Dance, the body, nature and society: Somatic ecology

The body can be the locus of efforts to develop a more balanced relationship to the natural world. Through the past two thousand years there has been a consistent effort which has separated body and mind, leaving the body subjugated. Efforts in environmental ethics---particularly the theories of Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism---have rallied against the paradigm of domination which exists between humans and the biotic kingdom. Somatic ecology, the thesis developed here, argues that the body is an object of domination, that our construction of knowledge is an artifact of that domination, and that changing existing dualities and seeking out body knowledge could result in dramatic changes in our partnership with nature. Existing movement training techniques, including contact improvisation, body-mind centering, and release technique, can be used to further the goals of somatic ecology.