Shared Habitat

Eila Goldhahn

Dr Eila Goldhahn’s arts, somatic and psychotherapeutic practices explore embodiment and relationship to self and other. She uses photography, site specific installation, film and sculpture to create documents and interventions exploring the fragility of the human condition within ecological boundaries. Her writings draw on dance history, philosophy, psychotherapeutic theories and science and have been published in international peer reviewed academic journals. Eila teaches the Discipline of Authnetic Movement, or as she prefers to call it: the MoverWitness. ‘Authentic Movement’ is a meditative and relational practice that involves stillness, non-directive movement, non-judgemental observation and reflective, sensitive speaking. The practice offers therapeutic benefits, but also community building, creative inspiration and spiritual aspects.

After studying dance at Dartington College of Arts in the 1980s Eila Goldhahn became a student of Dr Janet Adler, and the first to receive a PhD in the field of Authentic Movement. Her book Reflections on Authentic Movement: Theory, Practice and Arts-led Research (Routledge 2022) is widely praised.

“I have just finished your book ! What a beautiful offering... It was clear throughout how thorough and wide your depth of thinking expanded, your reach into science and art and philosophy.”
Dr Janet Adler (1941-2023), Discipline of Authentic Movement Founder, Canada.

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“I love the book. What a great resource Eila has provided for all of us studying this practice. I will give it as a resource to my students, it will be top of the list.”
Wendy Elliott Somatic Depth Psychotherapist, Oija, California, USA.

“With vivid descriptions, penetrating and clear language, Dr. Goldhahn's outstanding body of work is at last readily accessible to the global audience of Authentic Movement scholars and practitioners. It is a profoundly original undertaking, one that not only maps the history of the practice and the discipline, but also expands it through art as well as performative research. Dr. Goldhahn's writing rhythm, sometimes syncopated, at other times fluidly poetic, makes reading her book a pleasure. She paints artistry as witnessing and object-making as dancing movement. Her installations bridge life, death, and ritual, reminding us how private and public spaces in Authentic Movement come to be—through shared experiences. Dance, imagination, interpretation, and inner witnessing take on deeper meaning and scope via her "camera-witnessing" technique.”

“During many years of Authentic Movement practice, I had never questioned the use of the word "authentic," even after having read her 2009 article in the AJDT. Certainly I could not have researched, dissected, stripped it of its current usage and meaning in the way Dr. Goldhahn has. Whether broadening the concept of authenticity, rejecting some of its preconceptions, or magisterially weaving it in and out of famed continental philosophers' contemplations, Dr. Goldhahn describes the essence of this practice and, perhaps, what Janet Adler in her later writings calls "direct" experience. In her search for an ontologically adequate and methodologically correct term, Dr. Goldhahn merged the constant experience of opposites in Authentic Movement into one fluid expanse of possible relationships and connections she named MoverWitness.”

“The learning process of collaborative choreography, coupled with the use of digital devices, offers a novel, intense method of exploration for dancers, practitioners, supervising therapists, and artists, using curiosity, limits and boundaries, intertwining bodies, movements, actions, reactions, and non-judgmental language.
Furthermore, Dr. Goldhahn's relentless questioning and probing of intellectual boundaries gives us opportunities to peek, not only into our ever-present digital experience with an ethical eye, but also to confront our illusion of embodied presence and blurring of our digitally-transmitted experiences.”

“Her holistic merging of science, aesthetics, kinesthesia and proprioception uproots Catesian dualism. This allows us becoming one with, and at the same time, micro-focusing on elements of the urban environments or natural habitats. At the end, Dr. Goldhahn invites us to explore MoverWitness for its ecological clarion call to stop the destruction of our world. She is devoted to communicating "the realization of the interconnectedness and dependencies of all ecologies" in her strong belief that "creative embodiment, empathy, and non-judgmental way to use language" in collaborative relationships will foster and shape a new world for all living creatures.”

Patrizia Pallaro, Editor of Authentic Movement Vol. I & II
Moving the Self Psychotherapy Center, Annapolis, MD, USA.
*****

“This book is recommended reading for artists and dancers interested in engaging with Authentic Movement for their own creative outputs and others from education, recreational and health fields who would like to understand more about the adaptive nature of Goldhahn's MoverWitness, an interdisciplinary tool....Further the book provides the reader with a comprehensive pathway to the theory and practice of the Discipline of Authentic Movement.”

Professor Helen Payne University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.

*****
“Eila Goldhahn offers a rich and sensitive framework for rethinking the contemporary discipline Authentic Movement. The reader is guided through the various components of the method with maintained respect for the legacy of ideas. Goldhahn creates a lucid web of knowledge rather than analysing components one-by-one, beautifully conveying a sense of what the discipline of Authentic Movement is all about. Knowledge emerges with a linguistic simplicity that does not simplify complex matters. This book will certainly serve students on their learning path within the field of Dance Movement Therapy. The guidelines in chapter three also offer university teachers in DMT an embodied frame of thought that is far more helpful than what a concrete step-by-step manual-based instruction would be. Goldhahn’s approach highlights the value of human communication within university learning. For students, teachers as well as readers outside of the academy who are interested in Authentic Movement – this book is a gift!”

Eva Tillberg Psychotherapist and Supervisor, Lecturer Karlstad University, Sweden.

*****“Eila Goldhahn contributes to the Authentic Movement literature though a carefully considered re-framing of the practice, naming it the MoverWitness, while highlighting a unique creative perspective of the practice with her essays on arts-led research. This book gives the field a fresh application of AM, centered firmly in its rich and fertile history.”

Marcia Plevin Arts Therapy Italiana, Bologna, Italy.

*****

“Eila Goldhahn takes readers on a captivating journey while they are sitting with the book in their hands: it includes Authentic Movement’s history, acknowledges its roots in dance and the cultural processes of its time, in visual arts, Freudian psychoanalysis, Jungian psychology and the shaping up of a quite specific discipline of its own. As readers traverse the book pages, doors open to enrich their knowledge and understanding even for those not solely focused on Authentic Movement training.”

Hilda Wengrower Psy. D., Dance Movement Therapist & Clinical Supervisor, Israel.

*****

“Vorrei suggerire la lettura del libro Reflections on Authentic Movement
(Riflessioni sul Movimento Autentico) in cui l'autrice Elia Goldhahn offre diversi elementi riguardanti il campo del Movimento Autentico, attraverso il suo un modo personale e originale di guardare al Movimento Autentico, offrendo riflessioni e una parte storica. L'autrice si concentra sul concetto di relazione Mover-Witness, descrive una breve guida alla pratica e all'uso specifico del linguaggio , fornisce riflessioni sulle origini del termine stesso Authentic, rifacendosi a diversi autori. In una parte molto stimolante l’autrice la propria storia personale e il suo sviluppo nello studio e nella pratica del Movimento Autentico. Un altro aspetto che può essere di interesse per gli artisti è la descrizione dell'uso del Movimento Autentico nel campo delle arti e dei media, con particolari rappresentazioni e applicazioni. Penso che questo libro offra un interessante contributo alla conoscenza, alla pratica e all'utilizzo del Movimento Autentico in diversi campi per diversi operatori e professionisti .”

Maria Govoni Psicoterapeuta, Psicologa, DMT Art Therapy Italiana.

*****

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Chromosome boards, friezes