Kathie and Pat Debenham

Professor Kathie Debenham PhD, CLMA, Utah Valley University, has
developed programs and curricula in university, secondary and primary school
settings, and directed companies of children/youth, university, and professional
dancers. She has presented the Laban/Bartenieff work at numerous regional,
national, and international conferences in dance and in the humanities.

Pat Debenham is a CLMA and Professor of Contemporary Dance and Music
Theatre at Brigham Young University. In addition to workshops and
choreography that have been presented internationally, he has published in
Research in Dance Education, The Journal of Dance Education, NAHE
Interdisciplinary Journal and Contact Quarterly. Pat’s professional work
demonstrates how Laban principles can be woven into and through all aspects of
a dance curriculum.

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Articles

The cognisant body

by Kathie and Pat Debenham originally published on in Dance dialogues: Conversations across cultures, artforms and practices

Stephen Nachmanovitch (1990, p.73) writes, "Practice is…the linkage of inner knowing and action." Traditional university studio training with specialised vocabularies and techniques often focuses on "the material" rather than on what is "under the material." This paper focuses on the "knowing body" that creates and confirms knowledge through psychophysical experience—a body where symbols, signs and abstract thought are grounded in and through kinaesthesia. In the paper, we explore how in technique, improvisation, composition and choreography, artist-teachers can use reflective processing to honour the body in the mind and the mind in the body.