SOMATIC PERFORMANCE: RELATIONAL PRACTICES AND KNOWLEDGE

ACTIVISM OF BODIES IMPROVISING

A dissertation submitted by

Tiffany Honor von Emmel

to

FIELDING GRADUATE UNIVERSITY

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in

Human and Organizational Systems

This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of

Fielding Graduate University by:

Peter Park, Ph.D. Chair

Peter McLaren, Ph.D. External Reader

Valerie Malhotra Bentz, Ph.D. Faculty Reader

David Rehorick, Ph.D. Faculty Reader

Pamela Meyer, M.A. Student Reader

Somatic Performance: Relational Practices and Knowledge Activism of Bodies Improvising

by

Tiffany Honor von Emmel

ABSTRACT

This study puts the body center stage to show what improvisational bodies can

teach practitioners and scholars about knowledge and transformation. It approaches the

lived body as both social and ecological - the body as a practice of humanity and as a

practice of the earth. Mobilizing the body, it seeks to address an interlocking problem

involving industrial patterns of subjectivity, institutional knowledge creation, and

ecological and social injustice.

In its scope, the study is both practical and theoretical. Practically, the study tells

of how co-researchers practiced improvisation: in a studio, at work, with family, in a

hospital, in the environment, with an audience. Performances are of empowerment,

healing, growth and cultural change. These improvisational bodies teach: reality is a

fluid ineffable ensemble; knowledge is intimate aesthetic activity; and transformation is

an artful ongoing practice, not a result.

Theoretically, I describe four kinds of transformative knowledge. These

knowledge forms are: relational, responsive, practical-aesthetic, as well as

representational. Moving beyond the hegemonic knowledge theory of the modernist

West, moving past text, metaphor and narrative, this is a critical gesture within “the

performative turn” to construct theory of knowledge that is somatic, performative and

relational. I describe how participants cultivate relational modes of time, perception and

desire. I interpret relational practices as transforming of industrial subjectivity.

The research method is performance ethnography. With a DVD-video script and

98 images, I seek to involve the reader in the look and feel of deep participation. The

research strategy was to explore the topic of transformative knowledge while immersed

in a radical cultural practice, body-based improvisation, which is a participatory art. I

interpreted characteristics of knowledge that the practice asserted, using a particular

community arts event as the nexus of my research method. This event, “improvisation

labs”, 2001-2004, began in Berlin, Germany, as a participative inquiry and grew into a

self-directed community of practice. I was a participant and co-facilitator.

KEY WORDS: action research, body, community of practice, critical, dance, ecology,

adult education, environment, expressive arts, group, improvisation, inquiry,

interdisciplinary, knowledge, organization development, participatory, relational inquiry,

self, social psychology, sociology, somatic, time, transformative learning, transformation

Copyright

by

Tiffany Honor von Emmel

2005

Acknowledgements

This research has been an activity of many relationships, some known to me and

some ineffable and unknown. To all my relations, I am deeply grateful. I am grateful to

those who work for peace, justice and well being of life. To my students and clients, I am

so honored to have learned with them.

My deepest thanks to the Improvisation Labs community. Dietmar Brinkmann,

my life partner, has made extraordinary contributions, loving, intellectual, and practical.

This study emerged in our many improvisations – our co-facilitating this community

performance project, daily kitchen table talks and performing in nature together. Thank

you especially to Anita, Ben, Dietmar, Nina, Johannes, Martin, Natascha and Sabine for

the many thoughtful and courageous contributions to this study.

The Human and Organization Development program at Fielding has provided its

improvisational culture as a fertile ground for this transdisciplinary study. I have worked

with exceptional faculty. I deeply thank each: Peter Park, my advisor, for his knowledge

activism in participatory action research and for his bold creativity; Charlie Seashore, for

his wise guidance, dear friendship and development of “use of self”; Peter McLaren, for

his generosity as my external reader and for his work in critical pedagogy of the body;

Valerie Bentz, for her deep work in applying hermeneutic phenomenology to human

development; David Rehorick, for his impeccable feedback on arts-based research;

Pamela Meyer, improviser and consultant, for her bountiful support; Teresa Bailey, for

the ineffable. Thank you to Thierry Pauchant, Judy Stevens-Long, Dottie Agger-Gupta,

and Matt Hamabada for their counsel.

