Moving toward the touch: partnered touch-guided improvisation for spatial-perceptual listening¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

A partner improvisation exercise in which a blindfolded-eyed (eyes-closed) mover responds to an initiator's soft, direct touch by moving the touched body part toward the touch. Because "the body tends to want to move away from the tactile stimulus, so this becomes an effective sensory and perceptual challenge for the participant." The initiator must touch without directing the mover, so the mover keeps full responsibility for interpreting the touch. Variations include trading partners, multiple simultaneous touch locations, and rules about response quality or speed.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Pairs of students with roles of mover and initiator; the initiator touches with two or three fingers without directing the mover's body.

Constraints¶

• The article positions improvisation here as deepening a first-person somatic experience rather than investigating a choreographic idea.

Target Learners¶

• dance technique students at any level

Target Learning Goals¶

• develop kinesthetic, spatial, and perceptual listening skills through spontaneous response to touch

Affordances¶

• Body Listening Five Somatic Components Framework

Related Strategies¶

• Apply Sewell's five skills of ecological perception as eco-somatic listening activities

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Enghauser, R. (2007). Developing Listening Bodies in the Dance Technique Class. JOPERD, 78(6). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ795590. doi:10.1080/07303084.2007.10598039