Data Dance: An Interactive Movement Forum.

This paper describes and discusses the interactive movement forum and the process of working on it as data itself. The paper revisits the theme of the creative process from a postmodern perspective, particularly considering creativity in relationship to women's bodies and detailing the problematic aspects of working with students in an artistic pursuit within a pedagogical context. In the study described in this paper, somatic practice was used as a tool to investigate the body perceptions and experiences of undergraduate dance-education majors. Five female students took part in a somatics/creativity project within a university-level instructional setting at a state university in the south. The students kept journals and wrote body stories based on their previous experiences in dance and what they were learning during the project. The paper details and analyzes what happened during the course and illustrates with students' statements. It concludes that the body could be a source for creative exploration in this pedagogical context--as a tool for feminist work and change. (Contains 12 references.) (SM)