​​​​​​​Helen Kindred

 The ‘female’ dancer: a soma-scientific approach

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This book aims to question dancers’ relationship with ‘female’ through biological, anatomical, scientific and self-social identity. Recognising the complexities of a fixed-ness of ‘female’ (as much as a fixed-ness of ‘male’), we seek through the contributory voices of scientists, dance and somatic scholars, and movement practitioners to discuss and unpack some of the identities, assumptions, and perceptions of female dancing bodies.

 

We recognise ‘female’ as both a gendered and biological term and encourage contributions that consider how ‘female’ relates to lived experiences and bodily knowledge through social, political, cultural contexts and those that relate to ‘female’ as attributed to biological sex and topics that reflect this in terms of physiology and anatomy, and how multiple lenses to the ‘female’ offer a rich and complex understanding of dancers’ health, training, and well-being.

 

This book draws together somatic experiences of the ‘female’ dancer, that are socially, politically and culturally informed, alongside evidence based scientific information relating to the physiological, biomechanical, psychological and sociological experiences of ‘female’ within the dancer sector. Spanning five central areas of training and performance; Body Image, Strength, Musculature and Female Fragility, Life Cycles: negotiating balance and change, Transgender Dancers, Empowering Women in Dance, the editors encourage readers to meet at the intersections of dance science and somatics, in a holistic consideration the ‘female’ dancer.

 

Interested parties are invited to submit a 500 – 800 word submission of interest relating to one or more of the following themes;

Themes / areas of Interest include:

1.Body Image (eating disorders/disordered eating, body dysmorphia, male gaze, maturation, dance attire)

2.Strength, Musculature and Female Fragility (strength training, dancer as athlete, historical perceptions of feminine-fragile)

3.Life Cycles: negotiating balance and change (pregnancy and post-partum experiences, menopause, peri-menopause, menstrual cycles, loss, societal, career impacts)

4.Transgender Dancers (queering the female dancer, trans experiences, physiological, social, cultural)

5. Empowering Women in dance (embodying being female, women’s circle dances, absent voices in practice and choreography, belonging, ritual, somatic shared experiences)

 

Submissions are invited at https://tinyurl.com/Thefemaledancer  by Jan 12th, 2023

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