The soul beneath my iron mask: ritual somatic movement practice and the racialised body

Abstract

This article is a summary of my masters research inquiry into the ontological implications of race, whilst studying somatic movement education (SME). This solo heuristic practice-led research enquiry drew from the fields of phenomenology, critical race theory (CRT), black feminist thought, depth psychology and art therapy. The theory of double consciousness by W.E.B Du Bois was an important influence as I became drawn to explore somatically, a potential psychic liminal space between the stereotypical and the archetypal self. Part-theoretic and part-embodied narrative, I describe intuitive bodily processes of enquiry utilising expressive arts practices for reflection within a ritual container, grounded in the field of SME. Centring a qualitative subjective approach to knowledge formation, it asked the main question: how might an awareness of the emerging somatic experience of the racialised body bring new knowledge to the problem of race?