Somaesthetics, Rhythm Tap and Populism
Somaesthetics is a branch of philosophy that has developed relatively recently and is articulated by scholar Richard Shusterman, amongst others, however, rather than focusing on aesthetic experience and the beauty of the soma or body, as its name would imply, it is concerned with Right Action: a philosophical concept or aim that is about how humans can live to their full potential. ‘As embodied creatures we can act only through the body, hence our power of volition — the ability to act as we will to act — depends on somatic efficacy’ (Shusterman, Richard. Performing Live, Cornell University Press, N.Y., (2000).
To develop our somatic or bodily awareness and our body’s efficiency, Shusterman suggests drawing on practices, such as Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Bodywork and Reichian bioenergetics, that mirror older practices such as Hatha Yoga and Zen Meditation; where the focus is on the efficient functioning of the body and the absence of somatic problems that could result in dis-ease. But there are implicit problems with the notion of the ‘body beautiful’ — the body itself is a docile, malleable site, within which all manner of political philosophies are played out as we willingly give up our self care to the medical profession, who control and manage our bodies for us and apparently on our behalf. Shusterman argues that even as ‘repressive power relations’ are encoded in our bodies, they can be challenged by somatic practices, because in such practices, the individual takes responsibility for and cares for their own body.
Somaesthetics can be divided into two separate strands: representational and experiential. It can be further divided into the performative and the practical. The experiential, practical strand is the one that Shusterman advocates, as it is through a deeper awareness of our bodies that we are able to perform Right Action. He says that ‘each individual needs to fashion her own somaesthetic practice to suit her specific life conditions’.
When I re-read what Shusterman had written recently I was struck by this statement — I realised I had managed to fashion my own somaesthetic practice to suit my life conditions without realising that that was what I was doing. Ironically, the somatic practices Shusterman talks about are hardly accessible to the ordinary person — apart from being largely unknown, they are expensive ‘treatments’ that only the privileged can afford to access. But as I have a background in dance, I have been able to access these practices without paying for them: YouTube has a wealth of videos that are easy to follow and I have enjoyed reading the words Alexander, Feldenkrais and Lowen have written about their practices. I have also attended a few classes and started using these things, along with yoga and meditation on a daily basis, meaning that my understanding is experiential. But I do not think that my bodily awareness would have been so quickly developed had I not also rediscovered a mode of bodily expression that suited me and my life conditions: Rhythm Tap Dance.
But let me start at the beginning: back in 2013, I was at the end of a long and difficult PhD journey. I had completed most of the work, but I still had lots of writing to do and I had become quite unwell. On reflection, I can see that I had become disembodied during this heady intellectual process and I was also dealing with a difficult subject: grief and its re-presentation in film. As the PhD was practice led I had found a way of making film work that reflected my lived experience and used the embodied camera. But my original argument: that making film works can assist in the mourning process by accessing the visual, rather than relying on cognitive language based therapies, had become void. I discovered through my research that trauma and loss remains stored in the body despite therapeutic interventions and expressive arts based approaches. So I began to consider that I had vicariously embodied the trauma of loss and that this was why I had become unwell.
Unsure as to how to address this, and feeling rather sorry for myself, I had one of those odd synchronicitous moments that can only be explained by the collective unconscious, I came across a BBC arts programme about the tap dancer Savion Glover and found myself — and my mirror neurons — becoming excited about tap dancing again. I had not done any tap dancing since I was 13 and as nearly forty years had passed since then I was not at all sure I would remember anything. But I was amazed by how much my feet remembered and after taking a few classes to develop my technical skills, I started dancing at home, on a wooden tap board to music I loved: mainly soul and jazz. This meant that I was able to immerse myself in the action and be as free as my feet would allow me to be. But by itself, this was not enough and my poor muscle tone and lack of alignment meant that I was frequently frustrated by my inability to tap as I would like…still…I practiced and slowly made some improvements. Alongside this I had also reengaged with yoga and was developing my general fitness level and feeling much, much better. But one day I managed to injure my knee while running for a bus and it took such a long time to heal that I started to look for other ways to heal what I did not want to become a permanent weakness. I realised I had overstretched ligaments and had been performing yoga moves and poses that I did not have the flexibility for. I had caused my own injury by attempting to follow a somatic practice that my body could not support. So I started doing some Alexander Technique after another incidence of synchronicity took me to the training school that is near to where I live. I was lucky enough to be a case study for a third year student of the Technique and had twelve individual lessons — this meant that I was able to carry on with the work independently after the sessions were finished.
