embodied research

Todays evening Skype session was very interesting to me, I feel like it helped me put more clarity into my thoughts and the things I was mulling over in my head lately, in relation with my inquiry.

What struck me, was the connection or parallels between non-positivist research and an embodied approach to learning in a dance class.

While in a positivist based inquiry, the goal is usually to find "the" answer or one truth, in a non-positivist inquiry, it is the process itself where the learning happens, it allows more insight into a theme, opens up another point of view and hopefully leads to more questions, rather than a defined answer (thats how I feel about it at least).
I have never thought about it, but I can see similarities in the approach one takes in a dance class: you can either focus on working toward one ideal, which implies the notion of wrong and right, being "correct", having a very specific (mostly) aesthetic (physical) goal to work towards.
Or you can look at a class, in a non positivist way, as a way of "embodied research", where you learn by trying out and exploring different approaches how to connect to your body, giving you more options, to express yourself as a dancer/artist, process based. As, I think it was Jane and Adesola who gave that input: providing more than one way to look at something and therefore giving you options, allowing choices.

So rather than working towards an "ideal" body or way of dancing, that then can be presented.
It could be about developing tools and ways to communicate with your body as an embodied being/dancer. Communicating with the audience, or fellow dancers, rather than "presenting" yourself...?

The Skype discussion also made me reflect, on how through engagement with the learning material and environment of this course, I can draw more and more connections between theory and practice. I start to grasp or experience, how theory can become embodied, as embodied knowledge and how I can link my practice to theory. So the two things are no longer separate, they become more like different ways of meaning making, or as written above different approaches or ways to look at something, or approach something.

Looking forward to reading all of your blog posts about todays Skype session!