Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
| Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 🏫 Education | Ohio State University |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Movement Education and Therapy |
| Movement | Somatics |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Len Cohen |
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Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (b. 1941) is a researcher, therapist and educator in the field of somatics. She is most well known for being the originator of Body-Mind Centering®. She is considered[by whom?] one of the major contributors in the 20th and 21st century to the field of movement studies and has been influential in body oriented psychotherapy, dance therapy, contemporary dance, yoga and manual bodywork.
Early life and professional career[edit]
According to her own biography[1] Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen grew up in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, her mother was an acrobat and her father a ticket seller. In 1959, aged 16, she participated in a high-school dance project with children with learning disabilities. This led her to study occupational therapy at Ohio State University.
Having danced since childhood, she maintained a strong connection to dance at this time and took classes with Marian Chace, one of the pioneers of the field of dance therapy, and summer schools with Erick Hawkins, a prominent modern dancer.
Once she completed her studies, she began working in hospitals and started using principles from Hawkin’s dance technique, such as focusing on active lengthening of muscles, in rehabilitation work. This was a controversial choice with her supervisors but was the beginnings of her development of Body-Mind Centering®.
Later she studied neurodevelopmental therapy with Bertha and Dr. Karel Bobath, Laban movement analysis with Irmgard Bartenieff, Kestenberg movement profiling with Judith Kestenberg, craniosacral therapy with John Upledger and ideokinesis with Barbara Clark and Andre Bernard.
When she completed her studies in neurodevelopmental therapy with the Bobaths, she moved to New York but did not find the hospital environment conducive to this way of working. She found that many of New York’s dancers were however very receptive and thus began adapting the work for adults without disabilities. Out of these classes grew, directly, what was later to become the School for Body-Mind Centering® and the core material in the Body-Mind Centering® curriculum was developed there.
Legacy[edit]
Since the establishment of Body-Mind Centering, Bonnie has widely recognised in the fields of dance, movement studies as well as Dance therapy and Body psychotherapy. In the field of psychology her students included Susan Aposhyan[2], who founded an MA in Somatic Psychology at Naropa University; Linda Hartley[3][4], an author, teacher and psychotherapist; as well as Katya Bloom[5] an influencial Dance/Movement Therapist.
In dance, various authors, university lecturers and teachers have been certified or heavily influenced by BMC, including Andrea Olson[6][7], Caryn McHose[8] and many others. Many of the early generation of Contact improvisation practitioners were regular students of Bainbridge Cohen, including Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson, the founders of the journal Contact Quarterly. Robert Ellis Dunn, the composition teacher at the Merce Cunningham Company, whose composition workshop gave rise to the Grand Union (dance group) and the Judson Dance Theater stated that he was deeply influenced by Bainbridge Cohen's work. Eric Franklin, based his dance technique and his writings on a combination of Body-Mind Centering, and Ideokinesis principles[9].
In the field of Laban movement analysis her colleague Peggy Hackney, a teacher taught by Irmgaard Bartenieff, adapted Bainbridge Cohen's material into how she taught the Bartenieff Fundamentals to include the Basic Neurological Patterns of Body-Mind Centering[10].
Body-Mind Centering®[edit]
Body-Mind Centering®, the approach to somatic movement education and therapy developed by Bainbridge Cohen, combines elements of movement analysis, re-education.
The core areas of study in Body-Mind Centering® include embodied anatomy, embodied developmental movement and somatic psychology.
References[edit]
- ↑ Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge,. Sensing, feeling, and action : the experiential anatomy of body-mind centering®. Nelson, Lisa, 1949-, Smith, Nancy Stark. (Third ed.). Northampton, MA. ISBN 0937645141. OCLC 835373327.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Aposhyan, Susan M. (2004). Body-mind psychotherapy : principles, techniques, and practical applications (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0393704416. OCLC 54001333. Search this book on
- ↑ Hartley, Linda, 1949- (1995). Wisdom of the body moving : an introduction to body-mind centering. Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1556431740. OCLC 29566626.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Hartley, Linda, 1949- (2004). Somatic psychology : body, mind, and meaning. London: Whurr. ISBN 9781861564306. OCLC 56455023.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Bloom, Katya. (2006). The embodied self : movement and psychoanalysis. London: Karnac. ISBN 9781782410140. OCLC 810933262. Search this book on
- ↑ Olsen, Andrea. (2004). Bodystories : a guide to experiential anatomy. McHose, Caryn. (1st University Press of New England, expanded, new ed.). Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. ISBN 158465354X. OCLC 56060745. Search this book on
- ↑ Olsen, Andrea. (2002). Body and earth : an experiential guide. Hanover, NH: Middlebury College Press. ISBN 1584650109. OCLC 48761349. Search this book on
- ↑ McHose, Caryn. (2006). How life moves : explorations in meaning and body awareness. Frank, Kevin, 1951-, Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1556436181. OCLC 63703775. Search this book on
- ↑ Franklin, Eric N. (2012). Dynamic alignment through imagery (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. ISBN 9780736067898. OCLC 752471956. Search this book on
- ↑ Hackney, Peggy. (2002). Making connections : total body integration through Bartenieff fundamentals (1st Routledge ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 9056995928. OCLC 50662536. Search this book on
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