Reflections on the Embodied Field. Bharata Natyam Dance in Warsaw as an example site
Keywords:
fieldwork, body, dance, embodiment, movement, thick participation, body memoryAbstract
This article presents an ethnographic reflection on constructing the field when the subject of the research is an encounter with dance practitioners of Bharata Natyam, a classical Indian dance practised in Warsaw. The author shows the essential methodological and theoretical issues related to researching movement, where apart from the researcher’s subject of study, she herself and her body are a part of the researched landscape of experience. The embodied aspect of acquiring the dance of foreign origin by Polish dancers needs a re-conceptualisation of the notion of ethnographic field. The article shows the case of Bharata Natyam dancers in Warsaw, who work on their own corporeality to embody the movement and make it a part of their own body image and therefore their identity. The strategy of researching kinaesthetic culture is outlined on the basis of, among others, the assumptions of phenomenology, which gives the body a respected place in every kind of human experience.
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