Expanding understandings of wellbeing through researching women's experiences of intergenerational somatic dance classes
Files
Citation
Export citationBarbour, K., Clark, M., & Jeffrey, A. (2019). Expanding understandings of wellbeing through researching women’s experiences of intergenerational somatic dance classes. Leisure Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2019.1653354
Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/12961
Abstract
Engaging a feminist ethnographic methodology, this article offers a discussion of women’s embodied experiences of wellbeing in intergenerational somatic dance classes. Somatic dance classes aim to develop embodied awareness, support ease and freedom in movement, and offer opportunities for creativity, agency and reflection. Drawing on in-depth interviews, observation and autoethnographic vignettes, three themes emerged from the empirical material that expand understandings of wellbeing as a fluid and dynamic experience, reveal the value for women in moving for movement’s sake, and identify the significance of intergenerational contexts for moving together. As a consequence, this research offers insight into ways in which women participating in somatic dance classes have re-interpreted wellbeing practices, ‘re-claiming’ wellbeing from circulating neoliberal, self-improvement and productivity agendas, and instead, dancing into wellbeing.
Date
2019Type
Publisher
Routledge
Rights
This is an author’s accepted version of an article published in the journal: Leisure Studies. © 2019 Routledge.