PRACTICE AS RESEARCH

PLEASURE CHAPTERS is my final project for the Practice-As-Research module as a part of the MA course in Dance Performance and Professional Dance Practices at the University of Salford.

My main research question for this project is:

Is pleasure a trap or a chance for liberation?

Investigation about the phenomenon of pleasure which has both positive and negative connotations. Humans are constantly driven by the search for pleasure whether it is food, sex, drugs, alcohol, human connections, touch or even sports (Lisle & Goldhamer, 2006).
What fascinates me is the common understanding of this phenomenon, and how it varies depending on its context. The negative associations with the word "pleasure" are often related to its abuse and the dark side of addiction. However, movement practices such as Gaga present "pleasure" from a different perspective. The idea of connecting the effort of moving to pleasure instead of pain opens up space for more enjoyment and shows that just switching the mindset can have a significant impact on people's development. My main rationale for undertaking this research is the possibility of bridging the gap between pain and pleasure and finding light for restless pleasure seekers.

Further questions guiding my enquiry are:

What is pleasure?
Why are we constantly searching for pleasure?
Is pleasure destructive?
Is pleasure a trap?
Can the experience of pleasure be a useful tool for life enhancement?
How do dancers distinguish pleasure from pain during exhausting hours of training and rehearsals?
What is it about the pleasure of movement, sweat and exhaustion that makes people addicted to it?
How are we experiencing pleasure, which senses are involved?
How to present the phenomenon of pleasure in a dance performance?
How to make it relatable to the audience?

The main focus of this project is a physical exploration of the phenomenon of pleasure.

Initially, I was planning to create a performance titled PLEASURE PROJECT which I was also going to perform. Nonetheless, after having done some research on this title, I discovered that it is already being used by an international education and advocacy organisation working to eroticize safer sex by creating a positive-sex image ("The Pleasure Project", n.d.). Although the values of the Pleasure Project organisation align with mine, I did not want my project to have sexual connotations. Taking into consideration this ethical issue, I decided to change my title.

That is how the new title came to life: PLEASURE CHAPTERS. Inspired by Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, in this project, I am drawing a lighter parallel to his circles of hell by reimagining the inferno as a joyful paradise (Alighieri et al., 1997).

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As well as ethical considerations, a logistic issue in my research design arose after the first few rehearsals. I realised that the planned performance delivery will be very difficult to organise due to my work commitments and the time away close to the deadline. Furthermore, having discovered how important the research and development stage is during the creation process, I decided to focus entirely on the research itself rather than on the final product. By following Kolb's experiential learning cycle (Tomkins & Ulus, 2015). I created a safe rehearsal space for my key collaborators to playfully explore the ideas, without any pressure on finishing the piece. 

 

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                               RESEARCH PROCESS & METHODOLOGY RATIONALE

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My practical research approaches to this project were entirely driven by the idea of pleasure itself. I aimed to make this process genuinely enjoyable for both myself and my key collaborators: Satya-Sara Khachik, Robyn Gamston and Eleanor Stephenson.

I believe that the secret to portraying the phenomenon of pleasure lies in its direct experience. Therefore, I chose phenomenology as one of my main methodologies (Sloan & Bowe, 2013).

To support this creative process, I carefully considered each warm-up. I ensured that dancers are prepared accordingly for each task both physically and mentally. From the moment we began the warm-up I wanted them to indulge in the experience of pleasure, joy and the "lightness of being" (Chopra, 2022) with which physical effort can be experienced. I was drawing inspiration for my warm-ups from various movement practices such as yoga, Gaga, floor work and ballet which supported the embodiment of the movement that we were creating.

Gaga movement language has been a really big influence in my research. The concept of "connecting effort to pleasure" (Katan, 2016, p.89) while dancing helped me to guide my dancers accordingly to my research principles: pleasure, joy, and lightness. After each warm-up, we were all in a happy state, warm, sweaty and ready to dive into creative tasks. Dancers' feedback confirmed that this preparation was essential and that thanks to it later in the rehearsals they felt more confident, tuned in to the same mindset, with no worries about injuring themselves, and prepared for taking risks and making bold artistic choices when doing creative tasks.  

Being a Vinyasa Flow yoga teacher has also made a big impact on this project. My teaching practice has always been present throughout the rehearsals. Linking movement with breath, and being considerate of dancers' abilities; both their strengths and weaknesses - helped me to navigate better how to guide them compassionately rather than creating an unnecessarily stressful environment. I was following Yamas and Niyamas yoga principles as my work ethic. Yamas and Niyamas are "universal moral commandments" towards self and others (Iyengar, 1981, p.7).
 

