). Interdisciplinarity within dance implies that projects have enough body and momentum to survive a contextual flash-in-the-pan. After all, sourcing in dance is not only a matter of acquiring knowledge, but also embodying knowledge through dynamical movement processes.

The exchange around cognitive processes in dancemaking is of particular interest. In the last two decades, dance has captured the imagination of many scientists interested in embodiment and cognition, exceeding that of other movement studies (gymnastics, sports or martial arts, for example). Interest in embodied cognition has stretched across a wider spectrum of domains, such as cognitive and affective neuroscience, phenomenology, neuropsychology, human movement science and digital technology. Discourses on embodiment have proliferated and cross-pollenated. Dancemakers now can source from a growing number of sub-disciplines and knowledge bases heretofore unrecognized and inaccessible (Figure 1.1).

Science and its supporting technologies offer dance a unique lens through which to examine dancemaking; dance likewise offers science a dynamic laboratory for investigation. Novel research threads and artistic collaborations have emerged (Bläsing, Puttke and Schack, 2010; Reynolds, Jola and Pollick 2012; Gehm, Husemann, and von Wilcke 2007). Exchanges are co-creating new methodologies, new platforms for exchange and new spaces for discussion and design. The engagement generates new questions in building and sharing competencies (Lapuente 2012; Borgdorff 2009). Whether formal or informal, this engagement has engendered new ideas that bridge across creative processes and research outcomes (Barnard and deLahunta 2011). Two decades of exchange have sown the seeds of new research that is both applied (praxis-based) and praxis-driven (Borgdorff 2006; Bläsing et al. 2012; deLahunta, Clarke and Barnard 2012).

The engagement offers mutual inspiration, affirmation and perhaps, confirmation to an understanding of embodied cognitive processes within dance....