Re/Turning to Her: A Co-A/R/Tograhic Ritual Inquiry

Barbara Bickel; Tannis Hugill

Barbara Bickel Southern Illinois University
Tannis Hugill

Abstract

This article reaches into the depths of a collaborative a/r/tographic ritual inquiry between two women artist-educatorspriestesses. Within this we reflect on the intersections of research, art, spirituality, and education as thresholds of collaborative learning. Throughout the ritual-infused research process, we generated source material and imagery from trance, Authentic Movement, the labyrinth, reflective writing and co-interviews. Each of these process practices took us outside of ourselves, and attuned us to Spirit, offering a larger perspective on the inquiry while simultaneously bringing us closer to actualizing the performance ritual. In co-creating what became a performative ritual narrative of the loss and restoration of the Divine feminine in Western culture, we reclaimed a lost part of our Spiritual lineage as women through the performance ritual Re/Turning to Her, a teaching parable performed for the larger community.

Author Biographies

Barbara Bickel, Southern Illinois University

Barbara Bickel is an artist, researcher, and educator. An Assistant Professor in Art Education and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA, she teaches art as an inquiry and meaning making process. Her arts-based Ph.D. in Art Education from The University of British Columbia, Canada was awarded the Arts Based Educational Research Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association (ABER SIG) in 2009. Her research interests include arts-based inquiry methods, collaboration, community-based art, the body, relational aesthetics, experimental video art, feminist spirituality, womenâ€™s leadership, and restorative and transformative learning. Her art and performance rituals have been exhibited and performed in Canada and the US since 1991. She co-founded The Centre Gallery (1995-2001), a non-profit womenâ€™s focused gallery in Calgary, Alberta. Since completing her dissertation she has continued her spiritual arts-based inquiries through co-founding and actively co-inquiring within the Gestare Art Collective (see http://www.gestareartcollective.com). Her articles on arts-based inquiry and a/r/tography have been published in numerous journals and book chapters. To view her art portfolio and arts-based research on-line visit http:// www.barbarabickel.com

Tannis Hugill

Tannis Hugill, M.A., M.F.A., is a Dance and Drama Therapist, Spiritual Director and creator of sacred theatre. She brings over twenty-five yearsâ€™ experience of healing through the arts to her work. She has taught on the university level, performed and taught in the US and Europe, and directed a theatre company of disabled and non-disabled actors, and worked as a therapist in hospitals and in private practice. In addition to her private therapy practice, she was Clinical Supervisor for Pacifica Treatment Centre, she has been an Artist in Residence for the Vancouver School board, taught at Tooba Centre for Physical Theatre, Main Dance and Sourcepoint School for Shiatsu, as well as leading workshops in Authentic Movement, Ecstatic Body Postures, Moving Prayer and Community Movement Rituals. Devoted to Authentic Movement for twenty years, she now explores its application to embodied creativity and spirituality. A believer in the central force of spiritual energy in the healing process, she has just studied with Henrique, a shaman in Brazil. For further information please see her website: www.awakeningbodywisdom.com

Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to the authors at bickel.barbara@gmail.com and tannisis@shaw.ca.