The dancing body makes sense of place

The grounded theory of this dissertation is that 'the dancing body makes sense of place'. This theory is investigated through hermeneutic praxis based on the theoretical perspective of phenomenology. In exploring how the dancing body experiences place, it is the processes that underlie and give form to dance that capture my attention. 'The dancing body makes sense of place' is a phrase that liberates the description and consideration of the non-verbal processes that underlie the dance/place interface. The phrase offers the possibility of communicating coexisting processes. Interpreted as 'the dancing body makes (sense of place)', the phrase suggests that the development of a 'sense of place' is an outcome of the action of dance. Whilst interpreted as 'the dancing body makes sense of (place)', the phrase implies the understanding of 'place' through dance. The hermeneutic praxis described in this dissertation, is comprised of memory retrieval sessions which allude to how the 'dancing body' experiences space, place and sense of place. During praxis, it emerges that the dancing body infers 'sense of place' through spheres of experience, that may be described as the; 'propriosphere, kinesphere, near-sphere', and 'far-sphere'. Praxis also reveals that the 'dancing body''s' relationship to place in integral in the development of a sense of belongin