Working from the Inside Out: Crossing Borders into Somatic Practices – A Personal Reflection on Benefits of Use of Somatic Practices in Dalcroze Eurhythmics Teaching

In this reflection on how crossing borders into Somatic practices inform my Dalcroze teaching practice, I share my experiences of working with the Somatic practices of Colleen Bartley in preparation for performing as a dancer/ musician in her structured improvisation piece “Surface Tensions of the Unknown”, performed on 9th June 2022 at The Place London as part of the Resolution Dance festival. I am particularly interested in the questions which are arising from a perspective around institutionalised aestheticism: - the focus on the externalised view of the body that objectifies it and expects performance of a “proper” dance technique. (Green, 1999, p.81) and how there is a danger that this might lure teachers away from the somatic principles underlying Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and therefore how crossing borders into somatic practices might bring us teachers to elicit a more authentic response from our students.