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Arts & Communication Digital somatic arts: Choreographing autonomy

• Assistant Professor in Media and Performance the brain by a map. But the size of an individual body part
Studies, Department of Media and Culture in the brain map is proportional not to its actual size in
Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands the body but rather to how often and how precisely it is
• Member of the Utrecht University Research used.” 4(p171)
Group Transmission in Motion, which explores
intersections between media, performance, and In the same book, in reference to Merzenich’s research,
embodiment. Doidge tells what kind of experiment Merzenich was
(iv) Dr. Cliff Smith (Contacted by email on September 29, recognized for. He discusses the one that enabled him to
2024) locate the spot in the brain that corresponded to a monkey’s
• Feldenkrais Guild of North America Certified hand. He had experimented with amputating the third
Practitioner finger of the monkey’s hand to locate the corresponding
• Editor of Feldenkrais Research Journal. map in the brain. A few months later, continuing his tests,
(v) Dr. Sylvie Fortin (Contacted through email on he found that the second and fourth fingers had increased
October 1, 2024, and was not aware of other studies) their areas in the monkey’s brain to take up the area that
• Retired Professor Emeritus, Dance Department, the third finger had previously taken up. It was thanks to
University of Québec à Montréal (UQAM), these tests that Penfield was able to create the notion of
Canada homunculus, “who showed that the body is represented in
• Former Director of Graduate Studies in Dance the brain by a map.” 4(p12,171) According to Doidge 4(p.12,17,18,168-
Department, and founder of UQÀM Graduate 171) , these scientific confirmations of neuroscience explain
Program in Somatic Education in large part the effectiveness of the Feldenkrais method.
• Renowned for her contributions to somatic
education and the development of somatic References
practices in dance. 1. Donadel M. Online education and the feeling of (dis)

Appendix 2 embodiment: A somatic perspective of a learning experience.
J Dance Somatic Pract. 2020;12(1):155-161.
Following on from this article, we hope to continue our
research to examine and understand the complementary doi: 10.1386/jdsp_00019_7
interrelationships involving the other two cartographies. 2. Yuhui Y. Online technologies in dance education (China
and worldwide experience). Res Dance Educ. 2022;23(4):
Appendix 3 396-412.
According to Doidge, Feldenkrais was the first doi: 10.1080/14647893.2020.1832979
4
neuroplastician, but at the time, he did not yet have the 3. Longley A, Moraes J, Cook J. Reaching across from here
neuroscience knowledge to prove his research. In his to there, in precarious times: Remote-teaching embodied
book, Doidge argues that “Feldenkrais insights have been creative practice through scores, instructions, and poetic
reaffirmed by the neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, who invitations. Crit Stud Teach Learn. 2022;10(1SI):81-108.
showed that long-term neuroplastic change occurs most
readily when a person or an animal pays close attention doi: 10.14426/cristal.v10iSI.1822
while learning…” 4(p168-171) Also, “[Feldenkrais] relied on 4. Doidge N. The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries
the work of the Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, and Recoveries from the Frontier of Neuroplasticity. New-
who showed that the surface of the body is represented in York, NY: Viking; 2015.

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