F. M. Alexander argued that Western bodies were being incorrectly used — rather than squatting or bending in ways that support our skeletal frame, we in the West sit on chairs and use our bodies in ways that do not support our natural inclinations. He observed that around the world, there was not the same incidence of back pain despite people carrying heavy objects and performing hard manual work. He proposed that we stand and move differently to reeducate our selves, and that we keep our heads forward and our necks free. I started lying in semi-supine for twenty minutes every day as Alexander advised and adapting my yoga practice so that I was responding to my individual body and its level of flexibility, rather than trying to achieve poses and perform asanas that I struggled with. This was such a simple intervention that I was amazed at how helpful it was in releasing my neck and spine and improving my breathing — I remember that I spoke about it as if it was magic…
But I was still having problems with my knee and alignment so I looked out for other somatic practices that might help.
Moshe Feldenkrais developed a system of movement through awareness that seems absurd and illogical. But he was interested — way before the notion of brain plasticity was identified — in how we could reeducate our brain to direct a more efficient way of moving. I felt that what he was proposing was absurd and I found it hard to access his practice from his writings so I went to a class and found examples of the exercises on YouTube to follow. A very simple exercise really helped my knee so I continued to add exercises to my daily practice as and when I needed. This bodywork continues to surprise me as I find ways of extending what I thought were naturally short hamstrings using Feldenkrais exercises as well as ways of releasing tension in the jaw and hips. I now feel as if I move differently — more economically and with much less tension.
Bioenergetics has always seemed to be a new age type of thing and I had avoided it until Shusterman spoke about how it relates to somaesthetics despite its lack of rationality. The idea that I was interested in is that we have become removed from the natural circadian rhythms of the planet and that this means we get blocked and as a result, unwell. When I started reading Alexander Lowen’s writings I was struck by its reference to shaking as a way of clearing such blocks.
In 2014, I set up The Women’s Rhythm Tap Collective, initially as a performance project, but it soon came to have a life of its own and a committed group of women now meet monthly to dance together. Rhythm and its potential as a healing tool was something I had already researched — the notion of communicative musicality, which is how we develop language skills, depends on rhythm and Buddhist chants rely on rhythm as a way of engaging and focusing the mind. (a basic beginners step, which forms the basis of the Women’s Tap Collective routine, is rhythmically taken from a line of the Heart Sutra) Scholar Bradford Keeney argues that rhythm is the basis of ‘shaking medicine’ a universal practice that initiates healing. Again, synchronicity was in action here as I realised the connection between rhythm tap, healing and somaesthetics. But tap dance is not considered to be a somatic practice, and even worse, it’s a form of populist art, that is it is treated with disrespect both in the USA and in the UK. Seen most often in musicals, where the dance is quite twee and very bouncy, tap dance is widely enjoyed by dancers young and old, but rhythm tap is another thing altogether. Rooted into the ground it is embodied, meaning that as in bioenergetics, the connection to the ground is a way of engaging with the natural world. Yet it is helped by using Alexander technique and Feldenkrais bodywork, making it an aesthetic expression of somaesthetics. As a political act, it requires one to be aware of ones own body in the world and it is also a subversion of the populist form tap dance, as seen in musicals and more modern styles of tap.
One of the important features of Tap Collective monthly meetings is the final twenty minutes, when everyone comes together in a circle and we improvise. This mirrors the circle dances of indigenous peoples as well as the ‘ring shout’ which was a form of dance and song sharing carried out by Southern American slaves when they were forbidden from hitting drums and performing ritual dances from their homelands. It’s a pure expression of rhythm: the group keeps a basic beat and we take it in turns to tap our own rhythm on top. I am always impressed by each and every contribution — brave and bold, even beginners get involved — I can see from their faces how connected they are to this moment of expression. This moment when they get to stamp their feet, ‘finding their legs’ as the hoofers used to say, making sounds that re-sound and ground them. Making a political statement — for in our culture, its not common for women to make much noise. More importantly, it’s that they take ownership over the creative process, rather than waiting to be ‘taught’ how to dance, they trust themselves and their feet to do the talking for them, contributing to the musical rhythmic sounds of the group, so that our rhythmic song rings out across the city. Right Action in action, in the everyday; and my health and wellbeing continues to thrive: not only am I feeling physically, mentally and spiritually good, I am also enjoying sharing the things I have discovered with others — grateful for the synchronicities and the connections that have enabled me to find a way to live Right.
Shusterman, Richard. Performing Live, Cornell University Press, N.Y., (2000).
Trevarthen, Colwyn. Communicative Musicality, Oxford University Press, U.K., (2009).
Knowles, Mark. Tap Roots, Macfarland and Company Press, North Carolina, (2002).
Keeney, Bradford. Shaking Medicine, Simon and Shuster, N.Y., (2007).
Alexander, F.M. The Use of the Self, Orion, London. (2001).
Feldenkrais, Moshe. Awareness Through Movement, Harper Collins, N.Y. (1972).
