Somatics

Somatic educator Moshe Feldenkrais in 1978, teaching how to rise from a chair

Somatics refers to practices in the field of movement studies which emphasize internal physical perception. The term is used in movement therapy to signify an approach based on the soma, or "the body as perceived from within,"^[1] and in dance as an antonym for "performative techniques," such as ballet or modern dance, which emphasize the external observation of movement by an audience. Somatic techniques may be used in bodywork, psychotherapy, dance, or spiritual practices.

History

Movement practices in Asia, little affected by Cartesian mind-body dualism, have included somatic components such as embodied cognition and physical mindfulness for many centuries. Somatic movement in Western culture can be traced to the turn of the twentieth century, when philosophers such as John Dewey and Rudolf Steiner advocated experiential learning while Isadora Duncan and Rudolf von Laban challenged traditional European conceptions of dance. Although Frederick Matthias Alexander developed a seminal somatic technique as early as the 1890s, the term "somatic" or "somatics" was not in general use until movement therapist Thomas Hanna introduced it in the 1980s.^[2][3]

Alternative medicine

Several forms of alternative medicine consider sensory experience of the body important to the therapeutic process.

The Alexander technique, an early example of such a practice, was developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander, an actor, in the 1890s.^[4] It is an educational somatic technique intended to undo students' habits of using unnecessary tension in movement.^[5][6]

The Feldenkrais Method is a somatic movement pedagogy developed by Moshé Feldenkrais, inspired in part by the Alexander Technique. It aims to improve well-being by bringing attention to movement patterns which are inefficient or unnecessarily tense and replacing them with more beneficial patterns.^[6][7]

Structural Integration, including Rolfing and Hellerwork, uses bodywork and movement retraining as tools for somatic education. Practitioners aim to make both the body and mind more adaptable and resilient.^{[8] [9]}

Trager uses gentle bodywork and relaxed exercises called Mentastics to explore sensation and effortlessness in movement. Practitioners enter a meditative state and attempt to physically communicate a sense of lightness, curiosity, and playfulness via the therapeutic contact. Mentastics are an exploration of body weight in gravity, performed with complete relaxation. ^[10]

Psychotherapy

Some forms of mental health therapy have a somatic focus. For example, in Somatic Experiencing, clients learn to monitor internal sensations as way to interact with the nervous system.^[11]

Movement disciplines

In non-medicinal movement contexts, the term "somatic" generally refers to techniques which emphasize the mover's internal proprioceptive sensations, in contrast with performance-based techniques.

Traditional practices

Yoga combines physical and mental exercises

Many traditional Asian spiritual practices are "somatic" in that they involve the integration of body and spirit.^[12] Yoga is the best-known and most influential in Western civilization, but many others exist.

Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices which originated in modern-day India before 500 BCE.^[13] The ultimate goals of yoga are spiritual,^[14] and yoga practice generally involves physically assuming and moving through codified asanas or body positions. Yoga physiology describes a system of interconnected bodies, having different but interrelated physical and spiritual properties.^[15] The concept of energy flow through corporal channels reappears in other somatic forms, including contact improvisation and Qigong.^[16][17]

Qigong and tai chi are traditional Chinese somatic practices, teaching practitioners to align body, breath, and mind through cultivation of qi, or "life energy".^[6][18] Aikido is a Japanese martial art that includes teaches internal awareness and an emotional state of non-aggression; some styles emphasize this with separate "ki development" training.^[6][19]

Exercise practices

The Pilates method is a somatic form of physical fitness conditioning developed by Joseph Pilates in the 1910s. He designed his technique, which he called "Controlology," to benefit posture, strength, and flexibility. He emphasized the somatic principles of mind-body connection, concentration on proprioceptive observations, and attention to breath.^[20][21] Most contemporary forms of Pilates focus on correct physical technique and form more than proprioceptive connection.

Dance practices

Contact improvisation is a somatic style of postmodern dance

All forms of dance demand the dancer's close attention to proprioceptive information about the position and motion of each part of the body, but "somatic movement" in dance has a more specific meaning: it refers to techniques whose primary focus is the dancer's personal, physical experience, rather than the audience's visual one.^[22]

Some dance educators use somatic principles and training, especially Laban Movement Analysis, Ideokinesis, Alexander, and Feldenkrais, in performative technique classes.^[23] These practices are used to train dancers' proprioceptive skills, to adjust alignment, and to reduce the risk of injury by correcting improper or inefficient movements.^[23][24][25]

Somatic teaching practices build students' attention to the sensations of dancing. They include making corrections with touch, in addition to verbal instructions; focusing on energy and process, instead of the shapes they produce; and relaxing habitually-overused muscles.^[26] Using somatics in dance training, by strengthening dancers' knowledge of the soma, makes their technique more "intrinsic, internal and personalised." This direct self-knowledge is valuable for contemporary dancers, who are increasingly asked to work outside the structures of canonically codified techniques such as ballet or Graham technique.^[27]

Contact improvisation is a somatic genre developed by Steve Paxton and others in the 1970s, which consists of two or more dancers responding organically to the physical sensations generated by their mutual contact; it can be performed, but is not designed to have any particular visual impact.^[28]

Ruth Zaporah's Action Theater, developed in the 1970s and 1980s, is an improvisational performance technique based on "'embodied presence', a state of awareness in which performers maintain conscious contact with their somatic experience," according to dance scholar Susanna Morrow.^[29]

Spiritual practices

Spiritual practices may use somatic principles, such as Sufi dancing and Buddhist walking meditation.^[19] Sensory experiences, from meditative dancing to childbirth, can be interpreted as having profound spiritual meaning.^[30]

See also

Somatic practices

• Eutony
• Ideokinesis
• Kinetic Awareness
• Laban Movement Analysis
• Rolfing
• martial arts, especially

• Aikido
• T'ai chi chuan
• Judo

• Skinner releasing technique
• Somatic Experiencing

People

• Elsa Gindler
• Gerda Alexander
• Mabel Elsworth Todd

References

Bibliography