Keywords
contact improvisation, social therapeutics method, collectively creating, community building, group work, kinaesthetic listening
Sandra describes her personal and professional journey with dance and ensemble group improvisation, through reference to her teachers, her training at East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy (ESI) in New York and the formation of her own practice offering her work in performance and educational settings. The significant transforming and healing capacities that improvisation has given the author, as well as it’s scope for community building through the Social Therapeutic Method are explored. A collectively created moment shared with other dancers is amplified to exemplify how performers listen, respond, negotiate and make decisions leads into discussion of how the activity of building and creating the group is what is therapeutic. The expansion of the work through classes, performances and workshops internationally concludes the article, along with a final vignette reinforcing the importance of ‘kinaesthetic listening’ as experienced by one workshop participant. (pp 28-31)