My starting point for the creative tasks was stream-of-consciousness writing and open discussions. Before beginning any movement explorations I wanted to find out how my key collaborators understand the phenomenon of pleasure. Together we pointed out a few activities/emotions that are bringing a sense of pleasure: dancing, training, eating, sex, love, touch, comfort, satisfying sounds, videos and images. Also, we discovered that pleasure-seeking is often motivated by striving for something that we do not have. As dancers, we are constantly trying to achieve excellence "I think it is that yearning for perfection that keeps me going" as Alvin Ailey's dancer - Dudley Williams says in the interview with Eichenbaum (Eichenbaum & Hirt-Manheimer, 2008, p. 61).
 
Moreover,  we all agreed that pleasurable is the motivational journey itself, working towards something, a sense of progression and finally the achievement itself (Lisle & Goldhamer, 2003).
These findings inspired us to look closer at the relationship between pain and pleasure in the dance context. Thus the idea of restrictive movement came out. 

I asked the dancers to firstly improvise and then to create short solos with a sense of struggle, by restricting themselves and creating 'knots' with their limbs. Every time they would free themselves out from uncomfortable positions a contrasting eased quality would emerge. We created two movement phrases from these solo materials (see the TRAP CHAPTER). Interestingly, a very harmonious movement came out that beautifully portrayed the concept of pleasure. Seeing symmetrical, harmonious images is very satisfying, therefore I found further inspiration for my work in Fibonacci's Sequence which represents perfect shapes in nature, infinity and harmony (Grigas, 2013).

The improvisation task of attaching and detaching came from the concept of the journey of pleasure-seeking being satisfying itself (Lisle & Goldhamer, 2003). Portraying the phenomenon of pleasure with a sense of touch created a very coherent image. Moreover, in our discussions, we all agreed that pleasurable is giving and receiving. We also found other contrasting qualities: delicate and strong, restriction and realise which became a starting point for Satya's and Robyn's duet (see the TRAP CHAPTER).

On top of that, following the concept of the Motivational Triad: "(1) Seek Pleasure, (2) Avoid Pain, (3) Conserve Energy" (Lisle & Goldhamer, 2003, p. 10), I asked the dancers to include these instructions in their duet which helped them to solidify its concept.
 
Another big inspiration in this process was the dancers' responses to my questions:
I find pleasure in dancing because...
I find pleasure in eating because...

From these stream-of-consciousness texts, many movement-stimulating words came out such as: satisfaction, visual delight, celebration, joy, sensation, liberation, freedom, delicious, unlimited curiosity, flavours, textures, challenge, no concept of time, flow, letting go, playful, creative, outrageous, imaginative, silly...

And even more poetic descriptions: The crack of crisps when they hit your teeth, the succulence of delicate seafood, the satisfaction of warm fresh cake as it comes out of the oven... 

 

These words helped us all to submerge into the PLEASURE CHAPTERS concept. For me as a choreographer, it became a 'manual' for creating this piece.
 

After the first few rehearsals with the dancers, I felt extremely inspired; stream-of-consciousness writing, long discussions and improvisation tasks opened up endless opportunities for this project. I was constantly drawn to new ideas that I wanted to explore. Therefore, I decided to continue this project outside the education setting. Using the Project-As-Research time as my research and development period gave me the comfort of 'just' playing and researching without the necessity of solidifying the piece. Simultaneously, I gained a lot of creative freedom and my artistic choices became braver.

I implemented various movement experiments such as food, phones and Pilates balls. All of these 
were representations of different types of pleasure. The act of eating as one of the most pleasure-associated activities brought many surprising discoveries and helped to create very unusual movement phrases such as Satya's dance with an orange where she was embodying its peel being slapped on the floor (see videos in the FOOD CHAPTER). Also, a 'sugar high' that both Robyn and Satya experienced after eating the doughnuts, made them dance in a completely different way. Their embodiment of the sweet, juicy, mouth-melting doughnuts was very honest and resulted in raw movement qualities. Thanks to the direct experience of eating, they had no time to reflect on how the doughnut or orange dance should look like but to become these foods. This phenomenological experience (loan & Bowe, 2013) made them say: It was not me, it was the doughnut!

The experiments with phones and Pilates balls brought back the highlighted words from the texts that we wrote before: joyful, playful, silly, outrageous, freedom, creative - it was delightful to see how all the themes are merging and coming together to create this pleasurable experience for both the performers and the viewers. Furthermore, the use of objects challenged the dancers to make unusual creative choices hence really exciting movement patterns came out.

