The goal of the MTA project, as stated on its facebook page is
“to introduce nature-based original art onto the Midstate Trail in order to
deepen the aesthetic experience for hikers, promote usage of this natural
resource and build a community of artists/outdoor enthusiasts” (Cormier, 2012). This project is the juxtaposition of my
interests as a community arts practitioner, hiking enthusiast and researcher
interested in arts-based research. I
view this project as both a community arts initiative as well a research
inquiry to explore the meaning and lived experience of encountering
nature-based art on this well-traveled and popular hiking trail. I intend to conduct a qualitative research
study which will carefully document the entire process. Although I have not yet taken the first step,
which is to prepare a research design, I am confident that I will this inquiry
will employ participant observation, interviews, and the collection of
artifacts.
My objective is to use the modern dance art form to portray
the lived experience of the following actions that I have either experienced
myself or witnessed firsthand. These
actions include, hiking on the trail, encountering trail art while hiking on
the trail, introducing another person to the trail and to the art on the
trail. I intend to collaborate with a
colleague who is a professional modern dancer and choreographer. This collaboration will include the process
of creating choreography that portrays the lived experience of hiking on the
trail, encountering art while hiking on the trail, and potentially, the process
of researching the lived experiences noted above. I intend to participate as a hiker/dancer/researcher
in this inquiry, which will entail creating the choreography, rehearsing the
choreography and ultimately performing the choreographer in a public venue with
my colleague. I feel confident that I
will be able to rehearse and perform as a dancer because I have taken dance
classes taught by my colleague in the recent past. My hope is that by using dance in this way, I
will embody the lived experience of encountering art on the trail.
I also hope to explore the notions of the lived experience
of coping with physical constraints and limits while on the trail. I recently
took a 2 day overnight hike on the Midstate Trail while carrying a backpack of
more than 30 pounds. This experience resulted in severe discomfort for many
hours for which there was very little remedy available due to the logistics
involved with hiking in the woods from place to another, 20 miles apart. I finished the hike without any serious
physical injury however the experience provided a sober realization that I may
be unable to attempt similar adventures in the future. This feeling was not unlike the longing that
Celeste Snowber (2009) wrote about in Writing
Rhythm: Movement as Method, an article in Leavy’s text noted above. Snowber is a professional trained modern
dancer who injured her knee and was told that she may never dance again. In the article, Snowber described a
dance-based inquiry she undertook, which explored, “the lived relationships of
space and time, and the visceral connections between longing, desire and
limits” (p. 207). She decided to dance
her way through her injury by incorporating a chair into her choreography that
would support her. However, she found
that the chair also limited her mobility, which forced her to move in ways she
was not used to.
By encountering the limit of a chair, I was forced to create
movements in a way I never would have imagined, as I had to adjust my body to
not leaping, jumping, hopping, or landing hard on my feet. As I intellectually explored the notion of
longing as it related to desire, my whole body had the opportunity to wrestle,
stay with, and eventually delight in the limit.
The limit transformed me to a place of support for my body and shifted
my perception of limits in life experience.
Through the boundary, I am invited into a whole new language of dance –
one that fits my midlife body, which has physical limitations and yet more
choreographic possibilities (2009).
Like Snowber, I intend to use dance to probe the notion of
longing I have recently experienced as it relates to the inability of my body
to carry the weight required to camp overnight in the woods. I hope to use dance to embody and re-live the
lived experience of encountering this painful, physical barrier while hiking
the Midstate Trail. As noted above, I
also intend to explore the lived experience of encountering art on the Midstate
Trail. I think dance will be the perfect
art form to conduct this inquiry because it is movement-based, like the act of
hiking on a trail it. It is an
interpretative art-form well suited to expressing the meaning of a lived
experience and based on Snowber’s research, it seems particularly well-suited
for an inquiry into the lived experience of encountering aesthetic objects and
physical constraints and limitations.
References:
Cancienne, M. B., & Snowber, C. N. (2009) Writing
Rhythm: Movement as Method. In P. Leavy, Method
Meets Art: Arts Based Research Practice (pp. 198 – 214). New York: The
Guilford Press.
Leavy, P. (2009). Method
Meets Art: Arts Based Research Practice. New York: The Guilford Press.
