Mary O'Donnell Fulkerson (1940–2020) was an American

dance teacher Dance education is a practice whereby students are taught a broad understanding of dance as an art form or trained professionally in specific dance genres. Dance education also encompasses a research area in which scholars conduct original resear ...

and choreographer. Born in the United States, she developed an approach to expressive

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

movement called 'Anatomical Release Technique' in the US and UK, which has influenced the practice of

dance movement therapy Dance/movement therapy (DMT) in USA/ Australia or dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) in the UK is the psychotherapeutic use of movement and dance to support intellectual, emotional, and motor functions of the body. As a modality of the creative ...

, as seen in the clinical work of Bonnie Meekums,

postmodern dance Postmodern dance is a 20th century concert dance form that came into popularity in the early 1960s. While the term "postmodern" took on a different meaning when used to describe dance, the dance form did take inspiration from the ideologies of th ...

, as exemplified by the choreography of Kevin Finnan, and the application of guided meditation and

guided imagery Guided imagery (also known as guided affective imagery, or katathym-imaginative psychotherapy (KIP)) is a mind-body intervention by which a trained practitioner or teacher helps a participant or patient to evoke and generate mental images that si ...

, as seen in the

psychotherapeutic Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome prob ...

work of

Paul Newham Paul Newham (born 16 March 1962) is a retired British psychotherapist known for developing techniques used in psychology and psychotherapy to facilitate and examine two forms of human communication: the interpersonal communication through which ...

Work

Fulkerson's primary contribution to dance,

dance therapy Dance/movement therapy (DMT) in USA/ Australia or dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) in the UK is the psychotherapeutic use of movement and dance to support intellectual, emotional, and motor functions of the body. As a modality of the creativ ...

, and guided meditation derives from the way she taught dancers and non-dancers how to use their own

mental imagery A mental image is an experience that, on most occasions, significantly resembles the experience of 'perceiving' some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses. There are ...

to motivate expressive movement, which she developed upon the principles and practices previously established by Mabel Todd,

Barbara Clark Barbara Lynne Clark (born September 24, 1958), later known by her married name Barbara Parolin, is a former competitive swimmer from Canada, who competed primarily in international freestyle events. At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Q ...

, Lulu Sweigard, and

Joan Skinner Joan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters *:Joan of Arc, a French military heroine *Joan (surname) Weather events *Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multiple ...

, evolving her main teachings at

Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...

between 1973 and 1985. These teachers developed an approach to rehabilitative physical education, choreography, and

improvised Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

dance that had in common the facilitation of healthy and expressive movement through volitional use of imagination, which involved visualizing the structure and motion of the body, and allowing this kinaesthetic

imagery Imagery is visual symbolism, or figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions, especially in a literary work, but also in other activities such as psychotherapy. Forms There are five major types of sensory im ...

to inform the way they moved. The term '

ideokinesis Ideokinesis is an approach to improving posture, alignment, and fluency of movement through structured guided imagery that uses metaphors, such as visualizing an object moving in a specific direction along various muscle groups throughout the body, ...

' denotes use of such

to rehabilitate and precipitate human movement, which Sweigard borrowed from the American piano teacher Bonpensière, who used imagery in his music teaching, and invented the word by combining two words derivative of Greek: 'ideo' for idea or thought, and 'kinesis' for movement. Fulkerson initiated two developments in the work established by her predecessors. Firstly, she extended the type of

used by her students and dancers in both choreographed and

dance beyond the anatomical and

kinesthetic Proprioception ( ), also referred to as kinaesthesia (or kinesthesia), is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position. It is sometimes described as the "sixth sense". Proprioception is mediated by proprioceptors, mechanosensory neurons ...

. This enabled her students and dancers to physicalize and embody a range of

images An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

, including

entities An entity is something that exists as itself, as a subject or as an object, actually or potentially, concretely or abstractly, physically or not. It need not be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually ...

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s, and

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

. Secondly, she prepared her dancers and students for practice,

rehearsal A rehearsal is an activity in the performing arts that occurs as preparation for a performance in music, theatre, dance and related arts, such as opera, musical theatre and film production. It is undertaken as a form of practising, to ensure t ...

, and performance using a technique comparable to guided meditation,

, and

creative visualization Creative visualization is the cognitive process of purposefully generating visual mental imagery, with eyes open or closed, simulating or recreating visual perception, in order to maintain, inspect, and transform those images, consequently modi ...

, verbally suggesting

as the members of her ensemble or class lay still, becoming increasingly aware of their body prior to initiating movement. As a consequence, Fulkerson's approach to dance education has been described as a form of movement meditation.Meekums, B., Dance Movement Therapy: A Creative Psychotherapeutic Approach. Sage, 2002. In 1989, Fulkerson co-founded the Center for New Dance Development (Dutch "Centrum voor Nieuwe Dans Ontwikkeling", CNDO) later renamed European Dance Development Center (EDDC) with Aat Hougée in Arnhem, the Netherlands, after a split from the earlier established School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. The school continued to operate until it was made part of ArtEZ Dansacademie Arnhem, and fully merged with the former in 2002.

References

External links

Living Legacy ProjectArticle discussing her work at Dartington College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulkerson, Mary Creative arts therapies Dance teachers American female dancers American dancers American women choreographers American choreographers 1940 births 2020 deaths 21st-century American women