The embodiment of care: a collaborative and embodied interpretation of care aesthetics within healthcare through community dance / Maria Belen Garderes (2023)

The embodiment of care explores the intersection of community dance and healthcare to collaboratively define the aesthetics of care. Rooted in James Thompson’s care aesthetics framework (2023) and community dance, this approach unveils care’s artistic, embodied, sensory, and relational dimensions through an Arts-Based Research (ABR) methodology. In this context, three tailored community dance workshops were conducted for healthcare professionals. These were complemented by in-depth interviews, revealing that community dance and care aesthetics offer profound insights into care as an artful experience.

The results emphasise the sensory connections, self-care spaces, and parallels between dance and physiotherapy. They also underscore adaptable, indulgent choreological qualities of care, with multifaceted perspectives, and responsive touch as key aesthetic elements of caring practices.

Overall, this research contributes to the definition of care as a dynamic and creative endeavour, shaping the interplay between art and care within community dance. It also challenges traditional boundaries, opening doors for exploring the dynamic relationship between art and care, fostering compassionate and inclusive approaches to caregiving and to artmaking. Following a care ethics paradigm (Tronto, 1998), it invites wider interdisciplinary collaboration to address discrimination and cruelty on broader social and political landscapes.

Keywords:
Care Aesthetics; Community Dance; Healthcare; Arts-Based Research; Caregivers; Embodiment;
Collaboration.