Ph.D., Antioch University, 2018, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

This research explores the complexity of the human-nature relationship through the emergent arts-based lens of environmental dance. The work is guided by a transdisciplinary mission—to actively create bridges and connections between and among disciplines typically thought to be independent bodies of knowledge in their own right: here they merge and become synergistic partners, producing a new way of knowing that is greater than the sum of two independently-partnered disciplines. A transdisciplinary approach opens us to know a multiverse where a holistic perspective expands the traditionally singular viewpoint of the existing predominant Cartesian paradigm. The study allows space for “environmental dance” to emerge as a true transdiscipline. Furthermore, this project is based upon the intuitive sense that the arts, once again, as exemplified by “environmental dance,” can offer nuanced insights and pedagogical strategies for future research and development, which may inspire and guide holistic, imaginative, creative and systems-oriented engagement of humans with the natural world. The groundwork for reaching this goal lies in the emergent “environmental dance” theory that has directly originated as a “product” of this research. The emergent theory known as Satori Loop© provides an underlying prerequisite shift in perspective, mindfulness and embodied awareness that restructures the way humans have previously chosen to engage the natural world, while celebrating the unifying concepts of diversity and connectivity in a self-organizing universe. The research design draws upon a dual methodology: phenomenology and grounded theory, in tandem with a “pastiche” of arts-based methods that work together in complementary synergy, opening up a nuanced way to study and further describe the phenomenal interface of the dancing human body embedded in the dynamic, living landscape. As a thorough inquiry into the “lived experience” of the environmental dancer, a prominent feature of t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Fred Taylor PhD (Committee Chair); Tomoyo Kawano PhD (Committee Member); Susan Loman MA (Committee Member) Subjects: Dance; Environmental Studies