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Searching*for*Bliss:—Barbour*
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Dance Research Aotearoa, 2, 2014
79
Searching for Bliss:
Insights and challenges in yoga and contemporary
dance choreography
Karen Barbour
The University of Waikato
Abstract
In this article I discuss a research project exploring how yoga-based movement motifs
might be developed within choreography for performance, while retaining a focus on
wellbeing for all involved. In attending to our wellbeing, I consider creative
processes, preparation, rehearsals, sequencing of the movements in the
choreography and the choice of specific yoga movements. Within the process of
creating two dance works, a number of insights and challenges arose relating to our
diverse and shared understandings of wellbeing, and also our integrity in
performance. Drawing on research findings in the form of dancers’ reflections,
images from the performances, my choreographer’s journal notes and our embodied
methodology, I combine different representational methods to share some of these
insights and challenges.
INTRODUCTION
Undertaking research over the last five years, I have been delving deeper into the
integration of yoga within contemporary dance practice, in both choreography and
in my tertiary teaching (Barbour, 2011, 2013). A combination of small research
projects has provided me with greater insight and practical knowledge about yoga
within pedagogy and performance. As brief background, over the last 20 years I
have been a student of yoga, particularly Iyengar yoga and more recently, Astanga
yoga. i I have found yoga a complementary somatic practice (Csordas, 1993)
alongside my contemporary dance training and a means of enhancing my own
wellbeing. The value of yoga as a method of embodied knowing and as a means of
developing functional integrity in contemporary dance through enhanced body
awareness, strength and flexibility parallels the value of the emotional awareness,
intention and focus I observe in my personal life (Barbour, 2011, 2013).
Working as a feminist educator and artist, I undertake research with a
feminist and phenomenological perspective, investigating lived embodied
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experience. My agenda is to reconstruct knowledge with a feminist consciousness
of contemporary socio-cultural and political issues for women. In particular, I am
interested in researching women’s embodied knowledge, validating embodied
insights and women’s expressions of their knowledge in dancing (Barbour, 2011).
Aligned with the complementary approaches of creative practice research in
choreography and performance, I have adopted and developed relevant
methodologies for this research, making regular use of a range of methods
including interviews, structured group discussions, documentary images,
improvisational and choreographic research methods, reflective questioning and
journal writing. In each case, when employing these methods I am cognizant of
issues of power, trust, rapport, empathy, voice, subjectivity and reflexivity within
research.ii Awareness of these issues is especially key in embodied practices—
workshops involving improvisation and choreography, rehearsals, performances—as
well as in reflection. My research methodology reflects a feminist ethic of care in
which functioning relationships, respect and reciprocity are important moral
concerns, along with consideration of self-determination, transformation and
empowerment (Noddings, 2003). With gratitude I acknowledge dance artists Patti,
Alex, Caterina, Emma, Helene and Marie with whom I am privileged to work and
who are participants in this research.iii
Within this article, I refer to experiences relating to two performance works:
Dancing through paradise, performed in 2010 in the Indian Char Bagh Garden
within the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival in New Zealand (February 2010); and
Bliss, also performed in the Indian Char Bagh Garden in the 2013 festival (February
2013). The Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival is an annual summer arts festival that
brings our celebrated city gardens alive with vibrant and unique music, theatre,
dance, street theatre, picnics, art exhibitions and presentations for all ages
(Barbour, 2010; Barbour & Hitchmough, 2013; Doube, 2007; Sergel, 2004). The
Indian Char Bagh Garden, the site for these performance works, is an enclosed
four-part garden with a central fountain, modelled on the ancient ‘paradise’
gardens common throughout the Muslim world and in India. Such gardens were
designed for relaxation and enjoyment of the sensuous pleasures offered by the
sight and scents of the flowering beds, the tinkling fountain and pools (Barbour,
2010; Sergel, 2004).
It is significant that these performance works were site-specific and created
for the (arguably) ‘therapeutic’ landscape of the Indian Char Bagh Garden. This
garden, like other meditative, retreat and contemplation gardens in general, is
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Dance Research Aotearoa, 2, 2014
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potentially able to foster healing and restorative affects through active
engagement with the environment (Gesler, 2003; Lea, 2008). In this sense,
undertaking a creative process in such gardens might enhance general wellbeing
simply as a result of actively being there. Perhaps, in taking the body away from
the everyday environments in which we live and work, we are able to open up
“attention to the body itself, foregrounding its connections to the world” (Lea,
2008, p. 95). However, as Jennifer Lea argues, spending time in such places “does
not tell us how we should live, but rather acts to problematise our existent modes
of dwelling" (2008, p. 96, italics original). Thus, while the garden environment may
possibly impact on our wellbeing directly, it may also prompt further valuable
reflection about the nature of wellbeing in our everyday lives. In this article I refer
to the specific site of the garden in relation to our embodied experiences and
issues of wellbeing. However I do not directly focus on the nature and processes of
site-specific choreography and performance.iv
Discussion will focus on insights within the creative process, considering
methods of preparation, rehearsals, sequencing and specific yoga āsana (postures
or poses). Quoting the dancers’ reflections on their experiences, I discuss specific
challenges we faced and related insights including emerging experiences of bliss
within performances. Before doing so, I contextualize this research by reviewing
broad understandings of yoga and wellbeing in the research literature.
