Egenis seminar: "Kinesthesis in action: How do we feel movement?"

Dance scholars and anthropologists have shown how enculturated ideals, values, and techniques of movement practices shape the way practitioners attend to their body and the feeling of movement (kinesthetic experiencing). Based on recent analyses that indicate how a dancer’s feeling of movement is closely configured with interoceptive sensations and imaginative work, I argue that these findings contribute important empirical descriptions of enculturated aspects and diversities of kinesthetic experiencing which should be considered in phenomenological accounts of kinaesthesis. My argument contains both a positive and negative component. First, I critically elaborate on Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s account of kinesthesis, specifically her claim that we can attend to the qualitative dynamics of our movement any time we want by turning our attention away from the everyday world. Second, I revisit contemporary phenomenological descriptions of kinesthesis along with feminist phenomenological works and discuss how they can help reconfigure the concept of kinesthesis.

Venue: Byrne House, Streatham Campus, Exeter (limited spaces)

Online: via Zoom

Free to attend.Register here