The purpose of this study is to explore learner-centered strategies that enable safe and sustainable movement in dance education, grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Safe Dance Practice and Somatic Ballet®. A conceptual analysis was conducted based on a review of relevant literature. The findings identify three key strategies. First, the sensory awareness strategy is a learning condition structured at the beginning of class so that learners can monitor their physical state before engaging in movement. Second, the sensory regulation strategy proposes that learners to adjust movement based on their own bodily sensation, while referring to the instructor’s guidance. Third, the rest and recovery strategy reframes rest not as an interruption of training, but as a learning mode that prepare learners for subsequent movement. From this perspective, safety is understood not merely as injury prevention but as a learning condition that should be implemented within the educational structure of dance education. This study contributes a practical, learner-centered framework that supports students in recognizing and regulating their bodily states within the learning process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between Bak Geum-seul's "Chumdongjak" movement principles and Somatics. It is also to examine the movement principles of Bak Geum-seul’s "Chumdongjak" in relation to the theory of the Five-Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Through the embodied experience in Bak Geum-seul's basic dance moves, the results of the study are as follows: First, one of Bak Geum-seul's movement principles is to enable a dancer to recognize and be aware of their body, which is similar to a principle of somatics that focuses on body awareness. Second, Bak Geum-seul's ‘upper body’ movements can be represented as Wood and Fire. Bak Geum-seul’s ‘middle body’ movements can be described as Earth while her ‘lower body’ movements can be symbolized as Metal and Water according to the theory of the Five Elements. The study suggests what happens inside of our bodies can be signaled through emotions. I hope that this study, which emphasizes the importance of expressing internal emotions through dance, may promote a healthy and harmonious lifestyle.

This study considers methods develop a ballet educator training program that can improve ballet education in South Korea, where technique-focused training leads to physical and mental injuries and lack of artistry. A training program model is developed for ballet educators based on the philosophy of somatic dance/movement education, which integrates dimensions of body, mind, and spirit. The framework of the program was formulated by exploring the educational goals and principles of ISMETA, as well as factors such as ‘knowledge’, ‘autonomy’, and ‘peer networks’, presented in the international survey on education, TALIS. Then, we compared and analyzed domestic and international ballet educator training programs to select essential elements based upon the aforementioned three aspects. We made detailed programs such as ‘somatic dance/movement theory, movement anatomy and physiological dynamics, movement analysis, somatic ballet teaching method, dance education theory, and developmental psychology’ for the knowledge factor, ‘reflective practice’ for the autonomy, and finally ‘pedagogic workshop’ for the peer networks.

We analyzed Taepyeongmu (Dance of Peace) from a somatic point of view to understand the dance’s movement principles, using Kim Kyeonghee’s “BRACED” principle (year of paper that used “BRACED”).’ Taepyeongmu is a dance composed with various rhythms and parts. Accordingly, there are lots of body movements and turns, where it is essential to ‘Breathe’ and ‘Align’, which require ‘Relax’ of the body and the mind as in the principle of ‘BRACED.’ Consequently, the inner and outer movement are well ‘Connected’ to perform the Queen’s ‘Dance’, ‘Expecting’ peace in the country.

Based on the ‘BRACED’ principle, it is evident that all of the six principles of somatic movement are inherent in this dance. By conducting this research, we hope to lay the foundation for studying the principles of somatic movement of other traditional dances.

The aim of this study is to examine how climacteric women's Soma has changed in response to somatic movement training. The study was conducted for a total of 10 months from March to December 2021, and participants were four climacteric women aged 50-56 registered in a fitness club. After conducting twelve somatic movement training sessions, in-body measurement, Kupperman index, and Telomere Assessmant were performed. The study first found that all four participants' menopausal symptoms (such as fatigue, insomnia, arthralgia, and depression) improved. In the telomere trajectory analysis, participants' physical activity duration increased, their quality of sleep improved, and their level of social support increased. The study participants reported, through somatic data, that the somatic movement training improved their body's awareness and control, encouraged emotional healing, and strengthened their social connections. Both expressive and functional movements were improved by somatic movement training.

