Research in Dance Education, Routledge Taylor Francis

Traversing the succession of space to place to home: a kinesthetic comprehension of the body as it forms an epistemology of space

ABSTRACT: This research investigates how the kinesthetic body forms knowledge of an environment and how that knowledge transforms with the involvement of participants. A Practice as Research (PAR) methodology employs the body as primary agent in cognition. Choreographic and improvisational movement devices assist the task of tracing cognition in participants’ home environment. These devices include haptic and visual perception tasks, spatial behavior, spatial patterning, and habitual movement analysis. Research participants include professional dancers and students within a university setting. The experiential learning theories of John Dewey, David Kolb, and Alice Kolb shift a spatial paradigm of one to a group, egalitarian paradigm. Illuminated through this research is the body’s significant role in forming theoretical and practical knowledge. Body and environment exist as one.