The matriarch and the mollusc and all things in between

This co-authored chapter articulates an embodied process of peer exchange between two women; mature dance movement therapists from differing backgrounds. The authors consider the collaborative approach that has evolved over some years, creatively excavating a rich seam of shared practice both in the studio and in environments on the Jurassic coast, and on Dartmoor. This collaboration is characterised by mutuality and reciprocity, honouring the complicated intra-connectedness of all things, from the powerful matriarch, to the soft bodied mollusc. The writing emphasises the imperative of establishing a strong psychic and emotional container based on mutual trust, to hold the unbridled expression of whatever arises in the space, allowing challenging emotions and dynamic interpersonal issues to be embodied safely in a shared movement landscape. The authors’ experiential investigation integrates movement, feeling, image, story, language and thought, embracing individual interior worlds, professional practice and current social-political landscapes. Meeting, moving and musing, listening and witnessing, sometimes making coherent meaning, sometimes not. As the authors cobble together fragments of experience, themes of power, privilege and social order have a tendency to erupt through the cracks and these playful explorations are located within the entanglements of the world.