This article examines the researcher’s own choreographic work, Reminiscence, which was performed at Ewha Womans University on June 7, 2018. Through this study, we hope to overcome the ephemerality of performing arts and describe dance works in a more analytical manner. By documenting the researcher’s own choreographic work, we can establish an individual’s choreographic philosophy, based on the individual’s understanding of the meaning and value of dance works. This analysis is based on a theory of perception proposed by Henry-Louis Bergson (1859-1941), who held that one could enlighten oneself through memory to lead a better life. Each part of the choreography corresponds to the core elements of Bergson’s theory, which allows us to establish a philosophy of choreography, as well as for the choreographer to speculate on the possibility of developing subsequent choreographies.

This study is on the eco-art from two dimensions, intentional and unintentional. As the cases of unintentional eco-art, the summer and winter ceremonies of Kwakiutl on west of Canada, written by Eric Wolf, and the winter ceremony Smila(Spiritual Dance) and related dances of Chehalis Indian Band are being considered. Unintentional conceptualization and realization as eco-art are investigated. The other one is on the intentional trials in contemporary societies for the integration of ecology and art. Cases of ‘performing nature’ are interpreted. Maehyang ceremony in Muan-gun tidal flat and related dance are considered. Rituals of Kwakiutl and Chehalis tell dances, as essences of rituals and as the subjects of expressions and communications, exist. The dances exist as the arts realizing relations between natural beings and human beings, realizing the transformation of natural beings, of human beings, of relations between human beings. Ecological relation between nature and man are realized from the immediate feeling and perception of bodily experience. The meanings of the relation are also produced from the feeling and perception. The term and concept of eco-art do not exist in these rituals. But realizing process of ecological relation and interaction is also the one of eco-art unintentionally. Body and dance are main subject and mediate of the process. Recently eco-art, the term has been used by some scholars and artists. But, in many cases the term is not used actually realizing eco-art. Some trials of modern art as ‘performing nature’, Maehyang ritual and dance as reinvented one composed of partial ideas from trasitional one are those realizing the issues and ideologies intentionally. As common phenomena in the two dimensions eco-art expresses ecological ‘relations’, not merely depicting nature. Commonly too, materiality of body and things on nature and human life, feelings and perception of them form the ecological relation.

Since the rise of ‘dance studies’ as an academic discipline in Anglo-American dance scholarship in the late 1980s and 1990s, interdisciplinary methodologies borrowed from cultural studies have been dominating the field, generating valuable research that places central focus on the role and value of dance and/or dancing/moving bodies in ways that transcend and traverse the disciplinary boundaries between sociology, politics, and aesthetics. In more recent years, however, such theoretical interdisciplinarity itself has, to some extent, become a burden for dance scholarship, at times distracting researchers from focusing on the core concepts, viz. dance and the body, and at the cost of a balanced adoption of interdisciplinary and medium-specific methods. Accordingly, this paper focuses explicitly on these concepts, selecting three key studies on the themes of dance and the body–in particular, the works of Janet Lansdale, Susan Leigh Foster and Body-Mind Centering®(BMC)–to reveal how each exhibits different yet somehow interlinked interpretations of dance and dancing/moving bodies. To this end, the paper examines three key concepts: (1) Lansdale’s understanding of ‘dance’ as a performance piece; (2) Foster’s concept of ‘dancing’ and ‘dancing bodies’ as a performing act involving active agency; and (3) BMC’s idea of ‘mindfully moving bodies’, which highlights the interconnectedness of and interactions between body and mind. Through comparative evaluation, the paper demonstrates the distinct ways in which each discourse perceives dance and the body in relation to processes of thought and mind, revealing how dance and/or the body play an active role in shaping discursive thought, socially contingent knowledge, and human wisdom. In doing so, the paper reveals the diverse forms of knowledge that dance and the body bring out, in the process highlighting the enduring effort (intentional or unintentional) to construct renewed discourses and disciplines that challenge the long-standing western dichotomy between body and mind.

The purpose of this study is to find ways to improve the negative psychological state of the non-disabled siblings of disabled children. To this end, this study examines dance/movement therapy group counseling program conducted for their experiencing physical activities and various expressions.

This study was carried out with 18 participants from various facilities for the disabled in the metropolitan area, who agreed to participate in the program. After dividing them into an experimental group and a control group, the program was applied to eight people who could participate in the experimental group. Before and after the program, a survey was conducted consisting of a self-esteem scale, a self-expression scale, and a perceived competence scale. On the basis of the collected data, the average and standard deviation of the pre- and post-test of the experimental group and the control group were investigated using the SPSS 25.0 program. In addition, differences between groups and differences before and after the test were verified through independent sample t-tests and corresponding sample t-tests, respectively. As a result, the dance/movement therapy group counseling program turned out to be effective in improving self-esteem, self-expression, and perceived competence of the non-disabled siblings of disabled children.

This study shows that the dance/movement therapy group counseling programs with active physical activities and interactions with others help them experience not only verbal-language but also non-verbal expressions and realize their maximum capacity of physical activity. In conclusion, it is summarized that they were able to improve their self-esteem through those bodily experiences.