Mellan individen och dansaren : En studie om dansares upplevelse av fysisk kontakt

Sammanfattning: This thesis studies the phenomenon "physical contact in dance" through two perspectives: how dance students experience it and the norms that exist around it in a dance context. The research has been carried out via half-structured lifeworld interviews of four dance students in Sweden. The interviews have been analyzed with the help of thematic analysis. The results have then been discussed together with existing literature about the subject. The conclusions have been that the participants generally appreciated physical contact but that some factors such as its association with sexuality or the non-respect of personal boundaries led to discomfort. The interaction with another person has been deemed an important component of the experience of touch, which led to the devising of an interpretation of physical contact as the intersection between the dancer and the private individual. The norms regarding touch that have appeared are that dancers are expected to be comfortable touching each other, that the topic is seldom discussed in dance and that physical contact is associated with sexuality in dance in the same way as in the rest of society.