Martha Eddy - Mindful Movement:The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action

First published in the UK in 2016 by

Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK

First published in the USA in 2016 by

Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,

Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Copyright 2016 Intellect Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.

Please contact Martha Eddy for permission to use for educational purposes Figure 1: Authors schematic view of interrelationships between those people who began certification programs in Somatic Movement Education and/or Therapy and Figure 17: First and second-generation founders of Somatic Movement certifications still operative today.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the

British Library.

Copy-editor: MPS Technologies

Cover designer: Sara Eisenman

Cover image: Warm-ups I from Totem, Alwin Nikolais Dance Company, 1983. Courtesy of Artist: Agnes Mills.

Indexer: Carrie Giunta

Production manager: Amy Rollason

Typesetting: Contentra Technologies

Print ISBN: 978-1-78320-583-7

ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78320-584-4

ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78320-585-1

Printed and bound by Gomer Press, UK

This is a peer-reviewed publication.

I dedicate this book to my daughter Kaya Lindsay Middleton who since her toddler years has had to leave her mom alone to write way too often, and my husband, her dad, Blake Middleton who with deep love and patience kept encouraging me to put pen to page, slash and burn, and feel inspired through it all.

Contents

Kelly Jean Mullan

Sangeet Duchane

Sara Reed and Sarah Whatley

Rebecca Nettl-Fiol

Kate Tarlow Morgan, Eve Selver-Kassell, Lauren Lipmanand Mary Ann Brehm

Slush, Mush, Gush

Snow and Rain Mixed Together

Slush, Mush, Gush

(Martha Eddy 1965)

The Beginning

I basically fell into this book. While I have lots of curiosity and determination, it really was mostly providence that led me to my areas of expertise in somatic movement and supported my having the chutzpah to share this information. What would have happened if my life story hadnt fallen in place in the way it did? Serendipity is at core of my story. It led to the people and places that provided the perspective to see the elements of this integrative new field. These divine coincidences supported my ability to identify both the commonalities and the vivid distinctions of the different systems within somatic education.

Early Youth

While Ive been writing this book for the past 15 years I actually began the research, however inadvertently, 50 years ago when watching my sister dance at the 92nd St Y, eight blocks from our tenement apartment in Spanish Harlem. The story goes my sister didnt love the classes but I pined after them. My parents, Reverends Norm and Peg Eddy community activists and congregational ministers, obliged me and so my personal trajectory of somatic dance began. It started with the ripe and busy atmosphere of the 92Y being introduced to modern dance by Bonnie Bird (later to become an administrator at the Laban Centre in London), Susan Schickele (involved in the advent of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies LIMS in NYC) and Laura Foreman (choreographer and director of dance at the New School for Social Research), while surrounded by scores and primers of Labanotation in the dressing room. I created my own solo that year to my haiku (see above), performing it alone on the huge stage of the Kaufmann Concert Hall at age eight (along with 30 other kids, each getting their turns). By age 11, I was performing in the Ys Performance Workshop in works of Fred Burke (Israeli folk dancer) and Rod Rodgers (Afro-American identified modern dancer). After a few years Rod encouraged me to strengthen the arches of my feet by starting more rigorous technique classes; the nearest place to me was the Martha Graham School. After several years of steady training as the only teenager in the adult Graham classes, I began devotedly to also take Limon classes at the Clark Center with Lenore Latimer. I met Titos Sampos and felt the energy of the African Diaspora there, meanwhile beginning to study, teach and perform outdoor site-specific choreography with Laura Foreman and to find other choreography classes with Art Bauman (1975), James Waring (1975) and Daniel Nagrin (1976). I needed these chances to compose dance; keeping creative with the making of dances was my definition of dancing, born of the seeds at the 92Y.

High School Years

While I chose to study science at Stuyvesant High School instead of NYCs Performing Arts High School (now LaGuardia), I was able to dance more intensively in the summers at the Chilmark Community Center where I met Patricia Nanon and Sandy Broyard women who were friends but easily could have been my mentors. They have nurtured choreography and improvisation on Marthas Vineyard through the Yard and Whats Written Within. So what has this to do with somatic arts? Well, everything. Moving expressively and technically, dealing with hammer toes and falling arches, honing creativity and choreography that emerges from the inner voice, interspersed with learning earth science, biology, chemistry and physics, are all part of the fundamental mix within somatics. And, come summer 1973 in Chilmark a high school friend of mine said as we each went off to college If they have Effort/Shape at your school take it; I think youll really like it!

College Years

Age 16, I read the fine print of the Spring 1974 course catalogue at Hampshire College and came upon The Self That Moves. The title was already alluring, and within its description it mentioned that we would explore Effort/Shape two key elements of Laban Movement Analysis! I signed up; my teachers, Francia McClellan (now Tara Stepenberg) and Didi (Diana) Levy embraced me even as a freshman in an upper division course, and launched me on my somatic career without knowing it. They were both studying to become certified in Laban Movement Analysis (CMAs) and excited about it. Meanwhile Diana was working with Brocca Boettiger (Janet Adler) and guided me on many private Authentic Movement journeys. This was the beginning of a lifelong Authentic Movement practice, in dyads, in groups and even with a video camera. Tara also introduced me to her neighbor Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (founder of Body-Mind Centering [BMC]), newly moved from NYC to Amherst, Massachusetts, a burgeoning Mecca for this concentration of experimentation with body studies. I studied with Bonnie and also went with her to yoga classes (launching a lifetime practice) and aerial gymnastic classes. We explored these and other movement traditions through the lens of BMC. Our Hampshire College cohort also studied Contact Improvisation (CI) with Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark-Smith and went on to work with Trisha Brown and Movement Research. Participants of The Self That Moves trekked down to New York City to an anniversary conference honoring Rudolf Laban, and I met Irmgard Bartenieff and Virginia Reed. The rest is my somatic history. I took a semester back in New York and attended a weekly class with Irmgard in Movement Choir, studied Bartenieff Fundamentals with Diana, took ballet with Collette Barry (who started a school with Susan Klein where they applied Bartenieff Fundamentals to their teaching Klein Technique) and enrolled in an anatomy course with Irene Dowd. I returned to college where I researched the Cuban and Chinese ballet from a socialist-feminist perspective and earned money teaching in a pre-school where one of the teachers was an avid protg of Barbara Mettler, a nationally renowned creative dance educator. Also formative was the unique experience of performing for several years with Susan Waltner, Tara Stepenberg and Eleanor Houston and five other students in the 5 College Dance Company touring the works of Daniel Lewis and the faculty throughout Massachusetts and New York.