Performing to Be Whole: Inquiries in Transformation

Abstract

In the following work I explore teacher education performance art and examine what it means to be fully aware through the body rather than housed in a body.1 Developing this embodied awareness is important in teacher education because it expands the connections with others whom we teach, increases the sociocultural understandings that mature with reflection, and enables the silent transformation that often occurs in relationships with the more-than-human Earth. In the following three performances, I begin by explaining the intentions and actions that crafted the performance ideas into a living presence for students. During each performance I stood behind the camera. I panned the crowd and captured the body language of the class members and the performers: their sometimes tense expressions, deep concentration, anger, surprise, and empathy. Later, as I sifted through the visual data and read their journals in order to understand their experiences, I realized that the felt quality of what occurred was not only present in the film and on paper—it was also present in my responses. My dilemma became one of finding a form that was tacitly able to communicate the experiences as a vital memory-in-the-flesh that would live beyond the performances. I began with descriptions of what an interested observer might see while standing on the fringe of these emotional moments. I also sought the best way into the data so readers might

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