Documenting all the rehearsals with video was crucial in this creation process. These recordings became a creative tool for making the movement which is my main rationale for using this medium. What is more, I wanted to celebrate my dancers' first-time unusual dance experiences in this project, cherish their beautiful spontaneous improvisations, and price their bold creative choices... Thus, I decided to post all the rehearsal videos on the website and embed them as the practical part of my research. 
 

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          ARTICULATION & SYNTHESIZED ANALYSIS 
OF MY FINDINGS
 

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One of the biggest findings throughout this process was a NATURE CHAPTER. Following a series of in-studio rehearsals with the focus on imagery-based improvisation tasks such as: imagine the sun caressing your skin, let the blowing wind guide your movement, imagine yourself dancing barefoot on the grass and many similar images. I decided to take dancers outside and let them EXPERIENCE all of these sensations.

Whilst guiding the dancers through improvisation in the park, to my surprise, the themes we have been exploring unexpectedly started coming back. The task of opening the heart space, the heart chakra - Anahata "related to love, forgiveness and compassion" (Myss, 1996, p. 68), exposing the face and the neck as an expression of pleasure - suddenly unravelled itself (see THE NATURE CHAPTER videos). The dancers naturally exposed their faces to the warm sun, softly bathing their bodies in sun rays. Nature became a rich movement stimulus that helped to refine previously explored movement qualities. This experience generated a sense of honest enjoyment, the dancers began 'moving from within.'

I was astonished to find out how the experience itself is driving dancers' creative choices much more effectively than the images given previously in the studio. The movement became much more authentic as it was coming from the physical reaction to the wind, sun and grass rather than its images.

 

As a big believer in the benefits of the use of imagery in dance (Taylor & Estanol, 2015) I suddenly realised that there is no better tool to enhance someone's imagination than giving them the possibility of directly experiencing it. That brought me back to phenomenology's direct experience - the in-state experience of the pleasure that gives dancing in nature (Qutoshi, 2020).

This finding became a milestone in my choreographic practice. My main aim as a choreographer is to create a raw, authentic movement that comes from dancers' hearts rather than mechanical choreography. As Pina Bausch once said, "I'm not interested in how people move, but what moves them" (Byrne, 2022). Inspired by Bausch's choreographic approach, I have no interest, in just 'teaching the steps', more explorative creation process is what excites me about making the work. Therefore, the discovery of phenomenology as a perfect choreographic tool has shifted my research approach. The following rehearsals became more focused on Kolb's experiential learning cycle. Thus, we concentrated on working with different senses through which we are experiencing pleasure: touch, eyesight, smell, taste, and hearing.

Throughout our exploration of the sense of taste, the PLEASURE TRAP revealed itself. Consuming very sugary foods is highly addictive and can lead to many diseases such as diabetes and obesity (Kubala, 2019). Although eating a bar of tasty chocolate is very pleasurable, it can also be a hazardous trap when overdosed. Just like my dancers, who truly enjoyed eating doughnuts during the rehearsal, it also gave them stomach aches as little time to digest was left before they started dancing. This direct experience of the PLEASURE TRAP reminded me of my research on IxCacao - the Mayan Cacao Goddess who rescued the Mayan society from starvation. Unfortunately, the sacred cacao was later used for exploitation (Nelson, 2019).

Similarly to cacao, the dancing body can be sacred or used for sexual exploitation.
"Is it any wonder that in India - where the gods dance - the dancing body can be both a source of pleasure and a vehicle of worship?" (Jonas, 1992, p. 56). These two examples only confirm that like everything, pleasure has both sides: dark and bright. It only depends on people whether they will use it for their advantage or disadvantage.

My aim as a dance artist is to show the positive spectrum of this phenomenon with the warning about its negative effects if abused. That is why I chose different CHAPTERS for this project.

During the presentation of the short extract of this work, I was asked a very interesting question: "Do you want the audience to see a pleasurable image or to feel it?" My answer was BOTH. This query made me reflect on what atmosphere I wanted to portray, and what was my aim. Why did I choose this theme? Who was my audience? How did I want them to feel? What did I want them to see? As a young choreographer, I believe that the audience should be at the forefront. I disagree with Victor Cousin's famous slogan "Art For Art’s Sake" (2015). I realised that I want to make work that is making an impact, not necessarily aiming at a dance audience, a performance which is understandable for everyone, at times entertaining, positive and full of hope. Yet, with a meaningful message and an encouragement for self-reflection.

