The mutable membrane: the impact of touch in dance and dance movement psychotherapy

Dymoke, Catherine Mary (2024) The mutable membrane: the impact of touch in dance and dance movement psychotherapy. Doctoral thesis (PhD by Published Works), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The Mutable Membrane is the title for a PhD by published works comprising four peer-reviewed publications on practice-led research undertaken in dance education and dance movement psychotherapy contexts over the past three decades. These practices are informed by an experiential somatic movement education and therapy approach, Body-Mind Centering® (BMC®) and a democratic, dyadic movement form, Contact Improvisation (CI). BMC and CI provide the foundational episteme; the specialist touch and movement methods and embodied approaches to learning and therapy. In BMC practice, the physiology of a cell membrane embodies and informs other emergent iterations of transitional, relational spaces pertaining to bodies, selves or entities. The membrane portrays the motile and permeable nature of the relational realms experienced in the educational or therapeutic process. The Mutable Membrane emerged in the practice-led research and is applied by the author to situate and denote the potential for self-development and change within the assemblage of interpersonal and wider societal relational realms. Reference is made to published case studies involving the most socially excluded and vulnerable. Phenomenological and self-reflexive research methods identify significant touch and movement practices and their outcomes. At the heart of the four publications, the aim is to show how these specialised methods may reveal and address issues such as lack, loss, exclusion and deprivation. This is achieved with the application of the Mutable Membrane as a heuristic for the therapeutic and educational endeavour undertaken, as an assemblage of the membrane iterations identified: the practitioner and client self-membranes; the shared interpersonal membrane of the pedagogic and therapeutic space; the metaphysical membrane applied to self-reflexive accounts. The Mutable Membrane contributes a new perspective on inclusive provision in education and health and social care which legitimises touch as a form of non-verbal communication. In each publication, relative to the case and context, each membranous realm has ethical implications to excavate and address.