BODYSTORIES
“BodyStories presents a much needed approach to human anatomy, one that is enlightening to beginning and graduate students alike.This is a book to be done, not merely read; as you engage in Olsen’s programmed sequence of lessons, you become the text and the illustrations.This is experiential anatomy at its best.”
Deane Juhan author of Job’s Body: A Handbook for Bodywork
❖
“Author-practitioner Andrea Olsen brings her experience, knowledge, and unique insights, gained over more than 20 years as a dance and visual artist, to BodyStories. The result is both delightful and accessible in this Guide to Experiential Anatomy. Every dancer and dance teacher, every actor, every visual artist, and everyone with a mind to enhance her or his movement experience and pleasure should have it at hand.”
John M. Wilson, Ph.D. Professor of Dance, Burlington National Teaching Resources award recipient, The University of Arizona
BODYSTORIES
A GUIDE TO EXPERIENTIAL ANATOMY
ANDREA OLSEN
IN COLLABORATION WITH CARYN MCHOSE
❖
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown, CT 06459
© 1998 by Andrea Olsen
Original edition © 1991 by Andrea Olsen
First Wesleyan University Press edition 2019
Previously published by Station Hill Openings in 1991
and by University Press of New England in 1998
Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2 1
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8195-7944-7
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8195-7945-4
Grateful acknowledgement is due to the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency in Washington, D.C., and by the New York State Council on the Arts for partial financial support of the publishing program of The Institute for Publishing Arts, Inc.
Title page photo: Sphenoid bone of the skull, by Erik Borg
The Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Olsen, Andrea.
Bodystories : a guide to experiential anatomy / Andrea Olsen, in collaboration with Caryn McHose. — [New and expanded ed.]
p. cm.
Previously published in 1991.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–58177–017–0 (alk. paper)
1. Human anatomy. 2. Human anatomy—Problems, exercises, etc. 3. Experiential learning. I. McHose, Caryn. II. Title.
QM23.2.038 1998
611–dc21
98–28526
Cover photographs by Danielle Vogel.
❖
This book is dedicated to Alison who reminded me that the function of a book about anatomy is not to demystify the body – it is to help embody the mystery.
❖
BODYSTORIES
A GUIDE TO EXPERIENTIAL ANATOMY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Visual Images
I have chosen the work of twelve artists in the areas of painting, photography, sculpture, furniture making, architecture, and costume design to accompany the text. Their work tells its own story in relation to the body, and asks participation in making the connection between image and word. Multicultural images are included for a world perspective. Movement sketches, anatomical illustrations, and photographs are used to clarify experiential work. Children’s drawings enliven the writing with their own view of the body.
| Preface to New Edition | 1 |
| The Text: Origins (Introduction) | 5 |
| Stories: “Writing” | 5 |
| “Colors” | 7 |
| DAY 1 | |
| BASIC CONCEPTS | 9 |
| Story: “Claiming your Height” | 9 |
| To do: Drawing your skeleton | 10 |
| DAY 2 | |
|
|
