Floating Bones: A Dancer's Tensegretic Body as Teacher

Floating Bones explores the author's journey into tensegrity, a model that shifts the focus of support from bones to muscles and soft connective tissue. It connects somatics, cognition, rhetoric, and reflective practices to demonstrate how the experiential perspective of tensegrity constructs physical evidence of the rhetorical concept of metis, where the body thinks as it moves.

Format: Hardback
Length: 104 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2020
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Tensegrity is a revolutionary concept that challenges traditional biomechanical models by shifting the focus from bone support to bone floating. Instead of relying on the bones for stability, the muscles and other soft connective tissue become the primary support system for the moving body. This innovative approach is explored in depth in Floating Bones, as the author embarks on a journey into tensegrity, beginning with their experiences in ballet and culminating in a model for addressing the body as a teacher.

Roses-Thema, the author of Floating Bones, utilizes the tensegritic experience model to connect various disciplines such as somatics, cognition, rhetoric, and reflective practices. They delve into the means by which constructed approaches to the body as a teacher, emphasizing the importance of including bodily thinking in our models of thinking. By citing the experiential perspective of tensegrity, which demonstrates how the body thinks as it moves, Roses-Thema makes a compelling argument for extending our models of thinking to encompass bodily thinking.

This book holds immense interest for students, scholars, and practitioners of dance, theater, and sociology. It offers valuable insights into the world of tensegrity, providing a deeper understanding of the body's movement and its relationship to other aspects of human experience. Through its interdisciplinary approach, Floating Bones encourages readers to explore new ways of thinking and approaching the body, fostering a more holistic and integrated understanding of the arts and society.

Weight: 264g
Dimension: 142 x 222 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367469504