The purpose of this research is to explore if the Feldenkrais Method(ATM), a leading approach of the somatics field, is positively applicable to Royal Court Martial Arts. Three research questions were prepared to achieve the purpose of this study. As a research method, experiential description based on phenomenology was employed. The researchers of this study applied the ATM to a practical field of Royal Court Martial Arts, Pyung Soo Beop in particular for 100 days. Making the training logs, the researcher described them in a lingually representative way. The result of analysis and interpretation of the somatic data were as follows. First, what appeared on Sensory Awareness Training during the process of learning the ATM of the Feldenkrais Method, were largely categorized into three features. (1) ‘intentional exploration’-the process of recognizing intention through movement, (2) ‘relaxation and communication’- the process of delivering the intention of the movement and (3) ‘integration and arrangement’- a status that looks for and recovers a definite intention of movement. Secondly, the answers of the second research questions, were characterized by the following five features: exploration, concentration, coordination, integration, and energy. (1) ‘exploration’ is the first step to discover an accurate intention at the starting point of a motion. (2) ‘concentration’ is the step to recognize and understand the definite intention of a motion. (3) coordination is the step to recognize given information through the process of concentration, and then, to continue to look for the most effective way through a ‘coordination’ of organic movements. (4) ‘integration’ is the step to relax, transit, be aligned, and be recovered through the most efficient movement. (5) ‘ki energy’ is the last one, which not sequential, overall, so it is distinguished form the order of the other steps. Thirdly, the findings to the third research questions were as followings. (1) breathing was improved and changed to be easy, comfortable, stable, and deep. (2) coordination and balance were harmoniously improved. (3) through organic harmony of movements, the body’s alignment changed into a balancing and stable state. In conclusion, this study showed that Royal Court Martial Arts applied by ATM could improve performer’s sensory awareness ability in general, integrating function and structure by intentional movement, through which training of the Martial Arts could be improve in quality.

This article analyzes my dance work, Walk. It is crucial that dancers, as the main agent of dance art, embody their dancing as real experience and recognize their dancing bodies. This research questions if dancers, when becoming the principal agents of their bodies, experience bodily subjectivity differently from what they feel when they passively dance. The methodology used for this study includes practice based research and dance analysis. In terms of literature research, we examined the historical recognition and discourse of body in order to understand dancers’ bodily subjectivity. Practice based research refers to a particular type of inquiry that interrogates the whole process of artistic creation from the conception to the performance. For this, we analyzed somatic data that were generated in the process of creating my dance work Walk in order to illuminate the changing recognition of bodily subjectivity. When it comes to dance analysis methodology, we adopted Janet Adshead-Lansdale’s dance analysis model. The research’s findings are as follows. dance works Walk adopted bodily exploration early in the stage of practice, dancers could move their bodies with more integrity. Dancers in Walk showed individual differences in terms of their depth of recognizing bodily subjectivity as well as of the speed of experiencing their bodies. However, as they gradually experienced their own bodies, they became more confident and showed progress in performing creative movements. These analyses indicate that dancers as well as artists can recognize their bodies as active and subjective when an inquiry on bodily subjectivity builds on. The dance field in Korea has shown little interest in the significance and possibilities of bodily subjectivity. we hope this research would stimulate further inquiry on bodily subjectivity.

This study was intended to introduce the modulation of somatic experience in Korean academic societies, which was one of the core concept of Soma Theory of Thomas Hanna. Although Somatics was introduced in Korea by several scholars and practitioners during recent decades, the concept of experiential modulations has remained vague on account of its difficulty. This study aims to eliminate the vagueness, tracing Hanna’s academic and professional background of his Soma Theory. For this study I visited Novato Institute to see Eleanor Criswell and other colleagues twice and I had chances to discuss with the Somatic Educators the vague area of Hanna’s theory. The first texts for the cross-analysis used in this study included his books, training manuals, and articles mainly written by Hanna and his colleagues in the magazine-journal ‘Somatics,’collected in Novato Institute and Myong Ji University Library. As a result, this study clarified three modes of somatic experience, in the first-person, second-person, and third-person experience, and the modulation of somatic experience. At the same time this study was able to find their relationships to the transformation of our material-based age and the significant position and role of Somatics raised by Hanna in the mobile revolution Era.