YOGA AND WELLBEING
The potential for yoga practice to enhance wellbeing in general is both commonly
acknowledged in the practices of yoga and documented in the extensive writing
about the histories of yoga over the last 2000 years. In general, yoga is understood
to mean to yoke, join or bind the conscious attention of the mind and the body
(Desikachar, 1995; Fraleigh, 2009; Iyengar, 1994). Some of the broader
philosophies of yoga are explicated in the Yoga Sutras, the classic work compiled
by Patanjali, and expressed through the eight limbs of yoga (Desikachar, 1995;
Iyengar, 1994). The eight limbs or stages of yoga incorporate:
1. Yama (universal moral commandments); 2. Niyama (self-purification
by discipline); 3. Āsana (posture); 4. Prānāyāma (rhythmic control of
the breath); 5. Pratyāhāra (withdrawal and emancipation of the mind
from the dominations of the senses and exterior objects); 6. Dhārana
(concentration); 7. Dhyāna (meditation) and 8. Samādhi (a state of
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super-consciousness brought about by profound meditation. (Iyengar,
1994, p. 21)
These practices of yoga and understandings of wellbeing are embedded in
Indian philosophies and cultures, involving a lifetime of enculturation, which
students of yoga like myself obviously lack. Thus, rather than discuss yoga
philosophies from my perspective as a beginner and outsider, I refer to Mahadev
Desai, who, in stating that yoga offers “a poise of the soul which enables one to
look at life in all its aspects evenly” (Desai, cited in Iyengar, 1994, p. 19),
encapsulates my philosophical approach to yoga.
Two particular sources of learning for me come through yoga practitioners
who work outside India—the writings and teachings of yogi BKS Iyengar and the
work of dance phenomenologist and somatics educator Sondra Fraleigh. Iyengar
offers a perspective of yoga through his extensive writings and teaching as “the
method by which the restless mind is calmed and the energy directed into
constructive channels (1994, p. 20). Sondra Fraleigh, a dance, yoga and somatic
practitioner who has also published and taught extensively around the world,
summarizes that yoga had the … original intent of spiritual healing and self-
awareness … it signals our kinship with the environment and all forms of life. In
practice, yoga can be a psychophysical means for transforming personality …”
(Fraleigh, 2009, p. xi). Both these perspectives on yoga provide a basis for my
experiences of yoga as an embodied way of knowing and a means for enhancing
wellbeing.
In the varied forms of general health research, wellbeing is understood as
incorporating various dimensions (Cardinal, 2014; Dodge, Daly, Huyton, & Sanders,
2012; Durie, 1994; World Health Organisation, 1997). In particular, in Aotearoa
New Zealand we discuss physical aspects or taha tinana, referring to bodily growth,
development, care and movement in our lives; mental and emotional aspects or
taha hinengaro, referring to coherent thoughts, expression and responsiveness;
social aspects or taha whānau, referring to family, friendships and relationships
with others, as well as feelings of belonging, compassion, caring and support; and
spiritual dimensions of health or taha wairua, referring to our searches for meaning
and purpose, identity and self-awareness (Durie, 1994; World Health Organisation,
1997). Further, and specifically in relation to the context of dance, wellness has be
considered in relation to social, physical, intellectual, career, emotional,
environmental and spiritual dimensions or aspects (Cardinal, 2014). While
descriptions and definitions of wellbeing continue to be debated academically, I
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appreciate a recent interpretation of wellbeing as “a sort of dynamic dance” in
which each person embodies a balancing between their resources and the
challenges they face (Marks cited in Dodge et al., 2012, p. 230). In this sense,
wellbeing is an integrated, embodied and multi-dimensional experience.
When considering these holistic notions of wellbeing commonly referred to in
Aotearoa, the philosophies and practices of yoga relate to and can contribute to
these holistic understandings. While it is relevant to note that the philosophies of
yoga do not explicitly include social aspects or taha whānau, the practices of yoga
may contribute to a sense of social and community identity and belonging (Lewis,
2008), and the first limb of yoga—Yama or universal moral commandments
(Iyengar, 1994)—suggests shared social and moral understandings. Clearly yoga
philosophies have a relationship to multi-dimensional understandings of wellbeing,
although this may not be explicit in the practice of yoga in all Western contexts
(Lewis, 2008; Santillano, 2006). As Clara Lewis (2008) argues, there is a substantial
ontological difference in the holistic understandings of health and wellbeing in
yoga and the physical notion of health as absence of disease, typical in Western
medicine.
