Twentieth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Restrictions enforced by the Covid-19 global pandemic have created countless challenges to marginalized communities. Within the first few months of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that ethnic minorities experience higher rates of morbidity and mortality than White, non-Hispanics. The movement to reconstruct our societies and bodies in the anticipated wake of Covid-19 and the world that emerges “after” is palpable. As we uncover methods of navigating interpersonal relationships and recover from the effects of the pandemic, our bodies continue to help create and frame our experiences and the narratives we construct about ourselves and others. Our nonverbal communication patterns, beliefs about body norms, feelings of connection, and identification with our bodies are all deeply affected by our assigned membership in different social groups and the privileges associated with that membership. Through dance and embodied practices, the body is able to translate experiences into a framework that allows for the transmutation of meaning through embodied consciousness. However, existing models of activism have not been particularly attentive to the body’s importance in responding to oppression. While embodied activism is not substitute for legislative reform, there is growing research to support that dance and embodied experiences are critical agents in the reconstruction of body stories. This paper reviews dance as a public practice of embodied activism and highlights the importance of embodied therapy and historical digital dance archives in marginalized communities.