Corporeal education: motor praxeology and the art of movement as an educational tool

Abstract

Abstract In the post-pandemic era we’re living through, it can seem as though real life resides in the virtual world – the one driven by screens and the sedentary lifestyle that shapes a human being’s posture and intellectual faculties (Vincent, 2018). As we look back over this period of enforced confinement, it is worth examining how being at home has changed our perception of personal space. In the best cases it has generated an openness in which thoughts, images and actions ‘converge’, allowing us to turn our attention to the self. At the precise moment that body and space become vehicles for memories and emotions, the value and significance of the body re-emerges. Based on the epistemological aspects of motor praxeology as developed by Parlebas, which aims to move beyond dichotomies of mind/body and theory/practice, this study offers a consideration of the communicative or semi-motor value of movement, as well as the importance of teaching artistic movement in school (Crispiani, 2006). Finally, based on a hybrid set of practical experiences in person and online, we consider the methods that enhance the centrality of the body and perception through the imparting of movement through dance: a type of action in which the self becomes manifest through seeing, moving, perceiving and doing (Husserl, 1950).