Performances that inspire my artistic choices are Speakeasy by Southpaw Dance Company ("Speakeasy", n.d.) and Carmen by Agudo Dance Company ("Carmen | Jose Agudo", n.d.). Both of them merge contemporary dance with different dance styles: flamenco, Charleston, Lindy and breakdance. Their movement language is also very satisfying to watch, entertaining, and at times funny, especially Speakeasy, nonetheless, neither of them feels like 'cheap' entertainment. As a young choreographer, I recognise that there is a particular risk in choosing to create this type of work in the contemporary dance world which tends to present more serious and conceptual pieces. However, it seems like the trends are changing with more performances like Speakeasy and Carmen. Despite any current tendencies in the dance scene, I believe that a change is necessary and I am ready to accept this challenge as a young dance artist.

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                CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MY RESEARCH
                                   

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Together with my exciting choreographic discoveries, many critical questions arose:

 

How to bring the state of pleasure to the set material? 

How to maintain the authenticity of the pleasurable experience?

How to set a movement material from a spontaneous improvisation? 

How to stay honest about the essence of experience while setting the movement phrase? 

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These questions have massively challenged my choreographic practice. To keep the essence of the improvised movement, I chose video documentation as a solution. Although the recordings are a very useful tool, I realised that watching all the videos back is quite a laborious process. To take it as a lesson, in my future creative processes I will be making fewer recordings and focusing more on creating the movement at the moment. 

Moreover, since my project was so practice-heavy, I realised that I spent much more time in the studio rather than analysing and making sense of my findings. In the future, a more balanced approach will benefit my choreographic practice.

To be self-critical, choosing not to finalise this research with a performance became somehow an easier choice. Nevertheless, I believe, that this decision had its pros and cons. Having artistic freedom to just explore and play with ideas was a blessing, yet I also wonder if that was not a subconscious avoidance mechanism. Having many work commitments and a trip abroad close to the deadline can all serve as my perfect excuses, however, if the circumstances were different, would I choose otherwise? Regardless, being able to share some of my findings at the Arrival Festival at the University of Salford felt extremely rewarding. I cannot wait to solidify my findings and create a piece at this stage. 

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ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

 

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Considering ethics, I gave consent forms to my collaborators before the research process.
When discussing the project theme and conducting explorative tasks during the rehearsals I was always making sure that nobody is feeling vulnerable or disrespected.
Additionally, I was always ensuring to keep the research practice safe and conducted necessary risk assessments beforehand. 
 

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LITERATURE REVIEW
 

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My literature review summarises key ideas that have informed my research. 

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The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Force that Undermines Health & Happiness by Alan Goldhamer and Douglas J. Lisle
This book considers the phenomenon of pleasure from an evolutionary perspective, making us understand why as humans we are so strongly conditioned to constant pleasure-seeking. Reading this rich source of knowledge was very beneficial for my studio-based discussions and provide me with many ideas for creative tasks.
 

Embodied Philosophy in Dance: Gaga and Ohad Naharin's Movement Research by Einav Katan
 

The book about Gaga movement practice is a true bible for Gaga lovers like me. This text provides essential information about the principles of Gaga movement language and explains why it so strongly emphasises the importance of "connecting effort to pleasure". This book 

is a very important source for my research as it provides several examples of exercises that help dancers to enhance their experience of pleasure. It also explains how the idea of connecting effort to pleasure improves dancers' overall performance and technique. I implemented many of these ideas in my improvisation tasks.

Academic Journal: Phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenology: the philosophy, the methodologies, and using hermeneutic phenomenology to investigate lecturers’ experiences of curriculum design. Quality &Amp; Quantity

This academic journal helped me to deepen my understanding of phenomenology and provided me with tools for its practical use in my research. 

                 So Phenomenology reduces a human subject’s experiences with a phenomenon to a                       description of its ‘essence’, written down, usually, and so a qualitative researcher will                       identify a phenomenon as an ‘object’ of human experience (Cresswell 2007) and give                     voice to it (Sloan & Bowe, 2013).
 

Book The Pursuit of Pleasure by Tiger Lionel

This book presents a light approach to the principle of pleasure. It identifies various forms of pleasure and it is giving them a new value by considering humans' natural need for life enjoyment. Having this book as one of the main sources for the group discussions with my key collaborators was very beneficial and inspiring for my research.