I appreciate the holistic nature of yoga practice personally as a student of
yoga and a dancer, although I have observed that it is often the physical practice
of āsana that dancers appear to respond most to, at least initially (Barbour, 2013;
Santillano, 2006). There are a few writers investigating the relationship of yoga
practice and dance (for example Bennett, 2002; Dalzell, 2011; Enghausser, 2007;
Fraleigh, 2009; Gold, 2013; Hartley, 1989; Santillano, 2006). Many practitioners are
involved in teaching integrated forms of yoga and dance along with other somatic
practices. Within tertiary education and professional dance practice
internationally, different forms of yoga are often integrated with dance training
and dancers also are regular participants in yoga classes (Barbour, 2013; Gold,
2013; Hartley, 1989; Santillano, 2006). In recent years when offering contemporary
dance classes that integrate yoga, I have asked the dancers the question of how
they understand wellbeing (Barbour, 2011, 2013). The experience of searching for
balance and the need for movement or dance within their lives are common
responses (Barbour, 2011). I am interested to engage dancers in the physical
practices, the āsana and vinyasa (flowing sequences), the breathing, and also to
foster the accompanying quieting of the mind that may emerge in moving
meditations. Further, I see the potential that a sense of emotional balance and
spiritual connection may arise for dancers through yoga.
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However, many yoga gurus, teachers and writers argue that the holistic
nature of yoga means that “the mere practice of breath-control or of yogic
postures is spiritually of little avail” (Jakubczak, 2004, p. 115). Australian Astanga
teacher and researcher Benjamin Smith writes that “beyond the development of
the physical ability to execute difficult poses, and the calmness of mind required
to undertake the practice fully, this ‘encounter’ with the embodied self brings
about moments within asana practice which practitioners identify as ‘spiritual’”
(2007, p. 40). For dancers, often necessarily very focused on physical aspects of
embodiment, the potential exists within yoga to experience methods and
opportunities for aesthetic, emotional and spiritual expression. Thus, yoga might
offer dancers a method of developing experiences of super-consciousness and
integrity through a more meditative and holistic approach to movement in
performance. Further, participating in yoga classes may well offer social contact
and support within a specific community (Lewis, 2008). And relaxation through
movement, breathing and meditation can contribute to the wellbeing of dancers
who lead active lives and may have stressful professional careers (Barbour, 2008;
Cardinal, 2014). Thus, as Deborah Orr comments, “With yogic meditation
techniques such as mindfulness, they [dancers] can bridge the socially constructed
gulf between mind and body, feeling and spirit, ideas and life, and self and other
that current pedagogy is often unable to span” (2002, p. 494).
Other research lends support to the argument that yoga offers an experience
that develops meditation, contemplation, self-reflection, and embodied knowing
(Csordas, 1993; Dolan, 2007; Lea, 2009; MacKenzie, 2010). In particular, I am much
encouraged by Orr’s general statement: “… feminist scholars have theorized that
yoga techniques can help women access unoccupied subjective sites from which to
mount resistance to oppressive discourses by enabling them to develop forms of
self-acceptance uncontaminated by such patriarchal institutions as the beauty
industry” (Orr, 2002, p. 483). These statements from researchers working in
Western contexts align well with my own feminist and pedagogical commitments to
consider wellbeing holistically, in both dance and yoga, as part of consideration of
contemporary socio-cultural and political issues for women.v
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#### #
Photograph 1: Marie in Bliss. Photograph by Marcia Mitchley (2013)
Photograph 2: Caterina and Marie in Bliss. Photograph by Molly McCabe (2013)
Thus, I began this specific research project with questions regarding how
yoga practices might be developed within choreography for performance, while
retaining a focus on wellbeing. Attending to our wellbeing, I am interested in
developing an embodied, creative process methodology for use during preparation,
rehearsals, sequencing of the movements in the choreography and the choices of
specific āsana. While integration of yoga and dance in training is common,
considering āsana and yoga principles in the creative process or developing them
into performance is less common.vi In this article I describe some of these research
experiences with a view to both sharing choreographic research methodologies and
prompting consideration of wellbeing for dancers.
CREATIVE PROCESS: PREPARATION
In developing an embodied methodology for choreographic process, I drew strongly
on rituals of practice that benefitted me in dance and yoga as we prepared for
performances. Beginning each day with greetings, discussions about our embodied
states and experiences, and opportunities for feedback and support became a
positive ritual, and this process was continued throughout (Cardinal, 2014;
Cheesman, 2011). While arguably not unusual in dance creative processes, it is
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easy to overlook the significance of daily discussion time in terms of social and
psychological wellbeing. Preparing for the day, I drew on Sondra Fraleigh’s (2009)
‘Land to water yoga’ developmental movement to foster progressions from our
everyday upright movement to the floor and into more common contemporary
dance floor warm-up exercises. Integrating yoga principles and āsana into floor
work, engaging breath with movement, taking time to investigate, balancing each
side of the body, was combined easily with rest periods between activities.
