Contact improvisation is a form of improvised partner dancing that has been developing internationally since 1972. It involves the exploration of one's body in relationship to others by using the fundamentals of sharing weight, touch, and movement awareness. It has evolved into a broad global community of social dancing around "jams" characterized by their welcoming attitude towards newcomers to dance, as well as seasoned practitioners, and is often found overlapping with ecstatic dance communities.
Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in the U.S. and Europe. Although originally informed by and borrowing from classical, modern, and jazz styles, it has come to incorporate elements from many styles of dance. Due to its technical similarities, it is often perceived to be closely related to modern dance, ballet, and other classical concert dance styles.
Bartenieff Fundamentals are a set of principles for "corrective body movement" developed by Irmgard Bartenieff, who studied with Rudolf Laban and colleagues in Germany (1925). After coming to the United States in the 1940s and becoming a physical therapist, Bartenieff developed the method in the form of a set of exercises, based on concepts and principles of kinesiological functioning, that can be extended into all types of movement possibilities. Bartenieff in developing this work fused her studies in both Laban movement analysis with Physiotherapeutic principles and the influence of both is a strong component of the Fundamentals.
Gerda Alexander was a German / Danish teacher who developed a "bodymind technique" or "somatic practice" known as Eutony. As a young woman, Gerda was in contact with the vanguards of the arts, education, and movement culture in the early 20th century. From the 30's on, she started to develop her innovative method through her studies between movement and musicality, new pedagogies and neurosciences. Through Eutony, she collaborated with many medical centers, pedagogical institutions, and artistic training in Europe, North and South America and the Middle East.
Body psychotherapy, also called body-oriented psychotherapy, is an approach to psychotherapy which applies basic principles of somatic psychology. It originated in the work of Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud and particularly Wilhelm Reich who developed it as vegetotherapy. Branches also were developed by Alexander Lowen, and John Pierrakos, both patients and students of Reich, like Reichian body-oriented psychotherapy and Gerda Boyesen.
The Mitzvah Technique is focused on dealing with body mechanics in a state of motion. It is a development of the Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, and health-oriented work on musculoskeletal problems and stress diseases. Each of these techniques is based on correcting common postural faults by addressing the neuromuscular system through postural re-education. The Mitzvah Technique includes a philosophy in addition to its set of procedures. This includes the discipline, exercises, and work that Mitzvah Technique practitioners do with their hands.
Dance science is the scientific study of dance and dancers, as well as the practical application of scientific principles to dance. Its aims are the enhancement of performance, the reduction of injury, and the improvement of well-being and health.
Frederick "Erick" Hawkins was an American modern-dance choreographer and dancer.
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Gaga is a movement language and pedagogy developed by Batsheva Dance Company director and teacher Ohad Naharin. Used in some Israeli contemporary dance, it has two educational tracks which are taught in Israel as well as several other countries:
Ideokinesis is an approach to improving posture, alignment, and fluency of movement through structured guided imagery that uses metaphors, such as visualizing an object moving in a specific direction along various muscle groups throughout the body, while lying completely still. Proponents claim that repeated practice of this particular formula of mental imagery translates to improved coordination in dance and in movement in general "based on the idea that imagery can improve skeletal alignment and posture through the re-patterning of neuromuscular pathways in the absence of overt movement". Although there is some evidence that rehearsal-style mental imagery may benefit performance in sports, there is currently insufficient data to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of metaphorical imagery as only personal and experimental research has been conducted on ideokinesis and there are reasons to believe it may be contraindicated as a relaxation technique.
Eric N. Franklin is a Swiss dancer, movement educator, university lecturer, writer and founder of the Franklin Method, a method that combines creative visualization, embodied anatomy, physical and mental exercises and educational skills. He lives in Wetzikon, Switzerland.
Somatics is a field within bodywork and movement studies which emphasizes internal physical perception and experience. The term is used in movement therapy to signify approaches based on the soma, or "the body as perceived from within", including Skinner Releasing Technique, Alexander technique, the Feldenkrais Method, and Rolfing Structural Integration. In dance, the term refers to techniques based on the dancer's internal sensation, in contrast with "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.
Graham technique is a modern dance movement style and pedagogy created by American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham (1894–1991). Graham technique has been called the "cornerstone" of American modern dance, and has been taught worldwide. It is widely regarded as the first codified modern dance technique, and strongly influenced the later techniques of Merce Cunningham, Lester Horton, and Paul Taylor.
In dance, floorwork refers to movements performed on the floor. Floorwork is used extensively in modern dance, particularly Graham technique and Hawkins technique, as well as in vernacular breakdancing. Some dance training practices, notably Floor-Barre, consist entirely of floorwork.
Mary O'Donnell Fulkerson (1940–2020) was an American dance teacher and choreographer. Born in the United States, she developed an approach to expressive human movement called 'Anatomical Release Technique' in the US and UK, which has influenced the practice of dance movement therapy, as seen in the clinical work of Bonnie Meekums, postmodern dance, as exemplified by the choreography of Kevin Finnan, and the application of guided meditation and guided imagery, as seen in the psychotherapeutic work of Paul Newham.
Contredanse is a documentation center for contemporary dance funded by the French Community of Belgium and is located in Brussels. It provides choreographers and dancers with tools and resources to connect their studio practice with academic inquiry by providing documentation about the philosophy of movement, body, composition and a history of the discipline. Their services include providing information about the sector, trainings, publishing and documentation.
Thomas Louis Hanna was a philosophy professor and movement theorist who coined the term somatics in 1976. He called his work Hanna Somatic Education. He proposed that most negative health effects are due to what he called Sensory Motor Amnesia. He claimed that many common age-related ailments are not simply a matter of time but the result of poor movement habits.
