Editorial

社论

Rebecca Zarate, Michal Lev, Clive Holmwood, Vivien Marcow Speiser and Liwen Ma

The summer 2023 issue of the CAET Journal offers a focus on the power of the arts in the social net as a way to cross knowledge borders and expand dialogue in service of relational, transformative practices. The global collection includes theoretical, East/West perspectives, philosophical positions, Laban analysis, original experimental, and artistic and art-based research, with real-world clinical and educational applications. There is a thread throughout this collection that brings alive the role of research that illuminates underrepresented topics such as chronic pelvic pain in women, childhood selective mutism, paternal perspectives of violent men, and socioemotional issues of job-seeking. The collection also includes critical social reflective practices and understanding of the importance of arts and liminal spaces. The authors write of practices that show support for personal growth and deep, thoughtful arts inquiry of anthropology-informed relational knowing and empathic engagement. These qualities and characteristics of the authors’ work and their perspectives are at the heart of this issue and philosophy of IACAET.

This edition is intended to shine a bright light on the importance of artistic intention and empathy in theory, practice, and research. Together, building engagement with our social net and encouraging one another to think deeply and engage in creative processes that in itself becomes the border crossings of global, interrelated approaches in the arts.

We begin with reflection and a return to an article written by Shaun McNiff in 2020.

Addressing vital concepts as part of healing and stabilizing through the pandemic, in his postscript to “‘Tears on the Flowers’: Worldwide Natural Experiments of Art Healing,” originally published in the journal in 2020, our co-editor-in-chief emeritus, Shaun McNiff, reflects on core concepts and the timing of the paper, taking a deep dive into the multiplicity, yet simplicity in the creative process and the medicinal role of empathy in those contexts before, during, and through the COVID-19 pandemic specifically. He shares his continued philosophical perspective on the ongoing importance of natural experiments and creative processes as core drivers that support art-based research.

Following Shaun’s postscript, we continue with an investigation into the social and cultural responses to psychotherapy and training in China. Mengzhu An presents “Psy Fever/Psycho-boom: The Mental Picture of a Transforming China.” This article explores the phenomenon of what is conceptualized as “popular participation in psychotherapy and training in urban China.” It describes the anthropological, sociopolitical roots, and genesis of this widespread phenomenon and traces the impact, limitations, and pitfalls encountered in its understanding within the Chinese context.

In our next article, Shaobo Liu from the School of Dance, Shanghai Theater Academy, presents “Dance Creation and Analysis under the Perspective of LBMS: Using Glowing Ocean as an Example.” The artistic and practice-based project analyzed the creative process of a ballroom duet piece titled “Glowing Ocean using the Laban/Bartienieff Movement System (LBMS).” With a focus on a deep artistic and methodical examination of the role of creativity, particularly the creative background and creative intention of the piece, Liu uses artistic processes and the LBMS to explore artistic ways to describe what cannot be expressed in words, such as the musical and emotional atmosphere of the piece. The relational-dynamic story, interaction, and connection between the dancers in the duet are revealed from the analysis. The structure analysis of the piece revealed three major sections of Seeing, Pursuing, and Yearning, and a dance vocabulary was created out of the author’s creative processes of these three themes. Space harmony under a macroscopic perspective explored the musical structure in contrast with the dance structure. Interesting findings of thematic dualities of inner/outer and discussion of self/other relational concepts and experiences are highlighted. A major theme from the combination of analysis and artistic process was the importance of how dance conveys meaning through metaphors.

Next, we welcome Jun Hu, from Hangzhou Normal University, who presents an art-based research project named, “Contemplating the 3P Theory to Set Grounds for Criteria for the Understanding of Arts-based Research.” The 3Ps stand for possibility, plausibility, and probability. Hu shares a philosophical position with the concept of research as a spectrum of inquiry with varied objectives of prediction. Such varied objectives of prediction, from Hu’s point of view, provides an avenue for the critique and support of the role of aesthetics in ABR. As an a/r/t/ographer, Hu engages in inquiry that addresses liminal spaces and art experiences. In this article, Hu grounds in that philosophy and argues that by putting forth a process of thinking and doing by deterritorizing research by reviewing the science history and then reterritorializing ABR through ABR. The performance-based ABR project discussed in the article embarks on that journey of inquiry by way of seven artful expressions that explore reason and irrationality.

