Abstract
This book is an edited compilation that evolved from a research-practice series of workshops in Switzerland, which brought together an experienced choreographer with seasoned conflict resolution and mediation specialists and researchers. They met in an intensive week format for four years, experiencing movement in the mornings and exploring the relationship between embodiment and conflict in the afternoons. The book is targeted at practitioners and theorists interested in the integration of embodied practices into conflict resolution and peacebuilding practices. As one of the few sources that highlight dance in contexts of conflict and peace, the book provides the beginning stages of a dialogue on the relevance of this collaboration. It encapsulates pedagogical frameworks with suggested exercises and multicultural case studies. In its far reach of intersections of embodiment and conflict, the book also demonstrates that this field also lacks an underlining framework which needs further exploration. The publication strives to meet an academic need for a renewed, integrated focus on the body as a necessary addition to current conflict theory and practice.
The Choreography of Resolution, in its effort to cover a multiplicity of perspectives, is divided into sections which consider rationales for movement, practical models and international case examples. The publication offers some compelling arguments about how the body, as the primary site of experience, serves as a vessel for changing perspectives, intercultural insights and, historically, as a voice of on-going social struggles. Examples from three countries are presented; from anti-war dances in Cambodia and Liberia and the importance of artists as catalysts presented eloquently by Shapiro-Phim, to Irish dances choreographed to preserve the identity and historic memory of colonization (e.g. Maloney). By means of specific instances, the issues of hope, visibility, social memory and cultural connection through dance take form through anecdotes and historical illustrations.
Lebaron and MacLeod give an overview of the ethos of the workshops and describe the process and transformation of the participants. Gillis, the choreographer involved in the workshops, provides some initial offerings about what aspects of movement were applied. A framework of how dance was used and what typologies and philosophies were influencing their movement practice needed more exploration and development; they are touched upon implicitly through exercises that form Gillis’ model for pedagogical and artistic application. MacLeod provides some significant contributions into ethical responsibilities in somatic interventions, posing important questions which subsequent research or projects can begin to address, such as facilitator preparation and an understanding of the power movement may have in enabling and disabling functions in conflict resolution.
As detailed in the book, providing insights from the body into a primarily verbal discipline is a challenging task. Each author grapples differently with the body–mind relationship in conflict. Some authors are able to integrate movement principles accurately throughout their work, which is visible through their description of movement, proposed frameworks and case examples. Other authors continue to struggle with dualism, providing a disconnected view with regard to their models and subsequent applications. However, Clemens Lang, in the section aptly named Finding Coherence, convincingly outlines an integrated chapter which interweaves intercultural conflict with movement principles and concrete examples in practice, bringing to fruition what the book initially intended. Lang begins an important discourse with unique propositions of how dance and movement-based interventions tackle conflict, while also remaining critical about the verbal as a comfort zone that needs to be transcended within the field.
A great strength of this book is that it locates dance/movement in the research agenda, and provides interesting ventures for interpersonal and intercultural conflict. Recently, there has been renewed academic interest in the body in conflict, and an emergent literature on arts-based peacebuilding. Dance needs to gain momentum in research with regard to other arts-based peacebuilding disciplines and thus the book sheds opportune light onto the genre, in addition bringing in perspectives from arts-based therapeutic approaches, yoga and mindfulness practices. It proposes movement as an important tool with symbolic, cultural and inherent organic power with an enormous potential to contribute to existing frameworks that rely solely on discussion-based practices. It advocates the incorporation of movement practices, which may benefit both afflicted parties and practitioners themselves, in conflict resolution training. Although the book presents its workshop framework, it still needs to locate this emergent field, albeit as an introduction. A review of the wider scope of the work being done in the field is absent, as is mention of previous research and curricular models that have tackled dance and peace/conflict, such as those of Martha Eddy, Rena Kornblum and Lynn Koshland. Perhaps the intention of this book to reach many audiences and incorporating so many perspectives, serves as a reminder that more integration needs to happen in arts-based peacebuilding, conflict resolution and mediation programs. The Choreography of Resolution thus provides a source which can contribute to on-going discussions on dance, body, peace and conflict, and offers possibilities for new research projects, academic courses and forthcoming interdisciplinary collaborations.