I am deeply grateful to Joanna Macy, for her participation in the DVD-video, her

encouragement and inspiration; Elizabeth Kasl for teaching me participative inquiry;

Sandy Meisner, for the practice of presence. Anna Halprin, I thank for her work in

environmental and community dance and for her mentorship. Lawrence Halprin,

environmental architect, for his approach to collaborative creativity. I thank the

community of Tamalpa Institute: Daria Halprin for pioneering movement-based

expressive arts; G. Hoffman Soto, for movement theater; Ken Otter, for his work with

transformative learning and ecological inquiry. Thank you to the improvisation

communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Berlin, K77, Dock 11, Temescal Arts

Center and Paige Sorvillo, Moment’s Notice, Counterpulse. Much thanks to Cassie

Terman, for her heartful work and Ruth Zaporah, for pioneering Action Theater.

All my family and friends, thank you. My mother, Camille Harris, for her love

and belief. Urusa Fahim, for the delight of possibility. Lisa Kistler, for the cups of tea.

Thea Robertshaw, Gail and Paul Dennison, for the care and body wisdom.

Dedication:

Image 1. Performing intimacy, liberating aliveness

to all who are

bodies

to all who are

earth

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION Page Performing a Participatory World

Your Bodies as Knowers: An Audience Guide to a Performative Dissertation 2 My Body as Knower: Body Performs History, Culture and Ecology 3

The Evolving of Improvisation Labs, Berlin and San Francisco, 2001-2004 20 To Know by Way of the Event, Improvisation Labs: The Research Questions 24

CHAPTER ONE Knowledge and the Body-Self 1A. Institutional Knowledge Practices 30

Liberating the Body Ecology 31 Rational, Individualistic, Control Bodies: Eurocentric Patriarchal Patterns of Representational Knowledge 35 Talking Bodies and Image Bodies: Verbocentrism and Ocularcentrism 38 Knowledge and Subjectivity: Modes of Desire, Perception, Time and Agency 41 Industrial Modes of Desire, Time and Agency 44

1B. The Performative Turn of Knowledge 48

From a Performance of Control to a Performance of Relationship 49 Participative Inquiry and Knowledge: 51 Peter Park’s 3 Forms of Knowledge Formulating Responsive Knowledge 55

Page Formulating Aesthetic-Practical Knowledge 59

Performance Theory and Knowledge 60 The Body, Ecology and Performance Theory 64 Improvisation and Knowledge 67

CHAPTER TWO Improvisation as a Life-Giving Practice

2A. Chapter Overview 71

Defining Relational practice 72 Defining Transformation 73 Defining Improvisation 75

2B. Reading the Event as a Relational Practice 79

2C. Sociocultural Activity: Relational Aesthetics in Practice 82

Moving Towards Life: 86 Anna Halprin Is it Art, Education, Therapy, or Action Research? 91 Movement-based Expressive Arts Therapy and Education 92

2D. Intra-Action: The Body as a Relational Practice 95

Somatics: Body-centered Approaches 97

Spiritual Practice 103 Ecological Practice 106

CHAPTER THREE Learning to Improvise Page 3A. Community of Practice

How to Begin: Connecting and Attending 111

Attending, Responding, Identifying 112 How to Shape Music, Architecture and Feel 113 How to Relate: Recycle, Accumulate, Directly/ Indirectly, Join/Contrast, Pick Up 116

How to Change: Shift, Transform, Develop Repeat, Intensify, Evolve 118 How to Score: Lawrence Halprin’s RSVP Cycles 119

Using a Map of Improvisation 125 3B. Relational Group Work 126

Laboratory Learning 128 Life-affirming Conditions 129 Culture of Reflection 131 Coaching for Improvisation 134 Group Facilitation 135