This paper analyzes the performance of “Connected” by focusing on the proprioceptive senses. Presented at Ewha Woman’s University Performance Hall 1, “Connected” was performed based on ballet movements and characteristics of post-modern dance and somatics. This research adopted a practice-based research methodology and followed five steps: research design → concept formation → composition and practice → performance and analysis → examination of the research findings. The researcher videotaped practice sessions and kept a journal of proceedings during the study. In order to analyze the dance work thoroughly, the researcher explored the role that an audience’s visual sense plays in a ballet performance as well as the performer’s senses in post-modern dance. The researcher looked inward with the concept of proprioceptive senses in somatics in order to analyze the researcher’s own ballet performance. The findings based on “Connected” can be summarized as follows. First, after stimulating senses in the first part of the practice, the researcher had a more delicate understanding of the soma. As the researcher gained more knowledge about one’s soma, including contraction and relaxation levels and range of motion, the researcher felt more comfortable, focusing more on expressing oneself. Second, the routine and habitual movements felt different because the researcher was dancing according to one’s feelings. The researcher was able to focus more on the performance’s qualitative aspects, indulging in dancing and performing more sensuously, rather than focusing on the quantitative factors, the mere connecting of different moves. Finally, the researcher was able to dance with more freedom when trying to stimulate the proprioceptive senses while remaining conscious of the audience. Rather than practicing and performing routinely and putting too much emphasis on the audience’s perceptions, the researcher moved with more freedom. This research demonstrates that stimulating the proprioceptive senses of the researcher was essential to the dancing. Through proprioceptive sense stimulation, dancers may produce more comfortable and seamless moves, which may also result in a higher quality performance. In this regards, this research suggests that performers can enhance the quality of their performances when they thoroughly understand their own soma through proprioceptive sense stimulation.

This dissertation investigates the way dancers experience the “personality of soma” while practicing. The purpose of this dissertation was to study the interrelationship between the personality of soma and the creation of unique dances. This study included dancers learning original movements and the entire process of practicing. The author used practice-based research and other academic resources for the study. First, major terms, such as “soma,” “somatic learning,” and “personality of soma” were defined based on other academic sources. The discussion of the concepts of soma and somatic learning is primarily based on the somatics of Thomas Hanna. The personality of soma discussion is based mainly on the concepts that Karol Wojtyla suggested from a theological perspective: origin solitude, origin nakedness, and origin unity. Practice-based research informed analysis of the entire process of constructing the piece, creating choreography, practicing, and performing. Somatic data was derived from the researcher’s first-person observation, and dancers were employed as the subjects of analysis. Experiencing the personality of soma consists of four stages: recognition, awareness, unity, and openness to soma. First, the experience of silence caused the dancers to recognize their soma and discover the potential within them. Second, the experience of origin solitude allowed the dancers to discover creativity and autonomy within their soma through an exploration of autonomous movement. Third, the experience of origin unity provided a chance to realize that soma has its own way of conducting communication and personal interaction. Fourth, undergoing the origin nakedness stage, the dancers learned how to dance their unique moves without the eyes of others, a perspective that they had internalized. The researcher who participated in the study gained self-esteem and recovered the personality of soma. They also created unique dance through a development of their own dance moves. By conducting this study, the researcher experienced transitions from passive, memorization-based learning to active learning, which allowed the utilization of somatic sensations.

The intent of this study is to explore what soma in dance is, how dancers can communization in dance, and what communication in dance is. This research will explore the contents of “Somatics”, which have been studied for soma in culture and dance research through a literature review. By doing so, I want to study what the soma is and how to communicate specifically in the dance. In addition, the research method is based on the experience of the direct soma of the dancer, which was also used as an auxiliary research method. This study is only one study exploring the way communication is done in soma dance. This study can be a small reference in terms of widening the horizon of communication rather than defining the problem of communication in all dance performances as one standard.