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“The dancing self is a metaphor for a person who feels vitally alive and creatively engaged in the world” (p. 15). These words by Carol Press describe the essence of the book: the experience of vitality as it is derived from the active engagement of the body in movement, and the creative engagement with the world as dance becomes the vehicle for communication for affects and ideas.
This modest-appearing book is chock full of treasures: after reflecting on the history of modern dance as an art form, it offers a psychoanalytic explanation of its intra-and intersubjective meaning as well as its rootedness in culture: “Art elaborates our ideals, endowed with our subjective sense of beauty, and binds the relations between senses of self, others and culture” (p. 7).
The book is divided into six chapters, each detailing the relationship between creativity, modern dance, and self psychology from a different perspective. These theoretical considerations are then illustrated with a case study based on dancer Paul Taylor's autobiography. The last chapter takes up the means by which teaching and learning expressive movement can become a self-transformative experience. This review reflects my understanding of the major features and the most outstanding contributions the book makes to the subject of creativity, specifically creativity in dance and choreography.