Touch

Aesthetics comes from the Greek language which means perceptive by feelings, “From this that the primary grounding of the field aesthetics”. (Bannon, Holt, Duncan, 2012, 216).

From the reading this week I learnt lots about touch. Touch as a dancer is important and through this reading I have found how important touching and not touching can be. It is also about the quality of the touch and not the quantity and how it affects us and the boundaries it teaches us. In the reading there was an exercise which I did, with the exercise it felt unfamiliar like it stated. I also found it difficult to know if I was doing/feeling the right parts. It was a strange sensation but opened up my mind to how much touch affects daily actions.

Touch also helps to learn about the bodies anatomy, “Examples could include teacher’s guidance to brush a palm along your own neck to discover state of your vertical alignment and to interrelate the information gleaned between palm and neck to explore potential for change in that alignment”. (Bannon, Holt, Duncan, 2012, 218). I found this interesting as touch is just not about partner work it can help in learning technique. “Touch can be used in dance learning to guide the dancer into a position and to help transfer embodied knowledge from teacher to dancer without the need for speaking.” (Bannon, Holt, Duncan, 2012, 221) I think that by using touch you discover different things about yourself, it is the first sensory system that we learn to use and by touching we learn things ourselves. “It is a loop of touching and being touched in which we continue to learn from that which we touch in connection with the world and ourselves” (Bannon, Holt, Duncan, 2012, 220). I found skin ego interesting as it describes skin as an organ that feels and remembers what you touch.

Overall I found that when I dance I need to think more about what I touch, not where I place my touch but how the touch makes me feel, I also think with doing this I need to think as an individual like stated in the reading. I think touch will help me progress which learning techniques but also finding a different side to dance.

Bibliography

Bannon, F. & Holt, D. (2012) Touch: Experience and Knowledge in Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices.