Return To The Body: An approach to working with those in disconnect

Abstract

This article articulates an evolving practice methodology, developed as the writer's worlds of practice and theory have moved into alignment. Reflecting on three key facilitation experiences from her work with participants in disconnect, Nicholson uses practice memories to illustrate the depth and foundation the Laban- Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) has provided and proposes a facilitative approach when using dance and movement in criminal justice and recovery contexts. The author provides more commonly used language of marginalisation, social exclusion and hard to reach but finds the notion of ‘Disconnect’, from Self, Other or Environment as a most common place for her participants to find themselves. The article focuses on the themes of
-Movement Analysis and its specific role in this context
-Dynamic Stillness as a place to pursue and Be
-Placing the Observation of Self at the core of practice.
A recurrent idea is that of “returning to the body”: promoting a reconnection with self that results from explorations of the body and the space it inhabits in relation to other, rather than a dissection of any reasons that may have brought a participant to a movement session. A fundamental discovery is an evaluation of the facilitator’s role, in particular the need to bring oneself into the presence of one’s delivery.