Listening to kinaesthetic experiences in contemporary Yoga practice

SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies is delighted to host Dr Marissa Clarke to discuss the topic, 'Listening to kinaesthetic experiences in contemporary Yoga practice."

Today, contemporary yoga is often framed through quantifiable measures, from fixed training hours to the performance and attainment of idealised postural forms. For example, ‘become a yoga teacher in 200 hours!' Or ‘master your pincha mayurasana!’ Such framings invite objectifying relationships to bodies, time and space. But what if there was a shift in attention away from quantitative notions of time and codified postural forms in space, towards the qualitative experience of movement itself in yoga practice? After all, as the philosopher and dancer Maxine Sheets-Johnstone has argued, ‘movement does not simply occur in space and in time; movement creates its own space, time, and force, and it is precisely the creation of its own space-time-force that gives any movement its distinctive qualitative character.’

In this presentation, Dr Marissa Clarke will share findings from her doctoral research project on the qualitative experience of movement in contemporary yoga practice, which she co-created with practitioners using sensory inquiries, field recordings, and interviews. By focusing on the kinaesthetic experiences and sounds of practitioners, this research introduces a new understanding of memory, time, and skill in yoga practice and scholarship.

In support of these findings, Dr Clarke will also introduce Oceano Respiração, an experimental sound and performance project she created in collaboration with Professor Isabel Nogueira in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This presentation invites practitioners, teachers, and scholars to re-think yoga practice beyond quantifiable measures, attending instead to the temporality of listening to kinaesthetic experiences.