Between studio and school: The uneven flow of somatic practices in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Somatic practices have become increasingly visible in contemporary dance education and creative practice, particularly in relation to bodily awareness, movement generation, improvisation and creative processes. Drawing on two years of field observation, workshops, interviews, rehearsal observations and teaching reflections undertaken in the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, this article examines how somatic practices circulate across different dance education settings and the conditions that shape their sustained use. It argues that somatic practices are more consistently embedded in artists’ rehearsals and some areas of higher education, while their use in school and studio-based dance education is more uneven. This unevenness is shaped not only by the perceived value of somatic practices but also by pedagogical conditions, curriculum aims, teacher capacity, regional resources and institutional support. The South Island provides a revealing context for examining these dynamics, where somatic practices circulate through individual artists, projects, university courses and interdisciplinary initiatives but do not always form continuous pedagogical pathways across educational settings. By shifting attention from somatic practice as a method to the conditions that enable or constrain its circulation, this article offers a more situated understanding of the development and transmission of somatic practices within dance education in Aotearoa New Zealand.