“Incessantly, I am moved, from within and without, by movements other than my own.”

There are movements that are in us without being of us, called “movementments”. Like breathing, blood flow or gravity, they are influenced beyond our will by dancing, ecological and political forces. In this book, Emma Bigé addresses Terra’s inhabitants, the human mammals, encouraging them to learn how to move in and with space.

As movements multiply and overflow from our bodies, somatic ecologies present themselves as a tool for analyzing the interdependencies between our gestures and the world. The various forms of dance thus appear as sensitive, intentional, and political acts. Inspired by the work of Erin Manning and Donna Haraway, this book takes up Steve Paxton’s petite danse and contact improvisation, and Lucinda Child’s Street dance. Combining ecological and epistemological theories with those of dance, architecture and urbanism, Emma Bigé explores the political role of our movements and those that pass through us.

Emma Bigé, Movementements. Ecopolitics of dance. (La Découverte, 2023)