My Body, The Buddhist

by Deborah Hay, Susan Foster (Contributor)

A premiere choreographer's compelling argument for the agency of the body in creative processes.

Through a series of imaginative approaches to movement and performance, choreographer Deborah Hay presents a profound reflection on the ephemeral nature of the self and the body as the locus of artistic consciousness. Using the same uniquely playful poetics of her revolutionary choreography, she delivers one of the most revealing accounts of what art creation entails and the ways in which the body, the center of our aesthetic knowledge of the world, can be regarded as our most informed teacher.

My Body, The Buddhist becomes a way into Hay's choreographic techniques, a gloss on her philosophy of the body (which shares much with Buddhism), and an extraordinary artist's primer. The book is composed of nineteen short chapters ("my body likes to rest," "my body finds energy in surrender," "my body is bored by answers"), each an example of what Susan Foster calls Hay's "daily attentiveness to the body's articulateness."

Genres: Art

133 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[Lady3jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading about a choreographer's practice, and My Body, The Buddhist did not disappoint there. Hay has some beautiful passages about dance, creation and the body, and an interesting view of the world. I also loved some of her little stories on how a piece came about or the struggles and successes of working as a choreographer in the United States.

However, the bulk of the book is descriptions of pieces she has created. Hay has developed a dance transcription style all her own, which was fascinating at first but by the end I was really tired of reading pages and pages detailing a performance piece. It's not what I was hoping for from this book, and it left me disappointed.

Still, an interesting window onto the practice of one of America's most well known choreographers and I'm glad I read it.

[Rebecca]

Second dance-book-a-month for 2011. Fascinating, enlightening, as much like reading a spiritual practice book as a dance book. I loved getting inside of Deborah's process and considering how joy and mystery can be a part of dance making. That said, I sometimes felt like she was drawing the veil tighter around her process rather than revealing how she makes work.

[Ada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful approach and wonderful reflection of self practice

Deborah’s approach to dance is nothing short of beautiful and exemplary. The manner in which uses dance to reflect upon reality and truth can be utilized by anyone to go deeper into one’s own practice and self knowledge, a non verbal form of philosophical and theological exploration

[Andrea Soto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange yet so hypnotizing

[Beth Teepe · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book keeps me in the practice of art and creation