Research output per year
Research output per year
Lay Summary
This PhD investigates how touch enables encounters with Otherness in the dance of Contact Improvisation. Guided by new materialist philosophy, phenomenology and affect theory, Otherness is interrogated as an experience encountered within a dancer or individual subject, that interacts with their physicality, emotions, cultural and social history, thought, memory and imagination. Through the investigation of how touch is used and experienced in Contact Improvisation, a vocabulary of touch is identified and developed. Encompassing practice based research with humans and environmental matter, this vocabulary includes listening, light and deep touch techniques that advances and updates how touch is understood and ethically practised in dance, somatics and performance education, with further applicability in the fields of health, social care, design, consent and personal relating.
Type of Data
Interactive Resource
Data Collection Method
Interviews, Experimentation, Observation, Focus Group, Documents and Records, Own Creation
Data Processing and Preparation Activities
The data is qualitative and has been selected and analysed by the author.
| Date made available | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Kingston University |
| Date of data production | Sept 2020 - May 2025 |
| Geographical coverage | UK, Germany, Mexico, USA |
Keywords
- Touch
- Otherness
- Contact Improvisation
- New Materialism
Research output
- 1 Doctoral thesis
-
The vocabulary of touch: encountering otherness through contact improvisation
Holgate Smith, R., 21 May 2026, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.: Kingston University. 186 p.Research output: Thesis › Doctoral thesis
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