Falling Through Dance and Life

Emilyn Claid's book explores the transformative power of falling, drawing from her personal and professional experiences to offer alternative approaches to being present in the world. Through somatic intentional falling, contemporary movement-based performers develop self and environmental support, challenging Western culture's fixation on uprightness and supremacy. The book encourages readers to embrace the paradox of falling, as it empowers them to surrender to gravity and experience relational and life-enhancing ways of being.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 14 January 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This captivating book delves into the profound and transformative power of falling, offering a fresh perspective on our relationship with life and death. Drawing from her diverse experiences as a dancer, choreographer, educator, and therapist, Emilyn Claid explores alternative approaches to being present in the world. Contemporary movement-based performers, inspired by their understanding of gravity and the body, utilize somatic intentional falling as a creative resource to develop self- and environmental support.

Through meticulous research and personal anecdotes, the author examines the physical, metaphorical, and psychological implications of these practices. They challenge the Western cultural notion of falling as a symbol of failure and fear, instead highlighting its potential for empowerment and change. Emilyn engages with various dance genres, live performances, and therapeutic interactions to shape her ideas and interweave them with issues of gender and race.

She explores how surrendering to gravity can reshape our perceptions and foster relational ways of being that enhance life. The book employs a rich tapestry of voices, including autobiographical, poetic, philosophical, descriptive, and theoretical, to question the fixation of Western culture on uprightness and supremacy.

As the chapters unfold, a simple act of falling builds momentum through eclectic discussions, unveiling connections to shame, laughter, trauma, aging, and the exhilarating sensation of release. Through this exploration, the book offers a profound invitation to embrace the fall, allowing us to reconfigure our relationship with living and dying and discover new dimensions of presence and consciousness.

Weight: 486g
Dimension: 163 x 240 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350075719