Awakening the spirit through dance, somatics and Scaravelli Yoga

In this chapter I chart my journey from a child performer, dance student, dancer, teacher and researcher to my discovery of dance and somatic practices and subsequent research in this area. I share key influences, practices and processes that have inspired and continue to stimulate my research. I also share some characteristics found in different somatic practices and across the dance-somatic family, which are identified through the use of Wittgenstein’s Family Resemblance Theory. Finally, I draw from, and share, a family resemblance between the Feldenkrais Method® and Scaravelli Yoga.  Throughout, I share practice-based processes drawn from some key somatic practices and practitioners, namely the Feldenkrais Method®, Skinner Releasing Technique, Sensory Awareness and Scaravelli Yoga. The crisscrossing and interweaving of these similarities and differences between practices relates to the much more extensive piece of work, using a Wittgensteinian analysis, as mentioned above.