Social Kinaesthesia in Dance and Care Work / Margret Schuetz (2019)

The thesis Social Kinaesthesia in Dance and in Care Work looks at the phenomenon of Social Kinaesthesia in both fields to provide a broader context for the methodology that was used in the creation of the performance Moving & Handling. It first seeks to define embodied communication between dancer and audience, drawing from neuroscience and phenomenology. The key role of kinaesthetic awareness become apparent and various modes of awareness that are common practice in dance class and choreography are described. The thesis than focusses on Social Kinaesthesia, shedding light on the inter-subjective dimensions of kinaesthesia by a close look at Contact Improvisation and the phenomenon of Kinaesthetic Empathy. The evaluation of a training programme for nurses and interview material with healthcare professionals show that similar modes of awareness are at use in care work, the social field that was investigated as part of this research. The section on methodology eventually describes how Embodiment and Social Kinaesthesia were practiced in the rehearsal process and applied in the final performance.