“Maai” in Contemporary Dance – Scripting, Listening, and Creating -

Abstract

“Maai” is a phenomenon that everybody feels in relations among one’s own body and the surrounding environment in daily life, but has never been examined well in academic researches. This paper aims at presenting several aspects of “maai”, based on the first author’s experience of practices of contemporary dance, using the methodology of studying with/on first-person’s view. The findings are that listening to the feel of one’s own body seems to be the basis of formation of “maai”, that “maai” is created through interaction between one’s body, time, space, and the surrounding people (including tutors), and that scripting intentions and goals about “maai” in the next moves of dancing is on higher order, and thus possible through listening and creating.