Embodying Space: The Inside and the Outside of Soma in a Creative Process

Abstract

Space is neither a “passive, three-dimensional container” nor a “backdrop for something more dynamic” (McCormack, 2013, p. 2). Space is a process, and so is the body; especially, since the body itself—or the soma, the living body—contains inner spaces, which can and do relate to the spaces outside the body. How do we perceive space and embody space on this multiple scale? How do we feel space, objects, and other bodies while we co-exist? What do those inside spaces transmit while the performers move or stand still through their presence? How can the director envelope and contain these dimensions and be “holding the space” in and around the process? Using Body-Mind Centering® vocabulary, how to be the membrane around the fluid space? The BMC® embryological development studies open a new and even closer perspective to this space within “because it is the embodiment of space versus the embodiment of structure” (Bainbridge Cohen, 2012, p. 163). How to move from this multilayered/multiscale space utilizing diverse viewpoints of embodiment: taking actions from embodied spaces while holding the space and letting intuition enter the creative process because “space holds the information.” This article seeks to answer these questions and explore the relationship with space, particularly from the perspective of performing art and sculpture.