In the book,'Sensing Movement, Living Spaces,' Susanne Ravn
explores and describes how 13 professional dancers, as expert
movers, offer enriching insights into movement and body
consciousness and in particular into the internal sensing of
movement that in a variety of ways takes centre stage in the
dancers praxis. All 13 dancers have established international
careers and represent a cross-section of genres and backgrounds in
classical ballet, improvisation, modern/new dance and techniques
related to Butoh and Body-Mind Centering. This allows the author to
make a comparative study of ways in which lived experience can be
structured and of how space, sensing and memory are shaped and
given form in movement. The book interweaves ethnographical studies
with a phenomenological perspective to explore how movement is
essential to experience. In the central part of the book this
layered approach allows Ravn to take the diversity of the dancers
descriptions to suggest that their expertise in movement offers
important material for phenomenological descriptions of movement
and body consciousness.
Dr. Susanne Ravn is Associate Professor at the Institute of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark. She combines praxis, ethnography and phenomenology in her scholarly research into dance and has published several books on issues surrounding dance, movement and learning processes.