Following floor work, regular practice of Suryanamaskara (Sun Salutations—flowing
sequences or vinyasa) and standing poses, using the Astanga method and
integrating breath allowed us to build strength, focus and capacity over time in
this more intensive practice (Fraleigh, 2009). Standing, travelling and partnering
exercises common to contemporary dance classes were the next part of the class,
although we did fewer of these exercises than I would normally include in a
technique class. Imagery to assist in the quality and alignment of the yoga and
dance movement was interwoven with instruction, drawing on both in
contemporary dance and yoga practices. Closing each preparation class, and the
whole day, was a meditative ritual involving simple movements and breathing in a
short sequence called ‘Salute to Inner Calm’.
Preparing in the dance studio for the creative choreographic process helped
me engage as choreographer, being personally more focused and prepared. This
process provided the foundation for integrating yoga and contemporary dance to
train and attend to details in alignment of yoga movement with the dancers and
build our capacity and confidence, especially for those less familiar with yoga. The
dancers reflected on their embodied experiences in the preparation aspects of the
creative process and the following quotations illustrate their experiences.vii
Caterina: “Maintaining my physical and emotional wellbeing during the
choreographic process for Bliss was definitely strongly based on our shared
warm ups in the morning. Beginning the rehearsal with floor work, basic
natural movement and warming up the spine felt like a very organic way into
the body. Followed by repetitions of the Salute to the Sun was the perfect
combination to also awake the yogi body, lengthen and strengthen for the
choreography that required the yoga foundation.”
Helene: “In general the process was easy on the body and mind. We were
given ample time to warm up our bodies and awaken our minds. The warm up
was a group process to bring us together as a group and prepare us for
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working and performing together as a unity. Attention was given to the
individual and to our bodies.”
CREATIVE PROCESS: REHEARSALS
Throughout each day of rehearsal we worked on approaches that integrated yoga
āsana and vinyasa directly into our movement and this informed our embodied
methodology. Sensing balance within our bodies and repeating movements to
develop flexibility and strength evenly required dedicated time during rehearsal
(Cardinal, 2014). Offering detail in working in specific āsana, I also discussed and
referred to a range of yoga resources to support our practice. Inviting yoga
teachers from our community to observe and comment was also helpful for the
dancers’ confidence and learning. I devoted attention to the tempo of our
movement, which often felt slower than normal in contemporary dance, and to the
specific garden environment of the choreography. While the choreography was
necessarily developed in relation to the garden environment, sometimes our
sequences felt too symmetrical in design, or too much unison or too slow for
performance tempo. However, as might be anticipated in site-specific dance, our
dancerly concerns about slow tempo and symmetry were less important than
working harmoniously with the specific garden aesthetics and design (Barbour,
2010). Stimulating consideration of the aesthetics of environment in which we
were moving meant allowing more time for us to engage with and appreciate the
complementary and sensory aspects of movement, weather, planting, stone work,
scents, sounds and design elements.
Throughout we also worked with breathing—consciously considering the need
for choreographing breath within movement and enjoying the fresh air and scents
of the garden. Working in the environment of the garden contributed greatly to my
wellbeing. Sunlight, fresh air, the break from dance studios, and the beauty of the
garden design affected me enormously and I believe did so for the others as well.
Spending time there each day, eating together and socializing was a significant
part of the creative process for us and transformed the rehearsal experience. The
comment below encapsulates one dancer’s experience and reflects comments
made by others.viii
Alex: “I found the lessons in yoga very enhancing for my wellbeing. They help
me connect with myself and the natural environment around me, teaching
me techniques for relaxing and breathing properly. I also found contact work
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with my dance partner helped me to maintain focus on wellbeing, tuning in
to another person, connecting with them and becoming aware of their safety
and comfort as well as your own is a fantastic way to maintain and develop
focus on wellbeing. I found the entire process very calming and relaxing,
because of this, the physical demands of the movement became almost
effortless.”
!
Photograph 3: Alex and Karen in Dancing through paradise. Photograph by
Marcia Mitchley (2010)
CREATIVE PROCESS: SEQUENCING FOR PERFORMANCE
Responsibility for creating the overall choreographic structure of the piece lay with
me as choreographer. While paying attention to site-specific considerations in
complementing the design of the garden, safety, and creating a performance for
the very diverse festival audience, I was also referencing and drawing on the
patterns and methods of yoga classes. Reflecting, I identified that many yoga
classes begin with acknowledgements, prayer and warm-up, leading into detailed
standing and then deeper floor work, with meditation and relaxation to finish.
While Astanga yoga has a specific method or sequence within this overall structure,
teachers may create themes or develop a particular focus or style as their classes
progress. Applying such patterns of yoga classes to performances, I invited the
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89
dancers to begin seated, present and focused in the space as audience members
entered. Acknowledging each other, the garden and the audience in front of the
dancers signalled the beginning of the performance. Performing with the support
of the walls around the outside of the garden, motifs from Suryanamaskara and
standing āsana were included in first sections of the dance. As a student of yoga, I
experienced some valuable learning from working with a wall to support balance
and alignment in standing poses and inversions (Photograph 1). Thus work along the
garden walls was included as a consideration of care for the dancers’ practice in
performance, as well as creating a strong frieze-like visual effect (Barbour, 2010).
