Investigation into the Nature of Altered Experience in Dancing and Pedagogical Support
Merits of altered experience in dance are rarely included in dance training, and seldom investigated in dance research. This omission is relevant to students pursuing educational career goals in dance and to curriculum intended to develop dance artists. Linda Gold, dancer, choreographer, and educator for over forty years demonstrates in her dissertation “Altered Experience in Dance/Dancing” how the phenomenon of altered experience can be investigated in the classroom using a hermeneutic phenomenological research methodology, and how subjective experience may be collected and analyzed using a reflective, dialogic interpretive process.
This research investigates the nature and qualities of altered experience found in dance and dancing, and how this dimension of experience can be fostered in the pedagogical context of the modern dance class. Using a phenomenological approach it explores and interprets written responses and interview material gathered from students in a one-semester college course that applied an experiential teaching approach grounded in modern-postmodern dance and somatic practices. Further, this book demonstrates a research methodology that can be implemented in the classroom and is useful for future investigations of altered experience in dance/dancing.