Dancing Intercorporeality: A Health Humanities Perspective on Dance as a Healing Art

Area of Science:

• Health Humanities
• Phenomenology
• Embodied Cognition

Background:

• The field of health humanities increasingly explores non-traditional therapeutic modalities.
• Cartesian dualism has historically separated mind and body, influencing perceptions of healing.
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty's philosophy offers a framework for understanding embodied subjectivity and intersubjectivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the potential of dance as a healing art.
• To explore how embodied dance practices can mitigate human suffering.
• To re-examine human experience and connection through a phenomenological lens.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis integrating dance practice with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology.
• Conceptual exploration of embodied subjectivity and intercorporeality.
• Application of Merleau-Ponty's theories to understand dance as a therapeutic and humanizing practice.

Main Results:

• Dance, understood through Merleau-Ponty's framework, can ground individuals and foster reconnection with self, world, and others.
• Embodied dance practice offers a powerful means to transcend Cartesian limitations and enhance well-being.
• Expressive arts, when informed by philosophical theory, reveal new dimensions of human experience and care.

Conclusions:

• Dance serves as a potent healing art by facilitating embodied reconnection and mitigating suffering.
• A Merleau-Pontian perspective enriches our understanding of dance's humanizing potential in health and well-being.
• Integrating philosophical theory with embodied practice opens novel pathways for self- and other-care.