These choreographic decisions reflect firstly the process of focusing and giving
acknowledgements at the beginning of yoga class and secondly the warm-up and
training progressions in yoga practice.
Breathing ‘as one’, in unison as a group, was introduced as a method for
group focus and timing of movement in this warm-up section of the choreography,
again as working together as one within Suryanamaskara would be in Astanga
practice. Crucial in the choreography throughout, breath was valuable in terms of
our timing and transitions through the dancing, but even more important in terms
of the significance of breath in practicing yoga with integrity. Keeping a sense of
flow and breath through the movement, the next sections of dance were more
spacious, involving partnering and contemporary dance travelling sequences to
provide dynamic contrasts (Photographs 2 and 4). This faster movement led
towards a dynamic high point and then slowed in preparation for the dancers’
entrance into the intensive balancing work within the central square of the garden.
Moving with precision, the dancers travelled along narrow marble walkways
towards the central fountain, moving fluidly without support through a range of
āsana, working in duet as well as quartet (Photograph 6). The theatrical highpoint
within the whole dance occurred in the centre of the garden with balancing poses
sustained for visual effect. The āsana Maha Natarajaasana (lord of the dance or
‘dancer’s pose’) encompassed a kind of ‘ultimate expression’ for us, as did the
Salute to Inner Calm. Exiting from the central area of the garden allowed each
āsana to be repeated to the other side for balance (though not always to the right
side first or following the strict sequence in Astanga method).
In Bliss, a new aspect of the partnering work was possible when working with
Helene, who has a background in acrobatic gymnastics. Together we were inspired
to develop yoga partnering work in a flowing sequence of challenging balances
together (Photograph 5).
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#### #
Photograph 4: Patti and Helene in Bliss. Photograph by Marcia Mitchley (2013)
Photograph 5: Karen and Helene in Bliss. Photograph by Marcia Mitchley
(2013)
Finally, the dance ended with the whole group coming together, directly in
front of the audience with the garden behind us. Movement integrated motifs from
throughout the dance and deepened into forward bends and some of the closing
sequence of āsana common in yoga classes. The final section was Salute to Inner
Calm, performed with the invitation for audience members to join in where they
were sitting.
Both Dancing through paradise and Bliss involved referencing many yoga
āsana and vinyasa movements and we aimed to perform each with yogic integrity
as well as allowing the movements to flow in different sequences and to be
integrated with contemporary movement and partnering. Two of the dancers
reflected at length on their embodied experiences in the sequencing of the
choreography and the relationship to their sense of wellbeing:
Caterina: “The sequencing of the choreography and combination of yoga and
dance was very relevant to my wellbeing, within the piece and during the
rehearsal process. The sequencing was very related to the space, and choices
we made such as sitting in a conscious but meditative manner in the space
while the audience walked into the garden and were seated behind us. That
way, we were in control of setting the mood in the space and were able to
greet people silently … that part became very significant to set my focus on
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the performance and feeling calm, which was essential for this piece. The
sequencing of the movements/structure was very significant for my wellbeing
and maintaining my energy throughout the piece. Beginning with strong
movements that were supported by the wall was a fabulous way into the
performing yogi body and establishing balance, flexibility and strength. Then
we continued to stabilize each other with duets and loosened it up with a
short contemporary dance sequence, followed by the challenging balancing
acts in the centre. Yet this was also one of the most meditative and spiritual
moments during the performance and that I enjoyed immensely.”
Marie: “The process was, as always, well managed and I felt like I was taken
care of. I think the yoga training absolutely helped, and it was a very good
idea to start with the more demanding parts like the wall work. It really
needed time to sink in… The way the piece was structured made a huge
difference to me. A challenging, but slow beginning that focused on bringing
us together in unison and breath, followed by for me a more familiar and
highly enjoyable contact sequence, which also set me up for the following
challenge of the [centre] square.”
CREATIVE PROCESS: SPECIFIC ĀSANA
Specific āsana and vinyasa were key to the choreography. As mentioned already,
motifs from both Suryanamaskara and Salute to Inner Calm were key within the
choreography. As another example, I will discuss Maha Natarajāsana or ‘dancer’s
pose’, which I described above as an ‘ultimate expression’ for us (Photograph 6).
Sondra Fraleigh outlines the benefits of this āsana, commenting that a challenge is
“balancing with the back in extension while reaching outward into space …
Focusing the eyes for balance … Developing courage in a challenging posture and
practicing self-forgiveness in occasional loss of balance” are all important (2009, p.
14). One of the reasons I observe that this āsana is an exceptional challenge for
dancers is in maintaining a balance between the forward reach (in our case, a
curving reach) and the extension through the back, while still keeping the parallel
leg alignment of yoga. I have observed that this āsana is particularly difficult for
contemporary dancers used to working through rotation in the hip joint and often
pushing to the ends of flexibility and capacity in performance. I found myself
reminding the dancers to allow that working through these āsana is a long-term
journey, to keep a sense of containment and safety in the pose and to breathe.