CHAPTER FOUR Methodological Approaches: Arts-Based Research

4A. Overview of Arts-Based Research 138

4B. Research Topic 139 4C. Quality Criteria 141 4D. Reframing Data as Relationships 142

4E. The Dance of Interpretation 146 Script-Writing, Choosing Images and Titles 149

4F. Representation: Engaging the Bodies of the Research Audience 151

CHAPTER FIVE DVD-Video Script Synopsis 5A Overview 153 5B. How the Script Performs Relational Aesthetics: 154

Fluidity, Re/production, Time, Music, Photography, Animation, Narration

5C. Cast of Performers 159 5D. Vocabulary of the Film Script 161

Style and Language References 162

CHAPTER SIX Act 1: Recycling the Past 6A. Act One Summary 164 6B. Prelude 166 6C. Script of Act One 170 CHAPTER SEVEN Act 2: The Practice of Presencing 7A. Act Two Summary 215 7B. Script of Act Two 216

CHAPTER EIGHT Act 3: Unfolding the Future 8A. Act Three Summary 276 8B. Script of Act Three 278

CHAPTER NINE Social Improvisation and Transformative Knowledge Page 9A. Chapter Overview 332 9B. Social Improvisation: How, When and Why 333 How Improvisation Happened: 334 Towards Knowledge Creation Theory When Improvisation Happened 341 Why Improvisation Matters: 343

Dancing Towards Sustainability Naming the Relational as Radical 347

9C. Relational Inquiry: Creating Transformative Knowledge with the Body 348

Ontology and Ethics 352

Relational Inquiry of the Self 354

9D. Mapping Four Kinds of Transformative Knowledge 357

Practical-Aesthetic Knowledge 358

Relational Modes of Desire, Perception and Time 360

Relational Knowledge: Intimacy 363

Responsive Knowledge: Living as The Gap 365

Representational Knowledge: 368 Poetic Practice and Critical Practice

9E. Particularity and Significance of the Study 372 References 377

List of Images Page

Dedication Image 1. Performing intimacy, liberating aliveness vii Introduction: Performing a Participatory World Image 2. Tiffany, Improvisation Labs, Berlin, 2004 4 Image 3. Dietmar, Reach, a performance ritual at Sea Ranch with Anna Halprin, 1998 18 Image 4. Practicing relationship, Studio Valencia, San Francisco 19 Image 5. Group forming, Berlin, 2001 22 (clockwise from top left: Silvana, Nina, Ben, Anita, Tiffany, Katrin, Dietmar, Sabine) Image 6. Improvisation, crayon drawing, made collectively by group, November, 2001 23 Chapter 1: Knowledge and the Body-Self Image 7. Performing social regulation 32 Chapter 3: Learning to Improvise Image 8. Recycling 116 Image 9. Joining the same frame and relating directly 117 Image 10. Making a score 121

Page Image 11. Culture of reflection 132 Chapter 6: Recycling the Past Image 12. Connecting 166 Image 13. Intimacy before being 167 Image 14. Fluidity of connecting 168 Image 15. Improvisation is a social practice 171 Image 16. Cassie Terman teaching, Temescal Arts Center, Oakland 172 Image 17. Joining: Paige Sorvillo and Yuko Kaseki 173 Image 18. I’m human!! 175 Image 19. Warming up 178 Image 20. Attending: Urusa Fahim 179 Image 21. Open Space: Looking towards the East Bay, San Francisco 179 Image 22. Dependent co-arising: Joanna Macy 183 Image 23. Attending 186

Page

Image 24. Performing intimacy / Berlin Wall 187 Image 25. Relating to representational knowledge 188 Image 26. Playing 190 Image 27. Recycling hegemony 191 Image 28. Simplicity 192 Image 29. Showing doing 195 Image 30. Coming together 200 Image 31. Responsive knowledge 201 Image 32. Open space 202 Image 33. Coming together 203 Image 34. Heart touch: Connecting 204 Image 35. To live the fulfilled moment 206 Image 36. Relate to the performance of self 210 Image 37. Red is heartful and responsive 212

