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Annie Payson Call's Training in Release and Somatic Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2017

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Abstract

This article examines the work of Annie Payson Call (1853–1940) who was during her lifetime a highly regarded teacher of her method of bodily education and a prolific author. I place Call's work against the background of American Delsartism, the flourishing of health movements, and innovations in dance forms of the period. I suggest that Call, a now forgotten figure, can be seen as a contributor to a lineage in American approaches to movement that place bodily awareness and sensory knowledge at the heart of movement experience and training. The first half of the article introduces the reader to key concepts in Call's movement philosophy and outlines her method of training bodily awareness and releasing muscular tension. The second part looks at characteristics of Call's writing to shed light on the hereto neglected aspect of somatics and somatic education: the role of language and imagination in writings about movement.

Keywords

Annie Payson CallDelsarteearly twentieth-century dance educationmovement and imaginationsomaticssomatic pioneerssomatic writing
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , April 2017 , pp. 70 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2017 

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