In her research project Leena Rouhiainen explores the meaning of space both as an experiential concern as well as an issue related to the formation or construction of the body in contemporary dance. In dance theories related western theatrical dance, space is most often discussed through the perspectives of three-dimensional geometry, objective or neutral perspectivism and the proscenium stage. Its lived qualities are seldom mentioned. Currently the different, site-specific, environments utilized in dance performance as well as the medium of new technology in dance places the dancer in a relationship with space that differs from the conventional. In her piece of research, Rouhiainen scrutinizes how the dancing body is in an experiential relationship with space. She asks how do the social, ideological and material dimensions of space live in the dancing body, her dancing body. The research is inter-textual in that it utilizes concepts and views from dance, cultural and gender studies as well as phenomenology and cognitive science. The theoretical knowledge will be interpreted from the perspective of Rouhiainen’s research problem and articulated in a series of solo dances created and performed by her. The final conclusions will include both artistic work and textual material written on the process.
The starting point of Eeva Anttila’s study is conceiving learning as a multisensory phenomenon, where sensing, feeling, bodily action and reflection merge. The significance of sensations through different sensory modalities, the role on emotions as holistic, bodily processes, a wider conception of language as well as possibilities of collaborative learning are central ideas in this study. It consists of a thorough theoretical analysis that focuses on recent developments in neuroscience and philosophy. This analysis lays foundation to the empirical part, which will be based on phenomenological methodology on meaningful learning experiences. Both parts combined will enhance a conception of learning where the significance of bodily and sensory experiences in learning, identity construction and in becoming a conscious human being become articulated.
In her study Soili Hämäläinen investigates the lived body as a means and source of choreography. The subject matter of the research falls into the area of somatic approaches to creating choreography. In them the subject observes herself from the inside out aware of her feelings, movements and aims, instead of observing herself objectively from the outside (Hanna 1988). The opening up of the meaning of the lived body for a dancer is the basis of choreographic work. It emphasises the meaning of the dancer’s bodily knowledge and her experiences. Consciousness is not only conceptual and verbal, it is also silent – intuitive and embodied – unspeakable. Hämäläinen especially examines the meaning of body knowledge and body memory for the choreographic process and product in a composition workshop. The dancers participating in the project are co-researchers by producing movement and composition. Their experiences and workshop demonstrations form the empirical material of the research.
In her new artistic investigation Riitta Pasanen-Willberg explores different ways of using release-, alignment- and improvisational methods to enhance the production and development of movement material in dialogical choreographic working processes. Her main aim is to find different ways (tools) of perceiving, analyzing and understanding, in other words of reading, dancing and choreography from the choreographer’s as well as the dancer’s as audience’s point of view. How do these three dimensions meet each other? Pasanen-Willberg’s artistic investigation, which explores the above issues, is based on the working processes of the following choreographies: Velvet – Portraits, Canadian Poems and Dance Macabre (premier 2006).
In her piece of research, Paula Salosaari investigates how the information delineated from directing perceptual attention and experiencing in dancing is meaningful for the dancer and how it is part of the evolution of ballet culture. She is especially interested in finding ways to enhance this bodily knowledge in dance pedagogy. This investigation points specifically to the dancer’s possibility of becoming a cultural agent through making individual choices and decisions directed by this personal knowledge. Choreology (Preston-Dunlop, Sanchez-Colberg 2002) gives both tools for making and a means to discuss the intrinsic qualities in dance. Cultural phenomenology (Csordas 1994) gives a way to look at dance rituals as a cultural phenomenon.
Kirsi Heimonen is writing her doctoral dissertation about bodily experiences, the experiences of the moving body and corporeality through movement. The title of the thesis is A Dive into Movement – Movement Improvisation as a Fount of Movement. She gave a workshop on movement improvisation at the University of Technology at Lund, Sweden. She analyses the texts produced by the students of industrial design who participated in the workshop. Dancing challenges, it questions the manner of being of the students, how they inhabit movement. Sensibility in movement tunes the students into being in the world in which wonder, strangeness and beauty intertwine. A sense of community arises from moving together. The writings of the students are placed in dialogue with the writings of choreographer Merce Cunningham. The dissertation therefore belongs to the phenomenological and hermeneutic field of qualitative research. In addition, with the manner in which the researcher’s voice is presented, the study shares features with autoetnography.
In her doctoral dissertation Heli Kauppila is searching for a holistic approach to teaching ballet in which the student’s own experience is taken as the basis of the work. Her aim is to find ways to support the student’s subjectivity as well as the integrity of the body-mind in the learning and teaching practices of ballet. She approaches this issue by examining her own teaching through the perspective of action research.
In her piece of research Leena Hyvönen explores arts and craft as a way of knowing in general education. From the phenomenological – especially Merleau-Pontyian – point of view, conceptual knowing and thinking require plenty of preceding experiences, which are acquired through prereflective, embodied, relations to the world, or being in the world. In these kinds of experiences self, others and the world are intertwined. In addition, in them the different senses act on high, very sensitive, levels. In her research Hyvönen asks: How does the transition from experience to conceptual knowing happen without losing contact with the prereflective way of being in the world? and What could the position of arts and craft education be in this process?
The research project that Isabel Marques is conducting is entitled: Voices of School: A performative continuing education process. In September 2003, the Caleidos Teacher´s Company was formed by public school teachers with no previous experience in dance. It aimed at researching the possibility of educating school teachers in the field of dance education via the artistic process. The first project, named “Voices of School”, therefore, was based on the idea that a dance performing process, if led with educational concerns, can also be a site for preparing teachers to teach dance at schools. The first phase of the research project, finished in December 2004, was to put up a dance performance about teacher’s lives and experiences at public schools in Brazil. For a year and a half the teachers had dance classes at Caleidos Art and Teaching and participated in the choreographic process as interpreters and choreographers directed by Dr. Marques. The basis for this work and research was Dr. Marques´ methodological approach to the teaching of dance – the “context based dance education”, being developed since 1996. The second phase of the research was performing “Voices of School” in schools, art centers and conferences. It was performed to about 1500 people, mainly to public school teachers and students in the city of São Paulo. The third and last phase, now in process, will include interviews with teachers and review of literature about the teachers’ experiences in the Company and analysis of its relevance as a holistic and critical approach to teach teachers and to educate citizens.