Holding Safe: How Sensorial Responses to Episodic Memory Communicate Embodied Testimony and Foster Kinaesthetic Empathy in Performance / Tessa Salomone (2023)

This practice-based study aims to contribute towards the gap in research of the intersection of dance and trauma studies, specifically in relation to embodied testimony. I examine if dance, as an embodied form of testimony, can heighten the ability to form a connection of kinaesthetic empathy between performers and their audience. Additionally, I question how performance can cultivate a safe space for its performers and audience, and can performance encourage audiences to hold space for the performers, as well as themselves. This document will detail the development of my choreographic methodology exploring physiological responses to episodic memory. The improvisational studio practice, Movement Rescoration, incorporates guided imagery and bilateral stimulation to produce authentic movement characterised by increased sensorial perception that arises from recounting emotional memories while remaining oriented in the present moment. The research is largely informed by the psychotherapeutic method of EMDR, Nina Martin’s Rewire: Dancing States, and Anna Halprin’s Psychokinetic Visualisation Process. Furthermore, I will discuss the choreographic outcome of the research presented in the Graduate School Showcase entitled Holding Safe. This full-length dance work presented in the round used movement-based dialectic and dialogic conversations as testimonial storytelling to provide a means of articulating unspeakable truths without triggering the performers or audience. To conclude, I will reflect on how the invitation into an embodied mode of critical inquiry by acting as witness to the performance was extended to both the audience and the performers.