Expressive Arts Education and Therapy: Discoveries in a Dance Theatre Lab through Creative Process-based Research

In Expressive Arts Education and Therapy the reader follows the creation of art-making in tandem with the unfolding of sense-making. A dance theatre lab is the stage for exploration where what was discovered was phenomenologically and collaboratively reflected upon, the participatory nature of the creative work pouring into the research methodology. Creative Process-based Research efficacy is contingent upon the interaction of three poles - the creator, the product and an experience of the internal/external creative process of the creator. All three perspectives comprise the dynamics required of this research methodology in order to understand what is occurring in these three distinct and essential elements of the creative process. What results is an experience of cohesion that consciously describes this interplay.

The author outlines his influences that contributed to both the art-making and sense-making over the seven year research project. His work in experimental theatre in New York, as an educator with The European Graduate School in Switzerland and his studies with philosopher John de Ruiter in Canada are integrated into the world of research in the field of expressive arts. The visceral component of creating clarity is uncovered and articulated. This book inspires new ways of thinking about participatory, collaborative, arts-centered research where the skill of exposing the artist/researcher’s modus operandi for making art and making sense is named in a myriad of ways that call upon the intellect as well as the artist’s intuitive sense of what to focus on and its relevance to education, therapy and global health.