This study was intended to introduce the modulation of somatic experience in Korean academic societies, which was one of the core concept of Soma Theory of Thomas Hanna. Although Somatics was introduced in Korea by several scholars and practitioners during recent decades, the concept of experiential modulations has remained vague on account of its difficulty. This study aims to eliminate the vagueness, tracing Hanna’s academic and professional background of his Soma Theory. For this study I visited Novato Institute to see Eleanor Criswell and other colleagues twice and I had chances to discuss with the Somatic Educators the vague area of Hanna’s theory. The first texts for the cross-analysis used in this study included his books, training manuals, and articles mainly written by Hanna and his colleagues in the magazine-journal ‘Somatics,’collected in Novato Institute and Myong Ji University Library. As a result, this study clarified three modes of somatic experience, in the first-person, second-person, and third-person experience, and the modulation of somatic experience. At the same time this study was able to find their relationships to the transformation of our material-based age and the significant position and role of Somatics raised by Hanna in the mobile revolution Era.

This dissertation investigates the way dancers experience the “personality of soma” while practicing. The purpose of this dissertation was to study the interrelationship between the personality of soma and the creation of unique dances. This study included dancers learning original movements and the entire process of practicing. The author used practice-based research and other academic resources for the study. First, major terms, such as “soma,” “somatic learning,” and “personality of soma” were defined based on other academic sources. The discussion of the concepts of soma and somatic learning is primarily based on the somatics of Thomas Hanna. The personality of soma discussion is based mainly on the concepts that Karol Wojtyla suggested from a theological perspective: origin solitude, origin nakedness, and origin unity. Practice-based research informed analysis of the entire process of constructing the piece, creating choreography, practicing, and performing. Somatic data was derived from the researcher’s first-person observation, and dancers were employed as the subjects of analysis. Experiencing the personality of soma consists of four stages: recognition, awareness, unity, and openness to soma. First, the experience of silence caused the dancers to recognize their soma and discover the potential within them. Second, the experience of origin solitude allowed the dancers to discover creativity and autonomy within their soma through an exploration of autonomous movement. Third, the experience of origin unity provided a chance to realize that soma has its own way of conducting communication and personal interaction. Fourth, undergoing the origin nakedness stage, the dancers learned how to dance their unique moves without the eyes of others, a perspective that they had internalized. The researcher who participated in the study gained self-esteem and recovered the personality of soma. They also created unique dance through a development of their own dance moves. By conducting this study, the researcher experienced transitions from passive, memorization-based learning to active learning, which allowed the utilization of somatic sensations.