ABOUT THIS BOOK

In Mindful Movement, exercise physiologist, somatic therapist, and advocate Martha Eddy uses original interviews, case studies, and practice-led research to define the origins of a new holistic field—somatic movement education and therapy—and its impact on fitness, ecology, politics, and performance. The book reveals the role dance has played in informing and inspiring the historical and cultural narrative of somatic arts. Providing an overview of the antecedents and recent advances in somatic study and with contributions by diverse experts, Eddy highlights the role of Asian movement, the European physical culture movement and its relationship to the performing arts, and female perspectives in developing somatic movement, somatic dance, social somatics, somatic fitness, somatic dance and spirituality, and ecosomatics.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Martha Eddy is a registered somatic movement therapist at SUNY Empire State College and Princeton University. She is the founder of the nonprofit organization Moving for Life.

REVIEWS

"Eddy's considerable expertise in both movement science and varied somatic practices, along with 15 years of case study, practice-oriented research, and personal interviews research, results in a rich investigation of the somatic arts. Eddy is also responsible for the development of the somatic program entitled 'Body/Mind Dancing,' which provides additional depth of expertise and context throughout the book. . . . Eddy's extensively-researched book on approaches to kinesthetic intelligence and embodied understanding, together with its comprehensive bibliography, serves to greatly inform and enrich the literature in this multi-faceted field."

— Nancy Romita, Journal of Dance Medicine & Science

"Mindful Movement, the first comprehensive and large-scale study of somatic education, will surely become a foundational account in the field. It clearly and convincingly demonstrates the importance, breadth, and wide-ranging implications of somatic work. This book, doubtlessly a work of years of meticulous research and personal engagement with somatic practices, abounds in inspiring pathways for future scholars, educators, and students of somatics. Eddy's text helps to further establish, validate, solidify, and clarify this exciting field."

— Hiie Saumaa, Dance Chronicle

"Eddy’s material is valuable, tracing the history and geography of somatics from its origins in Europe to its flowering in twentieth-century North America, where primary exponents have included such pioneers as F.M. Alexander, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, and Moshe Feldenkrais. The book provides charts, interviews, first-person testimonials, and photographs, and it includes several chapters written by other people, such as Rebecca Nettl-Fiol’s 'How Dance Has Helped Situate Academic Fields of Somatic Inquiry: Case Study University of Illinois-Urbana.' Anyone planning to teach either dance or somatics—actually, anyone with a body—will find useful information here."

— Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice

"Mindful Movement is a thoughtful and comprehensive chronicle of the history of the field of somatic movement education as well as a critical and conscious call to future steps and advocacy. . . . This book is an asset to dance/movement therapists by identifying the multiple roots of somatic education. The book also begins to name the ways in which somatic education both intersects and differs from DMT and how each field can inform the other."

— Valerie Blanc, American Journal of Dance Therapy

“In Mindful Movement Eddy comprehensively draws together a rich array of past and present identities from across the globe to explicate the diverse and multifaceted rhizomatic growth of what is viewed as contemporary somatics practice. Representing some fifteen years in the writing but more than fifty years in gestation, this book is also a highly personalized account of Eddy’s lifetime commitment to movement and dance prior to specializing in her somatic-based therapeutic and educational practice. With a focus on somatic-based learning to increase the ability in participants to communicate effectively through the body, this book will be of interest to educators in both dance and drama. . . . The text is replete with excerpts from original interviews conducted by Eddy with practitioners steeped in knowledge and experience within their somatic discipline.”

— NJ: Drama Australia Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Part 1: Influences and Development of Somatic Education
Chapter 1:       Introduction and Overview – The What and Why of Somatic Education
Chapter 2:       The First Generation – Founders of Somatic Education Technique
Chapter 3:       Second Generation – Set One: The Influence of Dance on Somatic Education
Chapter 4:       European Antecedents to Somatic Movement
                        Kelly Jean Mullan
Chapter 5:       Global Roots of Somatic Movement: Asian and African Influences
                        Sangeet Duchane

Part 2: The Emergence of Somatic Movement Education and Therapy
Chapter 6:       Second Generation – Set Two: Dynamic Approaches to Well-Being in Dance and Fitness
Chapter 7:       Third Generation – The Amalgams: Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Today
Chapter 8:       The Universities and Somatic Inquiry: The Growth of Somatic Movement Dance Education in Britain
                        Sara Reed and Sarah Whatley
Chapter 9:       How Dance Has Helped Situate Academic Fields of Somatic Inquiry: Case Study University of Illinois-Urbana
                        Rebecca Nettl-Fiol
Chapter 10:     Somatic Movement and Dance Education in pre-K-12 Education
                        Kate Tarlow Morgan, Eve Selver-Kassell, Lauren Lipman and Mary Ann Brehm

Part 3: Current Trends in Somatic Thinking and Being
Chapter 11:     Healthy Movement, Healthy Mind: Neuroscience Connections to Somatic Healing and Action
Chapter 12:     Conscious Action and Social Change: “Social Somatics”
Chapter 13:     Somatic Dance and Environmental Activism: Is this Spirituality?
Chapter 14:     Concluding Thoughts: Does Somatic Awareness Interplay with Genetics, Ecstasy and Space?

Appendices
Appendix 1:    Elaine Summers: Skytime 2014/Moon Rainbow
Appendix 2:    Emilie Conrad in Memoriam
Appendix 3:    Ruth Doing’s Rhythms Fundamentals Compared with Body-Mind Centering BNP as presented by Kate Tarlow Morgan

Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index