Combining art and science to address the challenges of our time. A dancer’s perspective on BMC, by Kirstie Simon.

Professor of Dance at the University of Illinois.

In such tumultuous times, when humanity faces an uncertain future and we have a growing awareness that our perspective on life needs to shift dramatically, it is timely to grapple with the challenging task of educating a different kind of human, to raising consciousness and better equipping young people for the job of steering this ship through unchartered waters. 

As a dance artist, I am immersed in a dedicated ‘life-practice’ of Improvisation, one that radically transformed my whole being as a young person. It opened me up to the joy of an embodied relationship with life, allowing me opportunities to explore empathic relationships with others through moving together, and a deeper ‘felt’ connection with nature. It seems vitally important at this time that the arts and sciences are brought together in non-hierarchical structures of learning, paving the way forward to innovative processes for addressing current and future challenges. 

Black Mountains College is a timely and exciting project intent on making a crucial contribution to our collective predicament, offering visionary models of inclusive learning that are informed by the earth itself, seeking for potential solutions to what is urgently being called for.