Please feel free: sensation, awareness, and choreography

How can attention to lived experience through somatic practice deepen the choreographic and performative process? Somatic practice is a first-person approach to sensing and moving that can help provide a balance to the objectified view of the body that is common in Western culture. Through the process of choreographing Please Feel Free for the 2007 Graduate Dance Concert at the University of Utah, I attempted to bring a somatic point of view to my choreographic process and the performance of my dancers. This thesis document explores somatic theory, the methods through which I applied somatic practice to the choreographic and performative processes, and the outcomes of my research.