In conclusion, Hu shares that a major learning and insight from the project is that ABR is a necessary form of research, and that it is not segregated from normative research, but interrelated with it.

Michal Lev, Israella Klein, Daniella Barzilay, and Renana Salmon, from the Ono Academy, ASA, in Israel, bring light to issues of domestic violence, paternal representations, and artmaking with clay. In their article, “Molding the Fear: Representations of Fatherhood in Clay by Violent Men,” the authors explored paternal representations of violent men that arise in artmaking with clay in a group setting. The project is guided by the idea that creative endeavors and symbolic language can facilitate a therapeutic process of development of empathy and acceptance in violent fathers. The project used several inquiry modes, including an experiential meeting, a questionnaire, artmaking with clay, phenomenological observation of the creative processes and products, discussions, and response artmaking. Two central ideas came out of the project: coexisting contrasts and false perfection. The authors discuss these in a space for authentic expression for an oppressed population and in relation to the regressive nature of using clay, allowing participants to hold contrasts and to discover their perceptions of parental relationship with their own fathers.

Welcoming Tal Hanan to this issue, and the article, “Israeli Teachers and Expressive Therapists Understanding of Selective Mutism,” the topic of childhood selective mutism is illuminated in this arts-based research and phenomenological qualitative inquiry. By gathering information in the form of opinions, experiences, and art making, from 13 participants who took part in a professional workshop, the author was able to capture important data that informs professional development and exposure of this multifaceted topic. Three themes recurred in the participants’ art creations, which were (a) an impenetrable bubble, (b) nature imagery, and (c) omitted body parts. Feelings and states of being frightened and apprehensive of participants’ students’ and clients’ behaviors were revealed. A sense of helplessness, isolation, and anxiousness were also found in the results. The nonverbal act of artmaking was used to promote understanding into concepts and techniques used as bridges of communication. The group setting was found to hold a space for the participants to understand how to work with children with SM.

Finally, Iolanda Di Bonaventura presents the article, “What Flows Underneath the Disease,” addressing another underrepresented topic, women who experience chronic pelvic pain, and coping and self-compassion strategies using dance/movement therapy (DMT). The project illuminates a couple of major points of change using DMT, which are the relational-psychological processes that lead to transformation in group contexts, and the active dialogical processes in group DMT that engage with the issue being addressed (chronic pelvic pain in this instance). Two groups of women, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic online and lasted across a two-year period occurred in four phases: phase 1, getting acquainted with the body; phase 2, the relationship between self and disease; phase 3, the conflict—what flows underneath the disease; phase 4, body resources and conclusion. Explorations of using DMT tools worked with the participants’ relationship to the disease, its meaning in their personal stories and histories, and the processes of rediscovery of one’s psycho-bodily resources to listen to and actively dialogue with one’s pain.

Artist Spotlight

This is one of our newer features, introduced in the Winter 2022 edition, and in this issue, we are honored and delighted to feature an article spotlighting Sylvia Magogo Glasser presented by our coeditor, Vivien Speiser. Titled “A Tribute to the Work of Sylvia Magogo Glasser: Dancer, Dance Educator, Choreographer, Social Activist, and Visionary,” the article is a compilation of interviews with Sylvia, writings, websites, and articles that describe her work, and the several generations of performers, students, educators, and dancers she has influenced. A particular highlight is hearing from Sylvia about her reflections on her seminal work, Transformations from 1991, and her comments about the anthropology in the work we do that is illuminated in that performance that integrated cultural and spiritual practices, and the importance of multiple histories and ways of understanding Southern African dance. Vivien concludes her article with, “It is particularly ‘moving’ to know that her influence on generations of contemporary dancers is honored and continues to shine light on the present and future directions of dance in Southern Africa.”

Book Review

This edition features a book review written by Giselle Ruzany on Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) for Trauma Survivors: Theoretical, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives by Rebekka Dietrich-Hartwell and Anne Margrethe Melson. This timely publication provides rich information for DMTs and clinicians alike who are interested in contemporary trauma and DMT theory and practice and is rich with case examples that address the impact of current critical social issues in the field of DMT.

We hope you enjoy this edition and share it with your colleagues. Together, as a global network, we continue to build capacity of knowledge, deepen our empathic and relational practices, and expand the interrelational possibilities of the arts net.