Moving from Within: A New Method for Dance Making [Paperback]

Alma M. Hawkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1991

A new approach to creating dances for teachers and students of creative movement, modern dance, ballet, jazz, and aerobics from the founder of the UCLA Department of Dance.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

As founder of the UCLA Department of Dance and author of Creating Through Dance (Princeton Bk. Co., 1988. rev. ed.), Hawkins continues to explore the creative art of making dances. This volume draws equally from her experiences using movement as therapeutic intervention with emotionally disturbed adults and children in a psychiatric institution, and her experience teaching advanced dance students in an experimental program of her design at Santa Monica College. Process as opposed to product is her focus as she searches for ways to facilitate creative growth. Her theoretical analysis of the creative act, loosely organized and more personal than scholarly, will be of less interest to the reader than specific suggestions for movement exercises. Not the groundbreaking book the title suggests, but a useful idea book for teachers. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.
- Joan Stahl, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: A Cappella Books (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556521391
• ISBN-13: 978-1556521393
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Dance > Choreography

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction, July 7, 2003

By 

Dr. Lee D. Carlson (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moving from Within: A New Method for Dance Making (Paperback)

The editor of this book wastes no time in stating the author's theme of the book: that creativity is a private affair (and this is a general statement, and not just applicable to dance). Who knows better than the person in knowing how to interpret the "intricate morass" that constitutes him/her? Expressing their internal sensations and intuitions though are difficult for the individual however, for meanings of words can be altered as they are filtered through the individual personality. But in a book words must be used of course, and the author does so with great skill throughout. It is perhaps suprising that a choreographer would write about creativity and attempt to teach it as a skill that can be learned. The best choreographers consider creativity maybe as a momentary release, as a kind of play, defying explanation, and they are usually not to motivated to do so. This author though explains that throughout her life her main ambition was to find new ways of facilitating creative growth.

To instruct others how to be creative entails that one understand the nature of the creative process. This is nontrivial, and so it is not surprising that the author would overview briefly various research opinions on the subject. The creative potential is influenced by the environment and one's interaction with it. One's experiences can be expressed symbolically, but this may not always be done effectively with words: one may need to use motion, sound, or painting. Dance choreography to the author is, following the classification of the philosopher/logician Susanne Langer, a "presentational form of symbolization", which is inherently metaphorical, and feelings are presented via the use of images and illusion.

Imitation, conformity, and fitting into preconceived patterns can have no intersection with creativity argues the author. It requires the imagination, the sensing and feeling, and the restless desire for truth. She definitely believes in an unconscious contribution to the creative act, but also a "pre-conscious" mode of thought that integrates fragmentary knowledge and isolated elements of experience and brings about the rise of new conceptions. This middle ground between the conscious and unconscious, the Ruggian "transliminal mind", is the origin of creativity according to the author. The author makes reference to research in neuroscience regarding the hemispheric specialization of the brain, and its possible connection of creativity with the right hemisphere. She does mention though that current research points to the fact that specific localization may not be valid. The current research in neuroscience into the nature of creativity is fascinating and this book just touches on it. No doubt experimental techniques in cognitive science will settle the issue in the upcoming decades.

The author is not content with merely theorizing about dance and creativity, but in teaching students to find out and utilize their own. She lists several different classroom activities throughout the book to encourage student action. Feeling, sight, and imaging are discussed in real-world contexts and many examples given of how to integrate them into the production of (personal) movement. The role of symmetry/asymmetry in movement forms is discussed also, interestingly, showing a possible Doris Humphrey influence. The therapeutic role of dance is also given emphasis by the author, with a few real examples discussed. The author quotes students as telling her that dance has changed their life, and they will never be the same again. Dance has that impact, always, and this book will certainly assist in its realizing its power. But the only way to learn dance is to dance.