Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wp2c8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-15T17:33:28.802Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Act of Listening to the Art of Giving Voice: Creative Alternative Practices in Writing About Health in Dance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Sylvie Fortin ,
Catherine Cyr  and
Martyne Tremblay
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Our research team members spent an entire summer interviewing pre-professional contemporary dancers with the aim of understanding their conceptions of health in relationship to their creative projects. At the beginning of autumn we (co-workers Martyne, Catherine, and myself) came together in our comfortable office to begin our data analysis. We had previously planned to use a computer-based, qualitative research analysis program to wade through our sizeable volume of data. We were ready to look systematically for themes emerging from our nine hours of interviews. Unexpectedly, however, things turned out differently, and we found ourselves excitedly reliving the interviews we had had with the interviewees. Through the act of listening and formally recording, we had succeeded in giving rich voice to the participants and the touching stories we were sharing anew were as revealing as when we heard them firsthand. Directing the project, I was pleased to notice how the interviews had found echoes in our own experiences; and, in fact, our discussions were being influenced by and filtered through our own subjective perspectives.

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , Winter 2005 , pp. 11 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Atkinson, Paul. 1992. Understanding Ethnographic Texts. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Katy and Shurmer-Smith, Pamela, eds. 2002. “Representation of Research: Creating a Text.” In Doing Cultural Geography, 211–221. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Browning, Barbara. 1995. Samba: Resistance in Motion. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, Arts and Politics of Everyday.Google Scholar
Crawford, Robert. 1984. “A Cultural Account of ‘Health’: Control, Release, and the Social Body.” In Issues in the Political Economy of Health Care. Edited by McKinley, John B., 60–103. New York: Tavistick.Google Scholar
Denzin, Norman K. 2002. “Confronting Ethnography's Crisis of Representation.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (31) 4: 483–490.Google Scholar
Ellis, Carolyn, and Bochner, Arthur. 2000. “Autoethnography, Personnal Narratives, Reflexivity.” In Handbook of Qualitative Research. Edited by Denzin, Norman K. and Lincoln, Yvonna S., 733–768. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Eisner, Elliot W. 1998. The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Fraleigh, Sondra Horton. 1999. “Witnessing the Frog Pond.” In Researching Dancing. Edited by Fraleigh, Sondra Horton and Hanstein, Penelope, 188–224. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Green, Jill. 2001. “Emancipatory Pedagogy?: Women's Bodies and the Creative Process in Dance.” Frontiers (21) 3: 124–140.Google Scholar
Heshusius, Lous. 1989. “The Newtonian Mechanistic Paradigm, Special Education, and Contours of Alternatives: An Overview.” Journal of Learning Disabilities (22), 403–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krieger, Susan. 1991. Social Science and the Self: Personal Essays on an Art Form. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Long, Warwick. 2002. Sensing difference: Student and Teacher Perceptions on the Integration of the Feldenkrats Method of Somatic Education and Contemporary Dance Technique. Master's thesis, Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago.Google Scholar
Lupton, Deborah. 1995. The Imperative of Health. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Marcus, George, and Fischer, Michael. 1986. Anthropology as Cultural Critique. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Nilges, Linda M. 2001. “The Twice-told Tale of Alice's Physical Life in Wonderland: Writing Qualitative Research in the 21st Century.” Quest 53: 231–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novack, Cynthia. J. 1993. “Ballet, Gender and Cultural Power.” In Dance, Gender and Culture. Edited by Thomas, Helen, 34–48. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, Laurel. 2000a. “Writing: A Method of Inquiry.” In Handbook of Qualitative Research. Edited by Denzin, Norman K. and Lincoln, Yvonna S., 923–948. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Richardson, Laurel. 2000b. “New Writing Practices in Qualitative Research.” Sociology of Sport Journal: Social Sciences Journal 17 (1): 5–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shusterman, Richard. 2000. Performing Live. Aesthetics Alternatives for the Ends of Art. Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sklar, Deidre. 1991. “Invigorating Dance Ethnology.” UCLA Journal of Dance Ethnology 15: 4–15.Google Scholar
Stinson, Susan W. 1995. “Body of Knowledge.” Educational Theory 45 (1): 43–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinning, Richard. 1992. “Action Research as Epistemology and Practice: Towards Transformative Educational Practice in Physical Education.” In Research in Physical Education and Sport: Exploring Alternative Visions. Edited by Sparkes, Andrew, 188–209. London: The Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Tinning, Richard. 2002. “Toward a ‘Modest Pedagogy’: Reflections on the Problematics of Critical Pedagogy.” Quest 54 (3): 224–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Brian S. and Wainwright, Steven P.. 2003. “Corps de Ballet: The Case of the Injured Ballet Dancer.” Sociology of Health and Illness (25) 4: 269–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vallerrand, Robert J. and Houlfort, Nathalie. 2003. “Passion at Work: Toward a New Conceptualization.” In Social Issues in Management. Edited by Skarlicki, Daniel, Gilliland, Stephen, and Steiner, Dirk, 195–204. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Inc.Google Scholar