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CONCLUSION

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My choice to carry on the research in my future career expanded my horizons and allowed me to think outside the box. I applied for an artistic residency at The Lowry theatre in Manchester, and fortunately, I have been offered a place at I M Pact X The Lowry: Dance Lab - for a Solo Dancer. The ideas explored with my key collaborators throughout the PAR project will be my starting point for continuing PLEASURE CHAPTERS in a completely different context - solo work. Furthermore, my plan is to initially make this piece with a full cast of four dancers, including my key collaborators Satya-Sara Khachik, Robyn Gamston, Marta Swierczynska and myself. To achieve this, I will be applying for various residencies, including Resolution Festival at the Place in London. I feel very fortunate and grateful that my MA in Dance Performance and Professional Practices studies gave me freedom and encouragement to explore my artistic choices without any restraint. 

Thanks to this research I also discovered useful choreographic methods such as Kolb's experiential learning cycle and phenomenology.

To conclude my research on the phenomenon of pleasure, the perfect balance is essential in order to both benefit and portray the benefits of the positive aspects of pleasure. 
 

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        BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Alighieri, D., Durling, R., Martinez, R., & Turner, R. (1997). The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Oxford University Press.

 

Art For Art’s Sake. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2015). Retrieved 2 September 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/art-for-arts-sake.

 

Bakhshi, H., & Lomas, E. (2013). Defining R&D for the creative industries. Discovery.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2022, from https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1543331/1/Policy%20Briefing%20-%20Defining%20R%26D%20for%20the%20creative%20industries%20-Nesta%20AHRC%20and%20UCL.pdf.

 

Byrne, E. (2022). Pina Bausch Kontakthof at Sadler’s Wells review: love’s a battlefield. standard.co.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2022, from https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/dance/pina-bausch-kontakthof-sadlers-wells-review-b980668.html.

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Carmen | Jose Agudo. Joseagudo.co.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2022, from https://www.joseagudo.co.uk/portfolio/carmen/.

 

Chopra, D. (2022). Maintaining Lightness of Being - Deepak Chopra™️. Deepak Chopra™️. Retrieved 1 September 2022, from https://www.deepakchopra.com/articles/maintaining-lightness-of-being/.

 

Eichenbaum, R., & Hirt-Manheimer, A. (2008). The Dancer Within: Intimate Conversations with Great Dancers. Wesleyan University Press.

 

Grigas, A. (2013). The Fibonacci Sequence: Its History, Significance, and Manifestations in Nature. Scholars Crossing. Retrieved 5 August 2022, from https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/334/.

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Iyengar, B. (2013). Light on Prāṇāyāma. Thorsons.

​Jonas, G. (1992). Dancing: the pleasure, power, and art of movement (p. 56). Harry N. Abrams.

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Katan, E. (2016). Embodied Philosophy in Dance. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
 

Kubala, J. (2019). 6 Ways Added Sugar Is Fattening. Healthline. Retrieved 1 September 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/does-sugar-make-you-fat.
 

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Tiger, L. (2017). The Pursuit of Pleasure. Taylor and Francis.

 

Lisle, D., & Goldhamer, A. (2003). The Pleasure Trap. Healthy Living Publications. 
 

Myss, C. (1996). Anatomy Of The Spirit (p.68). Bantam Books.
 

Nelson, K. (2019). Chocolate as a Religion. ArcGIS StoryMaps. Retrieved 6 September 2022, from https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/874e2fee6ffd4ee1a5ca48a99f7e51b0.
 

Taylor, J., & Estanol, E. (2015). Dance Psychology For Artistic And Performance Excellence. Human Kinetics.
 

The Pleasure Project. The Pleasure Project. Retrieved 5 September 2022, from https://thepleasureproject.org/.

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Tomkins, L., & Ulus, E. (2015). ‘Oh, was that “experiential learning”?!’ Spaces, synergies and surprises with Kolb’s learning cycle. Management Learning, 47(2), 158-178. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507615587451

 

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Sloan, A., & Bowe, B. (2013). Phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenology: the philosophy, the methodologies, and using hermeneutic phenomenology to investigate lecturers’ experiences of curriculum design. Quality &Amp; Quantity, 48(3), 1291-1303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9835-3
 

Speakeasy. Southpawdancecompany.co.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2022, from https://southpawdancecompany.co.uk/portfolio-item/speakeasy/.


Qutoshi, S. (2020). Phenomenology: A Philosophy and Method of Inquiry. Jmsnew.iobmresearch.com. Retrieved 1 August 2022, from https://jmsnew.iobmresearch.com/index.php/joeed/article/view/157.

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Vora, M. (2017). Chocolate and The Goddess – themehulvora.com. themehulvora.com. Retrieved 4 August 2022, from http://themehulvora.com/2017/11/16/chocolate-and-the-goddess/.
 

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APPENDIX
 

1. Participation Information Sheet

2. Consent Forms for Participants

3. Risk Assessment

4. Data Protection Checklist

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