Experimental Dance and the Somatics of Language: Thinking in Micromovement

This book is about dance’s relationship to language. It investigates how dance bodies work with the micromovements elicited by language’s affective forces, and the micropolitics of the thought-sensations that arise when movement and words accompany one another within choreographic contexts. Situating itself where theory meets practice--the zone where ideas arise to be tested, the book draws on embodied research in practices within the lineages of American postmodern dance and Japanese butoh, set in dialog with affect-based philosophies and somatics. Understanding that language is felt, both when uttered and when unspoken, this book speaks to the choreographic thinking that takes place when language is considered a primary element in creating the sensorium.

Megan Nicely is an artist and scholar working at the intersections of contemporary release-based dance and Japanese butoh. She completed her MA and PhD in performance studies at New York University and is currently Associate Professor of Performing Arts at University of San Francisco, whose program focuses on the arts and social justice. Her writing has been published in Choreographic Practices, The Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, TDR: The Drama Review, Performance Research, and The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance, among others. She continues to perform regularly in the US and Europe, leads a weekly community butoh-based movement class, is the co-editor of the Critical Acts section of the journal TDR: The Drama Review, and lectures and writes on experimental performance.