Elaine Summers - Kinetic Awareness

Kinetic Awareness

Starting with her teaching work in the 1950s, Summers developed Kinetic Awareness, a bodymind practice to help the individual find out more about their unique body and its possibilities of movement, as well as make informed choices about their physical well-being. This work was strongly influenced by Summers' study with Charlotte Selver and Carola Speads both students of Elsa Gindler. Listening to one's body-signals (proprioception) is the key action, whether at rest or in movement. The study is divided into five phases, from very slow, gentle movement of one body part at a time, to increasingly complex coordination, speed, tension, and interaction levels. It is up to the practitioner's individual choice how much they expand their movement options. Hollow rubber balls of different sizes are put underneath body parts to aid multi-directional movement and provide a self-directed massage through their elasticity.

This practice became the dance-technique for the Elaine Summers Dance & Film Co. and has been studied by many professionals and individuals across the world, also through certified teachers of The Kinetic Awareness Center. One close associate in the days around Judson was Trisha Brown who performed with Summers in one of the first performances of Energy Changes at Loeb's Student Center, NYU in 1971 titled From the Still Point (see below). Other students were Meredith Monk, members of The Wooster Group, and many others.