One at a time, the dancers entered the small chapel and crossed the green shag carpet to kneel before the virgin's portrait. For the three days of religious fiesta, her image would be the focus of the dancers' offerings. A faded color reproduction, the portrait was not honored for its aesthetic virtues. Rather, its significance was invocative and evocative: through it, the virgin's presence was invoked and her story evoked.

About four feet high, the virgin's portrait rested on a papier maché mountain half its size. On a lower ridge of the mountain was a statue of a kneeling man, cast in plaster. The man's size was equal to the mountain's so that his head reached the level of the virgin's knees. The overall effect was that the virgin on high looked down with compassion on a tiny mountain and a larger-than-life man. It was the opposite of traditional images of Mary looking up at Christ on the cross. Here, the man looked up from below at Mary (figure 1).

In a 1915 editorial of The Ladies Home Journal, social commentator Dorothy Mills pondered the issue of the “woman question,” and in a few vivid sentences summed up much of the public's reaction to women's readjusted place in society during the Progressive era. What was one to make of the fact that women were declaring the right to vote, divorcing their husbands at a greater pace than ever and demanding fulfilling work outside of marriage? Said Mills:

One would like to think that dancers hold positive attitudes toward many forms of dance, not just their own. Maybe this is a reason why researchers have not been interested in studying the attitudes of dancers toward dance. However, there have always been conflicts (e.g., which teachers, dancers, dance schools, dance genres should be supported by grants and awards) among dancers in Finland, thus Finnish dance-policy groups have held discussions about improving cooperation both among dancers representing different dance forms and between dancers and artists in other fields. As a result the Dance Council of Finland was founded in 1980 as an organization with board members from various art dance organizations, folk dance organizations and the Finnish Dance Sport Association. The aims of the Dance Council were, among others, to increase cohesion among dancers and to improve the public perception, appreciation and funding of dance. The Dance Council initiated a dance magazine, Tanssi (Dance). However, according to Laine (1991), who was chair of the Dance Council and director of the Finnish National Ballet, the process was problematic and slow.

Recently, the field of somatics has provided dance scholarship with a growing body of literature. Research has been conducted in the areas of dance science and education. Dance medicine and somatic education scholars have been able to help dance teachers find ways of using the body effectively in technique classes. For example, Glenna Batson (1990, 1993) and Sylvie Fortin (1993, 1995) have investigated the role of somatics in the improvement of technical dance skills. Further, Fortin (1995) has investigated learning and teaching theory as applied to somatics and dance pedagogy.

As a somaticist and educator, I acknowledge and appreciate the impressive work conducted by these researchers and educators. However, my current work moves somatics into another direction. I am interested in looking at somatic theory and practice through a socio-cultural lens. I am particularly interested in investigating how the body is shaped by society and the dance world, in which performers constantly strive for perfection.