Geographies of Us

Sondra Fraleigh is Professor Emeritus, Department of Dance, State University of New York, Brockport, U.S.A.Shannon Rose Riley is Professor of Humanities & Creative Arts, San José State University, U.S.A.

“This collection of essays gathers together important strands in the current studies of ecosomatics. It includes many ‘practice pages’ that open doors to the feelings that have generated the commitment of the writers to creating common grounds for deep conversation about the way people live in the ecologies of the world. The combination of affective strength, so difficult to articulate, with practical exercises—such as the many approaches to breathing as a form of ecoproprioception—will draw readers into places/ geographies where artmaking and philosophy join together and suggest new languages for thinking and talking about engaging with this Earth.”Lynette Hunter, Professor of Theatre and Dance, University of California, Davis“This seminal collection of essays maps the contours of an emerging field: ecosomatics. At the intersection of dance studies, movement studies, philosophy, and ecology, ecosomatics encourages ways of thinking and doing that cultivate a human’s sensory awareness of their bodily enmeshment in enabling places and worlds—nexuses of material relationships which call for respect, reciprocity, and responsibility. In essays written by an international cast of contributors, ecosomatics demonstrates its fierce commitment to social and environmental justice; a ready embrace of Indigenous knowledges, histories, and rights; thoughtful engagement with established fields of phenomenology, eco-philosophy, and dance studies; a lived, dialectical production of theory and practice, and an overriding mission to participate as consciously as possible in generating worldviews and bodily practices that sensitize humans to the ongoing health and wellbeing of the Earth in us and around us.”Kimerer L. LaMothe, PhD, author of Why We Dance: A Philosophy of Bodily Becoming“Geographies of Us provides an exciting snapshot of a diversifying field: of the different methods, playful encounters, bodymind approaches, and land politics that make up the contemporary ecosomatic inquiry, with plenty of invitations to join in the dance. At its heart, this collection is about local and grounded connection, about reaching out—in intergenerational liveliness and critterly entanglement, in touch and in movement, in human and more-than-human worlds.”Petra Kuppers, author of Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters; Anita Gonzalez Collegiate Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture, University of Michigan“I consider this the most important work to emerge in interdisciplinary dance/performance studies this century. The depth and quality of engagement available to the reader in these pages has the potential to widely transform thought, practice, institutions, environments, and the lived relations between.”Karen Bond, Chair of Dance, Temple University

• Land Acknowledgments List of Contributors List of Figures Ear and Heart to Earth with Gratitude(Acknowledgements)Introduction: Locating Geographies of Us Sondra Fraleigh and Shannon Rose RileySt. George, Utah, U.S.A: 37.0941° N, 113.5749° WFremont, California, U.S.A.: 37.5483° N, 121.9886° WPART IEnworlding, Rewilding, Decentering, Transing/Pluraling, Performing, Attending to, Dancing1 A Critical Ecosomatics: Cultivating Awareness and Imagination Shannon Rose RileyGrau Pond, Fremont, California, U.S.A.: 37.5735° N,121.9847° WEssay2 What Native American Dance Does and the Stakes of Ecosomatics Tria Blu WakpaUniversity of California, Los Angeles, California,U.S.A.: 34.0700° N, 118.4442° WSouth Dakota State Penitentiary, Sioux Falls,South Dakota, U.S.A.: 43.5668° N, 96.7250° WEssay3 Ecosomatic Performance Research for the Pluriverse Daniel Ìgbín’bí ColemanSan Cristóbal de las Casas, México: 16.7370° N, 92.6376° WAtlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.: 33.7532° N, 84.3853° WPractice Pages4 Material/ Material: Thousandfold Somas and Poetry of EmergenceSondra FraleighSt. George, Utah, U.S.A.: 37.0941° N, 113.5749° WEssay5 Decentering the Human through Butoh Lani WeissbachIndianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.: 39.7684° N, 86.1581° WPractice Pages6 Shaky Islands and Rising Seas: Dancing Entanglements in the Global South Karen BarbourKirikiriroa (Hamilton), Aotearoa (New Zealand): 37.7869° S, 175.3185° EEssayPART IIHorse, Lion, Queer Animal, Skin7 Crittercal Somaticity: Rewilding Our Horse Senses Stephen SmithPitt Meadows, British Colombia, Canada: 49.3058° N,122.6057° WEssay8 Moving with CatsShannon Rose RileyThe Berlin Zoological Garden, Berlin, Germany: 52.5079° N, 13.3378° EGrimmuseum, Berlin, Germany: 52.4911° N, 13.4127° EPrivate multispecies dwelling, Fremont, California,U.S.A.: 37.5483° N, 121.9886° WPractice Pages9 Embodying Islands: Ecosomatics and the Transnational Queer Fei ShiNex̱ wlélex̱ m (Bowen Island), Canada: 49.3768° N, 123.3702° WChongming Island, China: 31.6813° N, 121.4820° EEssay10 Skinbody and the Skin of the Earth Alison (Ali) EastOtepoti (Dunedin), Aotearoa (New Zealand): 45.8795° S, 170.5006° EPractice PagesPART IIITree, River, Carbon, Stone11 Practicing with Trees 219Annette ArlanderGalway Road, Johannesburg, South Africa:26.1658° S, 28.0223° EDavid Bagares Street, Stockholm, Sweden: 59.3373° N,18.0687° EKaivopuisto Park, Helsinki, Finland: 60.1557° N, 24.9557° EPractice Pages12 Fearless Belonging and River- Me Adesola AkinleyeThames River, London, U.K.: 51.4925° N, 0.0288° WMystic River, Boston, Massachusetts: U.S.A.: 42.3979° N, 71.0797° WDenton, Texas, U.S.A.: 33.2302° N, 97.1213° WEssay13 How to Apprentice with Land in Enchanted Kinship Christine BelleroseRockcliffe Park, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: 45.4471° N, 75.6847° WPractice Pages14 Feel the Carbon under Your Footprint: Indigenous Approaches to Grounding Nathalie GuillaumeKūkaniloko Birthstones State Monument,O’ahu, Hawaii: 21.5048° N, 158.0364° WPort- au- Prince, Republic of Haiti: 18.5358° N, 72.3331° WPractice PagesPART IVPlace, Plasma, Pluriverse, Potato15 My Place Is a Chiasmatic Dance Glen A. MazisMarietta, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: 40.0559° N, 76.5517° WEssay16 Cosmic Plasma Echoing in (Our) PlaceDebra LaceyConneaut Lake, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: 41.6033° N, 80.3058° WPractice Pages17 Languaging Body by Field: Ecoproprioception George QuashaBarrytown, New York, U.S.A.: 41.9998° N, 73.9248° WEssay18 Outdoor Dances: Meditations on Loss in the Finger Lakes and Beyond Missy Pfohl SmithFinger Lakes, New York, U.S.A.: 42.7238° N, 76.9297° WPractice Pages19 Awe and Empathy Edward S. CaseyStony Brook, New York, U.S.A.: 40.9027° N, 73.1338° WEssay20 Enworlding Place Dances and Potatoes Sondra FraleighSnow Canyon, Utah, U.S.A.: 37.2145° N, 113.6402° WYokohama, Japan: 35.4437° N, 139.6380° ECircleville, Utah, U.S.A.: 38.1688° N, 112.2696° WPractice PagesIndex