Kimerer LaMothe, Ph.D., is a philosopher, dancer, and scholar of religion, who lives with her partner and their five children on a farm in upstate New York. A former professor at Harvard and Brown Universities, recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Center for the Study of World Religions, and award-winning author of three books, Dr. LaMothe is currently director of Vital Arts, a center dedicated to creating art and ideas that remain faithful to the earth. Trained in modern dance, Haitian dance, ballet, and yoga, LaMothe has choreographed and danced two solo concerts, as well as performing in a range of concert, conference, and liturgical settings. Her third book, What a Body Knows: Finding Wisdom in Desire, uses personal anecdotes and cultural analysis to introduce her original philosophy of bodily becoming. Working with our desires for food, sex, and spirit, she describes a way of thinking and being that privileges bodily movement as the source and telos of human life.

www.vitalartsmedia.com

Kimerer speaks with Joanna about dance & philosophy, overcoming body/mind dualism through movement, desire as a healing impulse, sensory awareness, e/motions, the importance of touch, “remaining faithful to the Earth”…

Music: “Body and Soul” (from Ballads) by Derek Bailey.