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  • A Note from the Editor
  • Joan Herrington

Em-bod'y, 1. to give bodily form to; to incarnate; to make corporeal; to invest with matter. 2. to give definite, tangible, or visible form to; to make concrete. 3. to make (something) part of an organized whole.

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

In her 1998 Theatre Topics article, "Somatic Processes: Convergence of Theory and Practice," Barbara Sellers-Young argued that "A somatic approach to education integrates, as an existential whole, the experiential history of individuals with their current experience. It implies an education that trusts individuals to learn from their ability to attend and to listen to the information they are receiving from the interaction of self with the environment" (176).

Pedagogy has historically been based largely in the idea that cognitive knowledge is preferred. However, recent study clarifies the value of methodology that incorporates the whole body of the student. David George Wright of the University of Western Sydney considers the importance of the "self-conscious" experience of the learner. Such consciousness, he argues, "facilitates the creation of meaning, which plays a role in determining the manner in which further participation in learning occurs, hence further learning" (1). Focus is on process as well as product. As Sandra Kerka notes in "Somatic/Embodied Learning and Adult Education," "evidence of the contextual and situated nature of learning and the value of tacit knowledge points to the importance of an approach that respects the whole of the sentient, embodied learner" (1).

While it is a myth that we only use ten percent of our brains, the statistic might truly apply to the percentage of our bodies that is engaged in a traditional learning environment. But innovation in pedagogy is difficult in both inspiration and implementation. Even those of us with radical intentions often follow old paths. We teach new material, but not necessarily in new ways, while the study of how we learn marches forward.

The authors in this issue aim to guide us, to encourage us as we respond to the call for change. In the articles that follow, they offer several different approaches to embodied learning. Certainly, the practice of theatre—its inherent performative nature—includes a significant amount of "body" work. But the articles herein argue for the embodiment/performative practice of the most complex theories, the most challenging of issues. Whether the task is grasping the playfulness of Gertrude Stein or recognizing the insidiousness of racism, these teachers challenge the body as well as the mind.

In "Learning with Gertrude Stein: Playgrounds of Aggression and Grace," co-authors James Peck and Kelly Howe, a professor and a student, analyze a series of theatrical studies designed to inculcate Stein's aesthetics. Despite its intense complexity, the authors argue that an effective pedagogical approach to [End Page v] Stein's work demands that students confront the theory in embodied, affective, and consequential ways. Stein's potentially elusive concepts of entity and landscape are made accessible to students as they are encouraged first to embrace her concept of play.

Robert Lublin reapproaches an age-old schism in "Feminist History, Theory, and Practice in the Shakespeare Classroom," recommending an embodied intersection of feminist history and theatre performance. Lublin considers whether embodying historical knowledge enables us to reconsider the political and social ramifications of the texts we present. Building on the premise that theatre and performance shape cultural understandings of masculinity and femininity, Lublin argues that it is essential that theatre scholars and acting instructors work to engage each other's areas of expertise, and to cross-pollinate pedagogical practice if they are to avoid perpetuating sexist ideologies in performance.

An embodied experience can be valuable not only for learning but also for de-learning. Sandra Kerka notes that in a somatic approach which recognizes the body as a source of knowledge, "learners become adept at exposing the process of constructing knowledge and (de)legitimizing knowledge claims." The bodily experience "disengages learners from [observation] and prepares them to question the primacy of dominant knowledge sources" (1). In "Subverting Whiteness: Pedagogy at the Crossroads of Performance, Culture, and Politics," John Warren and Deana Fassett document a project that incorporates performance in the engagement of critical...

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