Book Launch – December 9, 2024
embodied enquiry in art making: entering the fold
Susan Sentler & Glenna Batson, editors and eight other contributors
An inter/trans/post-disciplinary artistic analysis of folds and folding
What can a fold be? Virtually anything and everything. For centuries, folds/folding has captured the world’s imagination. Folds readily appear in revivals of the ancient craft of origami,the simplest acts of pedestrian life, in art, design, architecture, fashion, performing arts, linguistics, the philosophical turnings of the mind, and last, but not the least, in the many ingenious and elegant computations of (bio)engineering and technology. What awaits our understanding is how deeply the fold roots into embodiment, into our very impulse to create. This book is about folding as a vibrant stimulus for trans-disciplinary artistic research – whether for the performative, for product realization or simply to enliven body, mind and spirit. Conceived as art-made-differently, Susan and Glenna share the abundance of their decade-long collaboration in developing their approach to practice research in the fold. In addition to their own insights, they invite eight of their collaborators to contribute, each a veteran artist. The fold is destined for artmaking – for making any art. Etching into the very fabric of embodiment, the fold practice reaches outside the constraints of disciplinary silos into niche areas that embrace the unknown with all its underlying tensions and ambiguities. Reflecting on a current and unique somatic oriented arts research practice and pedagogy, with an intriguing blend of interdisciplinary concern and theory practice and includes a wide variety of practice samples and images
Susan Sentler & Glenna Batson
Check out our podcast
The podcast is the basis for our chapter ‘entering the f/old – languaging as the ‘stuff’ of art making’
to be published in: Practitioner Perspectives on Dance Research, Dr. Gemma Harmon, Ed, Routledge, 2024.
Select articles co-authored by Susan Sentler & Glenna Batson
pdfs by request – glenna@glennabatson.net
Batson G, Sentler S (2017). How visual and kinesthetic imagery shape movement improvisation. Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 9:2.
Batson G (2017). Human Origami: The embryo as a folding life continuum. International Journal of Prenatal and Life Sciences. 1:1.
Sentler S. (2019). The liquid architecture of bodily folding. In Lushetich, N (Ed), Symbolism: Beyond Mind. Berlin: DeGuyter publishers.
Sentler S, Batson G. Human Origami: uncovering meta-levels of corporeal embodiment through movement improvisation. In: Burridge, S (Ed), Embodied Performativity in Southeast Asia: Multidisciplinary Corporeality. Routledge, 2021.
Sample Glenna’s Writings
Over the last decade, I’ve published two books and (earlier) a number of articles – peer-reviewed research and popular press.
Read about my books on my Amazon author page.
Body and Mind in Motion: Dance and Neuroscience in Conversation, with contribution by Dr. Margaret Wilson. University of Chicago Press 2014.
Dance, Somatics and Spiritualities: Contemporary Sacred Narratives, editor and contributor, with Amanda Williamson, Sarah Whatley and Rebecca Weber. University of Chicago Press 2014.
Articles- both personal interest & scholarly
Dance and Parkinson’s Research
Verbal Auditory Cueing of Improvisational Dance: A Proposed Method for Training Agency in Parkinson’s Disease, G Batson, CE Hugenschmidt, CT Soriano Frontiers in Neurology 2016. open access
This article was shortlisted for aFrontiers Special Topics award in 2017. The trailer video of the research received honorable mention at the Parkinson’s World Congress2013, Glenna Batson, Coming Together – Dance Improvisation and Parkinson’s Disease (Thanks to Nick Hristov and the team at the Center for Design Innovation, Winston-Salem, NC).
Dance Science
Batson G. Exercise-induced central fatigue – A frontier for dance science research. Special Issue on Overuse in Dance Training (invited paper), Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, 2013; 17 (3): 92-100.
Central Fatigue JDMS V17N2 2013Batson
Human Origami
Batson G. Human Origami: The Embryo as a Folding Life Continuum. International Journal of Prenatal and Life Sciences 2017Human Origami_IJPLS copy
Critical Somatics
Kampe T, Batson G. Dancing Critical Somatics – An Emancipatory Education for the Future? Chapter in Dance Fields: Staking a Claim for Dance in the 21st Century. London: Dance Books (2020).
Dance & Somatics
Batson G: The Somatic practice of intentional rest in dance education – Preliminary steps towards a method of study. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, 2010 Intentional Rest_Batson
Batson G. The Alexander Technique and the science of self-regulation. In: Health Integrated Training and Education (HITE), Alexander Technique in Context, London: UK 2014HITE Chapter_Glenna Batson
Batson_AT publication summary_1993-2021
Summary of all my publications on the Alexander technique since the early 1990’s
Available on request!