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 study explores the teacher-student relationship in a somatic movement program through a self-study approach, based on the teaching activity for a class consists of 9 females of 65–80 age groups. Through the somatic classes, in general, people experience their own movements. In this study we learned that the teaching is far more effective if the teacher-student relationship is horizontal and consistent body contact exists. Teacher-student relationship was getting deepen into love and compassion through the body contact such as short time massage in the movement session and hugs as the greeting. It provided calm and happy moments to the participants’ minds and bodies; moreover, the touch as a primal and instinctive act made them feel better sensitively and kinetically. Furthermore, the students permitted to access into their soma, which obviously improve the learning process of somatic discipline and they had the modulations of somatic experience in the first-person and second-person experience.

This article reports on changes in health-related parameters, including muscular strength, cardiac-pulmonary endurance, flexibility, equilibrant and coordination, elderly citizens who completed a seven month movement educational program based on somatic disciplines for body-mind integration. The study included 5 participants (1 male, 4 females; age range 70-86) and was conducted over seven months (November 2013 to June 2014) at a senior welfare center in Seoul, Korea. Pre-program data collection consisted of a questionnaire on somatotype, body composition analysis, and examination of physical strength. The somatic movement program included meditation, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Pilates, the Feldenkrais Method, etc., and each participant attended class for two hours twice a week. The program comprised to sections of 20 and 14 classes respectively. After each section, body composition and physical strength were analyzed (1st exam: March 27, 2014 ; 2nd exam: June 3, 2014). The results of this study were as follows: First, the participants lost weight and body fat noticeably through somatic disciplines. Second, it seems that there is a significant interrelationship between somatotype and health elements. Indeed, the participants improved on some specific aspects of health elements more than others which depends on the participants’ somatotype. For example, leg and arm muscle functions were improved more for participants with mesomorph than those with ectomorph. The observed outcomes were attributed to the participants’ attitude of immersing in classes, mindfulness, intimate relations between teacher/peers, and awareness of their own soma in daily lives.

Human beings think, study, and develop creativity and character somatically. However, at present, many people are pressured and stressed; as a result, they have lost this sense. The purpose of this study is to explore the principles and develop a program of movement education based on somatics through the analysis of literature on somatics as a practice plan for the recovery of the vitality of soma. First, the principles of movement education based on somatics are as follows: The goals of education are atony, awareness, awakeness, and abundance. The contents of education are soma and movement responding to temporal, spatial, and relational factors. The methods of education are composed of verbal methods leading to first-person experience, including description, comparison, explanation, and questions, and non-verbal methods leading to second-person experience, including touch. Second, the program of movement education based on somatics was as follows: The “Soma 4A program” was developed to reflect the principles described above. Specially, three programs were actualized with a focus on characteristics like totality, verticality and confrontation, balance and horizontality, and movement. Finally, we recommend implementing and evaluating this program, developing various programs, expanding movement education based on somatics, and connecting this to dance education. We hope that this study will represent a small steppingstone in movement research–based somatics, and that it will help dancers and ordinary person to understand the soma through the provision of valuable data.

Following the drastic increase of elderly population, Parkinson's disease has become the second-fastest growing disease after dementia. Parkinson's disease is a chronic degenerative disorder of the cranial nerve system caused by the lack of dopamine, which controls body movement. The disease is a physical impediment that affects daily life of patients and it may progress to dementia. At present, Parkinson's disease cannot be completely cured and the patients depend on medical remedy, surgical therapy, and physiotherapy. However, the existing medical treatment has produced several side effects. As a result, movement therapy, which relieves physical disorder and restricts the progress of the disease without causing side effects, is receiving increased amount of attention these days. This study focused on the movement therapy program aimed at the improvement of physical impediment caused by the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and analyzed the existing domestic and international studies. The purpose of this study was to highlight the importance of the movement therapy for the Parkinson's disease and propose efficient methodology. This paper also introduces efficient and practical movement therapy programs that can be easily applied in clinics. The literature review on the application cases of the movement therapy program for patients with Parkinson's disease proved that Feldenkrais method was the most efficient method of relieving physical impediment among early-stage patients. Clinical studies have already proved multilateral movement therapy effects of the Feldenkrais method in diverse fields. This study introduced Feldenkrais method as a prevention and treatment scheme of the Parkinson's disease and proposed the potential design of the movement therapy program based on the Feldenkrais method.