(By Our Old Oak Tree): The Nature of Emotion and Bodily Sensations and Their Role in Narrative Drive Choreography / James Adamson (2024)

The expression of emotions is a daily fixture in the lives of almost everyone on this planet. The process of creating emotion is not always clear. What are emotions and how do they form? How are we able to read and understand the emotions of others? Researchers over the years have all submitted different explanations for how emotions are created, such as William James, Carl Lange and Paul Ekman. In an endeavor to better understand the current field of research surrounding emotion, this research will explore the theories that exist to explain emotions. I will also explore possible methods that humans undergo to create emotion. The purpose of this research is to create a working methodology that choreographers, movement practitioners, and performers alike can use to create highly emotionally charged works of art. This will be done by better understanding how emotions are experienced and expressed and what tools are best used to facilitate emotions. Touching on past and present research done by individuals such at Charles Darwin, Nina Bull, Edmund Jacobson, and Dr. Lisa Barrett, I will explore the historical and current models’ emotions as well as using qualitative hermeneutic phenomenology methods of research to explore the relationship between felt emotions and the bodies’ role in experiencing emotions and communicating them to others and expand. I will expound upon my findings through, discussion, journaling, surveys, and workshops with a cast of performers to develop a functional choreographic methodology for producing emotionally moving productions that I will use to produce an original called By Our Old Oak Tree.