When we blame desire for our dissatisfaction, we cut ourselves off from the best guidance we have for finding health and well being. There is wisdom in desire, though we have learned to ignore it. Trained to think and feel and act as if we were minds living in and over bodies, we tend to perceive our desires as unruly forces that we must control - or be controlled by. But our desires are us. They are what we are creating in the moment. When we learn to find and move with the wisdom they contain, we become who we can be, and unfold what we have to give. "What a Body Knows" illustrates how, in relation to three life-enabling desires - our desires for nourishment, physical intimacy and spiritual fulfillment. Food. Sex. Spirit.

In Back to the Dance Itself, Sondra Fraleigh edits essays that illuminate how scholars apply a range of phenomenologies to explore questions of dance and the world; performing life and language; body and place; and self-knowing in performance. Some authors delve into theoretical perspectives, while others relate personal experiences and reflections that reveal fascinating insights arising from practice. Collectively, authors give particular consideration to the interactive lifeworld of making and doing that motivates performance. Their texts and photographs study body and the environing world through points of convergence, as correlates in elemental and constant interchange modeled vividly in dance. Selected essays on eco-phenomenology and feminism extend this view to the importance of connections with, and caring for, all life. Contributors: Karen Barbour, Christine Bellerose, Robert Bingham, Kara Bond, Hillel Braude, Sondra Fraleigh, Kimerer LaMothe, Joanna McNamara, Vida Midgelow, Ami Shulman, and Amanda Williamson.