Book Launch - Body and Soul in Books: A Dancing Pair

This interdisciplinary work examines the significant though often implicit role of soul in modern psychological discourse and human experience, challenging belief in its obsolescence in contemporary scientific contexts.

This is a valuable analysis and overview for professional and academic psychologists, philosophers, theologians, anthropologists, and researchers interested in human nature, subjectivity and consciousness studies. It is also a useful and accessible resource for anyone exploring the intersection of spirituality, human values and scientific understanding of human experience.

This book looks in particular at Isadora Duncan and her impact on Stanislavsky's methods, as well as on the ballet choreographer Michel Fokine. It throws light on Duncan’s Moscow School, biomechanics and many modern dance studios of the time, their role in creating new systems of training - different from ballet, and their creation of a modern dance 'body'.

The author discusses the subsequent introduction of a 'rationalisation' of movement, including biomechanics and machine dances, aimed at controlling the body and underplaying the erotic very present in modern dance.

Finally, the book follows free dance into the years of Stalin's Cultural Revolution, where choreographers had to adapt to the new ideological environment, with modern dance choreographers then staging sport parades showcasing the ideal Soviet body - athletic, vigorous and disciplined. A far cry from the freedom of modern dance. But the story includes an account of the passing down into the present, through generations of ‘mothers’ and ‘daughters’, of which the author is one, of the original ideals and practices.