ARBN 633105736

Kimerer LaMothe

Kimerer LaMothe – Bio


Edition:

Kimerer, philosopher, dancer, and scholar of religion, lives with her partner and their five children on a farm in upstate New York. After earning a masters degree in Christianity and Culture from Harvard Divinity School, and a doctorate in Theology of the Modern West from Harvard University, LaMothe taught at Brown and then Harvard Universities. She received fellowships for her work in religion and dance from the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study and the Center for the Study of World Religions; and is an award- winning author of several books, including What a Body Knows: Finding Wisdom in Desire, Nietzsche’s Dancers: Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and the Revaluation of Christian Values, Between Dancing and Writing: The Practice of Religious Studies, and her latest, Family Planting: A farm-fed philosophy of family relations.

Part Two: To Dance Is (More than Just) a Radical Act


Edition: 2014 Vol. 12 Nos. 1-2

Keywords
sensory awareness, knowledge, relationships, pleasure, desire, play

Part Two – follows on from Part One, printed in our last issue of Moving On, Vol, 11, 3 and 4, pp. 55-57.

LaMothe describes a dynamic process of learning which takes place through the body. The cultivation of sensory awareness, new bodily movements and greater awareness of natural bodily rhythms are primary resources for the generation of knowledge, according to LaMothe. In this article LaMothe asks the reader to consider the ways in which the act of dancing might yield alternative kinds of knowledge, or ways of knowing which create “mutually enabling relationships with the nature at work in us, through us, and around us.” The kind of knowledge that movement generates, argues LaMothe, leads to a rediscovery of our bodies as agents of play, desire and pleasure, which ultimately lead us toward greater freedom and enjoyment of our embodied existence as a whole. (pp 27-29)

The content on this page is accessible to DTAA members by logging into the website.

 

To Dance is a Radical Act


Edition: 2014 Vol. 11 Nos. 3-4

Keywords
interdependence, knowledge, joy, consciousness, relational bodily self, patterns of movement, creativity

This article was published in Psychology Today Online, on November 29, 2011, and is from What a Body Knows: Finding wisdom in Desire. It is reprinted with Kimerer’s kind permission.

Kimera commences this article by stating: “The practice of dancing is vital to our survival as humans on earth” – this sets the tone for a strong case as to why dancing matters, explaining that “if dancing makes a difference to how we humans think and feel and act – then dancing challenges the values that fund modern western cultures”. Her case is further supported by giving an explanation of the power of dance as a radical act for our bodily selves, our relational selves and our ways of knowing “that cannot be mediated to us in words” as well as the “primal joy” of moving our bodily selves. Further discussion explores the “span of the universe that you are”, the “play with movement that is making us”, our ranges of movement potentiality and healing opportunities, as well as our creativity. (pp 55-57)

The content on this page is accessible to DTAA members by logging into the website.