Parker Eckardt

Senior Project Advisor

Kate Darby

Document Type

Project

Publication Date

Spring 2025

Keywords

outdoor dance, community dance, land-body connection, kinesthetic intelligence, settler colonialism, community resilience

Abstract

With communities around the world facing intensifying impacts of climate change and increased risk to natural hazard events, fostering tight-knit and resilient communities is necessary now more than ever. In this paper, I synthesize pre-existing research examining the value of dance – especially outdoor, communal dance – as an opportunity to create connection to self, land, and others. I also review historical/social patterns that have created a barrier in land-body connections in settler colonial culture. An additional component of this capstone, which is summarized and discussed in this essay, is an outdoor movement session which I hosted for WWU students as well as Bellingham community members at a city park, which was followed by an open discussion regarding my aforementioned research topics. By combining these approaches to understanding the value of outdoor community dance as an intervention towards resilience, I have underlined a yearning for joyful spaces of creativity, opportunities to connect with the land in reinvigorating ways, a hope for long-lasting community spaces, and an understanding of the impacts of settler colonialism on our role within nature. Through this collection of knowledge, I encourage readers to seek out ways to join or create communities that emphasize these strengths, and to center joy and dance amidst challenging and destructive times.

Department

Environmental Studies

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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