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Thus, rather than push everyone to an extreme āsana, we moderated within the
group to find a sustainable balance. This more moderate approach required a
depth of somatic awareness from the dancers and became a way of working with
functional integrity in performance. In Bliss, the second and more developed work,
the dancers were more experienced and confident in their embodied awareness.
Photograph 6 (below) illustrates a moment in the dancers’ somatic approach to
moving and breathing through Maha Natarajāsana.
#
Photograph 6: Helene, Patti, Caterina and Marie in Bliss. Photograph by
Marcia Mitchley (2013)
DISCUSSION OF CHALLENGES AND INSIGHTS
Throughout creating and performing Dancing through paradise (2010) and Bliss
(2013), there were a number of challenges to address in the choreographic process
and in performance. Pragmatically, many social challenges related to rehearsing in
a public space and working with an interested audience of tourists keen to ask
questions and unintentionally interrupting our creative processes. These challenges
were anticipated as part of working towards site-specific performance but
nevertheless unfamiliar to dancers used to a private studio creative and rehearsal
process (Barbour, 2010). There were also the challenges of working in the sun and
on marble and stone tiles. As choreographer, I did not include any jumping or
running movement at all to protect our ankles and knees. I did, however, engage
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us all in inversions and āsana requiring strength in our upper bodies. Creating
Dancing through paradise (2010), we noticed the strain in our wrists and shoulders
and subsequently when creating Bliss, I ensured that we trained more specifically
to develop strength, confidence and functional alignment, particularly in these
inversions. The dancers commented on the social, embodied and environmental
challenges of working in the garden and these quotations reflect a range of their
embodied experiences.
Patti: “It was challenging—having to find and re-find balance and focus in
self. [And the] stuff that comes with site-specific practice, heat, sun, public
in performance/rehearsal space … In performance it's weird thinking about
my external shape. It contradicts the yoga and tips between how it looks and
how it feels. Because of the transitions I journeyed through moments of
poses, whereas in yoga I can take the time to revisit, explore and shape a
pose and the exploration of the dynamic experience in my body and how it
feels.”
Helene: “I remember having a bruise on the top of my head after having
rehearsed the headstand sequence a lot the previous afternoon. The marble
floor did not help in this aspect. But being able to adjust the form made for a
pleasant and a lot less painful rehearsal experience. Because the piece is
slow moving, even though difficult in places, there was enough time during
rehearsal and also during performance to recover from the more strenuous
parts of the piece.”
Caterina: “The only challenge to keep physical wellbeing was to rehearse on
the marble floor in the gardens. The ground doesn't have any give but already
after the second rehearsal the body adjusted to the new environment and we
learned how to move in the space.”
More significant for discussion in this context were concerns about
‘performing’ yoga well and experiencing the movement, and thus the issue of
integrity arose. As a dancer, student of yoga and dance educator, I have been very
interested in the idea of functional integrity, valuing and embodying safe dance
practice, balance, sustainability and consistency in movement techniques and
performance. Addressing functional concerns about safety and movement
technique as we worked through the choreography was valuable. When I asked the
dancers about their experiences of functional integrity, their sense was that they
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enhanced body awareness, strength and flexibility through the integration of yoga
and dance. Quotations below illustrate their reflections on embodied experiences.
Alex: “Experimenting with yoga-based movement did encourage me to look at
my body lines and the shapes my body created, and in turn lead to me being
more in tune with my body and its abilities. I guess, in a sense, becoming
aware of what I can do and being proud of this contributed to my emotional
awareness also. I am a lot more confident with yoga and dance integrated
movement now, and I naturally follow correct technique and safety
measures.”
Marie: “I think it also was very helpful to have had yoga teachers comment on
the piece in rehearsal, so I felt comfortable that I wasn't doing the form
injustice. I loved the feeling of dancing, as opposed to doing, yoga.”
Caterina: “I felt a huge growth on all of these aspects, body awareness and a
clearer direction of movement. Strength and flexibility definitely increased
over that period and overall I felt emotionally very balanced, at peace and
completely connected to our work.”
Helene: “While rehearsing for Bliss, I realised that my sense of body
awareness was lacking somewhat. Because yoga is very precise in the lines
and angles your body makes, you need to be very aware of what your body is
doing. In the studio this is a bit easier to achieve, because of the mirror. Self-
correction was possible. Outside in the garden this was a different story …
just your memory in the body … [and I] wasn’t fully aware how poses are
supposed to feel in [my] body … I realised I hadn’t achieved this body
awareness as I would have liked to, but I do think it has improved.”
Patti: “Yes I experience all of those things in yoga, not all at once, and I have
to keep finding it over and over again.”
In yoga as in life, I understand integrity more broadly than just functional
movement integrity. Integrity more broadly reflects consistency in actions and
values. Thus in performing, the integrity of a dancer seems to me to be clearest
when the dancer has a very strong belief in the value of their moving, is consistent
in their movement and is able to reveal that belief to me as I watch so that I too
can appreciate and experience the value of their moving. Consequently, if we were
to ‘perform’ the yoga āsana without engaging fully in the embodied and somatic
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95
experience of the movement we would be compromising our integrity. Engaging
not only through the physical shapes and forms, we also needed to be fully
present—emotionally, intellectually and spiritually present in our embodiment.
