This book presents nine lenses through which the body is conventionally viewed. The body as object, the body as subject, the phenomenological body, the contextual body, the interdependent body, the environmental body, the cultural body and, finally, the ecological body. Designed to be a guide and stimulus for teachers, students and practitioners of dance, performance, movement, somatics and the arts therapies - and for anyone troubled by the idea of a brain on legs.

Our growing understanding of embodied awareness is one of the less known and most extraordinary areas of contemporary research and practice. On one side (the left brain, as it were), neuroscience in all its forms is constantly shedding new light on subjects like embodied cognition, the distributed brain (brain-in-the-gut, brain-in the-heart), the workings of the left and right hemisphere of the brain (McGilchrist and others) and the processing of sensory and emotional data. On the other side (the right hemisphere, as it were) our study and awareness of the experience of being in our bodies, moving, feeling pain, dreaming, meditating, growing, becoming ill and healing, is becoming increasingly nuanced. Academic research is approaching the experience of consciousness and awareness 'from the inside' and making remarkable discoveries. The emerging field of 'body and awareness' is transdisciplinary and multifaceted - it has no subject listing in libraries and academia or in booksellers' metadata. But it is of central importance to those interested in understanding art, dance, the psychology of health, child learning and development, trauma, the psycho-ecology of extinction, loss and climate change, proprioception and enteroception, ecological awareness, meditation, and the need for societal transformation in an age of multiple convergent crises.

Following on from Sandra Reeve's Nine Ways of Seeing a Body (which offered a historical perspective on different key approaches to the body over time), this new edited collection brings together a wide range of contemporary approaches to the body that are being used by performers or in the context of performance training. The intention is for students, dancers, performers, singers, musicians, directors and choreographers to locate their own preferred approach(es) to the body-in-performance amongst the lenses described here. The collection is also designed to facilitate further research in that direction as well as to signpost alternatives that might enrich their current vocabulary. All 12 approaches represent the praxis and research of their authors. The chapters reveal a wide variety of different interests but they share the common framework of the notion of 'body as flux', of 'no fixed or determined sense of self' and of supporting the performer's being-becoming-being as a skilful creative entity, emphasising the intelligence of the body at work. Authors: Campbell Edinborough, Hull University Sreenath Nair & Arya Madhavan, Lincoln University Konstantinos Thomaidis, Royal Holloway, Univ. of London Kate Hunter, Victoria University Niamh Dowling, Rose Bruford College, London Suze Adams, Independent Research Artist Emma Meehan, Coventry University Nicholas Hope, Intl. Screen Academy, Sydney Roisin O'Gorman, Univ. College, Cork Natalie Garrett Brown, Coventry University Imogene Newland & Franziska Schroeder, Queen's Univ, Belfast Pam Woods, Exeter University

Since the mid-80s, Prapto's moving/dancing has delighted and inspired thousands of people in the West (as well as many more in his native Java) who have witnessed, worked with or been otherwise influenced by his Amerta Movement practice. But what is this non-stylised Amerta Movement practice? And what is it about Prapto's work that so touches the lives of therapists, artists, musicians, dancers, teachers, performers, monastics and laypeople from all walks of life? To answer these questions, this new book collects the experiences of 30 movement practitioners from Indonesia, Europe, North and South America and Australasia. All of them have trained and studied extensively with him and most are recognised by Prapto as movement teachers. Some themes and areas covered: Moving with babies Amerta Movement and Buddhism Using movement to work with autistic children Movement as a way to loosen the habit of critique and criticism Movement and film...and the law...and archaeology...and music Movement mantra Somatic costumes and movement performance Different chapters look at contemplative, vocational, daily life, therapeutic, dance and performative applications of Amerta Movement. Readership: As well as all those familiar with Prapto's work, the book will also be an inspiration and resource for: dance, movement and performance artists, teachers and trainers therapists of all sorts, especially those working with somatics, embodiment, dance and movement anyone wanting to learn more about the nature and application of Prapto's movement practice anyone interested in the value of an embodied approach to life and work - current thinking about the brain and body point to the crucial importance of nonverbal, embodied perception and communication, and Amerta Movement offers an important path toward growth in this area.