Chapter 7: The Practice of Presencing Page Image 38. Attending with all senses 218

Image 39. Play with the architecture, music and feel 220 Image 40. A ‘frame’ is a world 222 Image 41. Coming together 223 Image 42. Stay with it and a frame evolves 1 224 Image 43. Stay with it and a frame evolves 2 224 Image 44. Practicing community 227 Image 45. Improvisation in different contexts 228 Image 46. Don’t have this fixed order 230 Image 47. Context: We stay different! 232 Image 48. The consumerist body stays the same 232 Image 49. Poetics of representational knowledge 235 Image 50. Improvisation is: “Movement through the unknown, picking up new ways” 236 Image 51. Connecting attending responding 237 Image 52. Relating leads responding: “I just start anything and then ways turn out” 239

Page Image 53. Improvisation is: From the water of relationship 243 springs the dragon of responding Image 54. Stay with it: Natascha attends to a feeling of suffering 244 Image 55. Poetics of meaning-making 250 Image 56. Responsive knowledge: Staccato energy of yes! and! yes! 251 Image 57. Improvisation is: “Smiling heart, smiling heart” 252 Image 58. Relational practice 254 Image 59. Responsive knowledge: “Can do all kinds of things” 256 Image 60. “by improvising, I express something about improvisation” 260 Image 61. Improvisation is “The green play field” 261 Image 62. Activeness of responsive knowledge: “The heat must come out” 263 Image 63. Connecting and attending 264 Image 64. Heart touch: connecting 268 Image 65. Intimacy of connecting and attending 269 Image 66. . Improvisation is: “container, recycle, coming out, risk, relate, joy, flowering” 270

Page Image 67. Relational timescape: Presence in ‘point time’, hermeneutic seasons in ‘circle time’, development in ‘spiral time’ 271 Image 68. Transforming to another context 273 Chapter 8: Unfolding the Future Image 69. Transforming the context 280 Image 70. Relating indirectly 282 Image 71. Participating in performance by witnessing 283 Image 72. Relate directly 284 Image 73. Understanding is sensual relationship 285 Image 74. Poetic practice of representational knowledge 286 Image 75. Society shapes the body 291 Image 76. Context as activity system 293 Image 77. Responsive knowledge at work 1 294 Image 78. Performing sustainability 297 Image 79. Energy follows attention 301

Page Image 80. Club Med, a performance ritual in a hospital 307 Image 81. Responsive knowledge at work 2 311

Image 82. Body on strike 314 Image 83. Heart touches 3 315 Image 84. Reflection on development: “Good reason” 319 Image 85. Participation is a practice 321 Image 86. Relating leads responding 323 Image 87. Performing a line 324 Image 88. Transforming a line 324 Image 89. Closing ritual, giving the work to the wellbeing of all relations 326 Image 90. Performing intimacy 327 Image 91. Liberating aliveness 327 Image 92. Full emptiness 328 Image 93. Sitting with the hill, breathing the sky, feeling peace 329 Image 94. Ensemble dancing in the wind 330

Chapter 9: Creating Transformative Knowledge with the Body Page Image 95. Performed activity 356 Image 96. Performing relational modes of perception 361 Image 97. Performing relational modes of time 362 Image 98. Moving relational knowledge 368 Image 99. Group forming questions 412 Image 100. Mapping improvisation as present moment time 421 Image 101. Learning Improvisation in spiral time (CARI: connecting, attending, responding, identifying) 421

List of Tables Page

Table 1

The Practice of Improvisation as Knowledge Creation 340

Table 2

Contrasting Performances of Predatory Capitalism and Improvisation 346

List of Appendixes

Page

Appendix A

DVD-video Post-Production 410

Appendix B

Work Log of Videotapes, 2002-2004 411

Appendix C

Overview of “Improvisation as Inquiry”, Berlin 2001 Project 412

Appendix D

Catalog of Archived Data from 2001 Project 416

Appendix E

Autoethnographic Materials, 2001-2004 419

Appendix F

Cultural Artifacts 420

Appendix G

Crayon Drawings Mapping Improvisation 421