A further challenge arose in balancing on the narrow marble walkways within
the central garden area. Surrounded by flowerbeds and water, there was a very
real risk of injury if anyone fell on the walkways. With balancing āsana,
particularly Maha Natarajāsana or ‘dancer’s pose’, Fraleigh recommends
“accepting the experience of teetering and letting go of blame—gathering up the
posture in ever-new approximations of the dance” (2009, p. 15). Early in the
rehearsal process I introduced a practice of ‘self-forgiveness’ to encourage
everyone to work sustainably within her capability and develop safe balances
throughout the process. This process fostered functional integrity and no one ever
actually fell or was injured. However, the perceived risk of falling and the
emotional challenge of dealing with risk required working with balanced postures
and moderation within the group. Marie’s statement that “the balance work was a
challenge for me, and I am still practicing forgiveness” encapsulated the dancers’
ongoing engagements with this practice of forgiveness. Patti also commented on
her experience of finding herself over and over—a comment that recalls the notion
of wellbeing as a dynamic dance.
The quotations from the dancers included throughout this paper connect to
the broader feminist agendas I bring into education and specifically to working in
choreographic practice, in the sense that the dancers are supported to critically
reflect on their embodied awareness and wellbeing. These agendas reflect my
feminist ethic of care in creative practice and research; an agenda concerning our
relationships, empowerment and transformation, rather than therapy per se. In the
quotations above, Alex, Caterina and Helene identify growing body awareness and
confidence, drawing on technique, safety and strength, and moving beyond a focus
on their outward shape or form towards a more embodied experience of the
movement. Thus they indicate they were present in rehearsing and performing,
reflexive in the moment and acting with consistency. Further, Alex and Caterina
both comment on growing emotional awareness, and a sense of balance,
integration and connection in moving. Recalling Deborah Orr’s (2002) suggestion
that yoga may enable women to resist oppressive and stereotypical discourses of
the body as promoted through the beauty industry, I suggest that the embodied
integration of yoga and dance empowered the dancers to engage in the moment in
their embodied experiences, to celebrate their experiences as dancers, to perform
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Dance Research Aotearoa, 2, 2014
with integrity, and to practice self-forgiveness and self-acceptance. Engaging in
performing beyond concerns purely about their outward form, the dancers were
instead expressing more of their unique potential in these dynamic dances of
wellbeing. Consequently, I suggest that they were actively embodying alternative
subjective positions as women and as dancers.
A further discussion point concerns the emergence of experiences of bliss
through the integration of yoga and dance in this research. In yoga traditions, the
‘end’ of the yogic quest is the experience of samādhi in meditation, during which
the senses and the body are at rest and the person is “fully conscious and alert”
(Iyengar, 1994, p. 52). In this state, the person experiences “consciousness, truth
and unutterable joy” (Iyengar, 1994, p. 52) and exists in a state of meditative
super-consciousness in which everything is merged and blended together in the
moment (Desikachar, 1995; Iyengar, 1994). In samādhi, the yogi experiences a
“state of meditation in which only the object of meditation is apparent”
(Desikachar, 1995, p. 241). Iyengar commented that “contentment gives bliss
unsurpassed to the yogi … Contentment and tranquility are states of mind” (2001,
p. 37) and through the method of yoga “the mind, when controlled, provides a
reservoir of peace and generates abundant energy for human uplift” (Iyengar,
1994, p. 20).
As part of the choreographic and performance process, we discussed the
potential for moments of ‘bliss’ to occur within our performing, although we did
not necessarily consider this an ultimate choreographic agenda. Discussing the Song
of the Soul (sung by Sankarāchārya in Ātma Satkam), we were drawn particularly to
the last lines, which read:
“Ever serenely balanced, I am neither free nor bound—
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss is where I am found.” (Iyengar,
1994, p. 53)
In both yoga and dancing, we had each had personal and unique experiences
of ‘bliss’, including tranquil experiences and experiences that were more
exhilarating (Gold, 2013). Discussing what bliss might mean generally during
rehearsals, we drew on varied experiences throughout our lives, while not
intending to reductively define what bliss might be. We imagined that emergent
experiences of bliss in the garden might contribute to our wellbeing, to the
generation of energy and also to a sense of peace. Thus we were open to such
altered and uplifting experiences of bliss, of joy, peace and contentment, in
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Dance Research Aotearoa, 2, 2014
97
performing. While difficult to express these unique moments in words, some
comments from the dancers nevertheless offer insight into their embodied
experiences of bliss in Dancing through paradise and Bliss.
Alex: “I really do believe that performing Dancing through paradise, in all the
beauty of the garden, with the sun beaming down, butterflies floating past
and an audience smiling at me, was an experience of bliss.”
Marie: “As Caterina and I stepped over into the square followed by a high
arch to the clear blue sky and a small breeze came through, I experienced
bliss.”
Patti: “Bliss (in this context) was feeling contained and confident, strong,
ease and control.”
Caterina: “My confidence in the movement vocabulary both in yoga and
dance grew strongly over the period, and the sensation of both coming
together in one work was such a unique experience, that I felt pure bliss on a
physical level, spiritual, mentally and as a whole moving body of energy.”
Karen: “I felt joy in performing in the first sections of the dance involving
breathing as one and suspended inversions. I didn’t perform in the middle
sections of the dance and instead I sat ‘holding the space’, watching and
supporting, breathing and meditating as the other dancers performed. The
movement was all very familiar in my body and I felt a tangible sense of the
movement empathetically—I could actually feel the poses, the balancing, the
weight of my body when I watched the other dancers. As I sat, legs crossed,
breathing consciously while the dancers performed inside the garden around
the fountain, I felt myself supporting their balance and breath as I watched. I
felt connected and at peace within their dancing.”
Performing live, we are aware of the potential for our embodied emotional
experiences to affectively stimulate kinesthetic responses in audience members
(Barbour & Hitchmough, 2013). Articulating these affective experiences in words is
challenging. Some of the photographs included in this article offer another means
of representing such moments of bliss and may potentially stimulate a sense of our
embodied experiences for readers.
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Dance Research Aotearoa, 2, 2014
#
Photograph 7: Caterina in Bliss. Photograph by Marcia Mitchley (2013)
CONCLUSIONS
Researching the integration of yoga-based movement motifs within choreography
for performance drew on our experiences in the creation of two festival
performance works. For the dancers in our group, including myself, simply dancing
and being able to perform together contributes to our sense of wellbeing. As we
engage socially with other dancers, find means of self-expression, deepen
awareness, participate in the embodied experience of moving and the stimulation
of ideas and emotions within the creative process, we become more engaged and
responsive as members of our community. Positively, the further aim to consider
wellbeing in this research led me to consider how the choreographic process as a
whole could foster wellbeing, drawing on a feminist ethic of care. Preparation and
creative processes, the choices and sequencing of yoga-based movements in the
choreography, and the inclusion of specific āsana, all offered insights and
challenges.
Throughout this research, each of us participated in a dynamic dance,
balancing the resources we had to respond to the challenges we faced. We
discovered ways to build and sustain our capacity as we worked, drawing on our
environment and each other as well as on the yoga principles of breath and moving
meditation, as we faced challenges in our dynamic dance of wellbeing. These
discoveries brought recognition of our deepening embodiment of contemporary
dance and yoga, and provided a way of practicing self-forgiveness, self-acceptance
and integrity within our lives. Thus, the creative processes and performance
experiences offered more than simply dancing. In our own ways, the opportunity
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99
arose to enhance our wellbeing within the creative process and to delight in
moments of bliss.
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i A detailed discussion of the differences in the modern Iyengar and Astanga yoga practices is beyond
the scope of this paper. Both are forms of ‘Modern Yoga’ (De Michelis, 2010). Patanajali’s Yoga Sūtra
provides a classical text to which both B. K. S Iyengar and his teacher Srī T. Krishnamacharya refer, as
do those who practice Astānga yoga and follow the teacher Srī K. Pattabhi Jois. The most obvious
differences to practitioners like myself is that those working with an Astanga practice include more
flowing and continuous vinyasa (flowing sequences in a specific order), whereas a slower focus on the
technique of various āsana (poses or postures) is common in Iyengar classes. Further, Srī K. Pattabhi
Jois created a base in the Astanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India, whereas B. K. S Iyengar
developed a step-by-step method through his writings and teachings for Westerners.
ii Ethical approval was granted for these research projects by the Faculty of Education Ethics
Committee of The University of Waikato.
iii Patti Mitchley, Alex Hitchmough, Emma Goldsworthy and Karen Barbour were the performers in
Dancing through paradise (2010) and Caterina Laschke, Helene Burgstaller, Marie Hermo Jensen, Patti
and Karen were the performers in Bliss (2013).
iv For a discussion of site-specific dance (including discussion of Dancing through paradise), see
Barbour (2010, 2011) and Barbour & Hitchmough (2013).
v The impact of stereotypical media representations of femininity on women and specifically on
dancers has been, and continues to be, the subject of much discussion and research. For examples
and discussion of issues, see Barbour (2011), Greer (1999) and Macdonald (1995).
vi California’s The Yoga Garden is one company that specialises in choreography based on performing
hatha yoga. Director Gay White describes: “Blending music with movement and yoga asanas, we are
inspired by the spirit of yoga but are informed by contemporary modern dance”
http://yogagarden.org
vii I have selected two or three quotations from the dancers’ reflections on their embodied
experiences to illustrate the ‘data’ obtained in the research.
viii I have selected one quotation as illustrative of the findings obtained in the research. In this case,
as with other findings, the photographic images add to or reinforce the dancers’ reflections.
