Tufnell, Miranda: When I Open My Eyes

Following two celebrated handbooks on creative practice, Body, Space, Image: notes towardsimprovisation and performance, and A Widening Field: journeys in body and imagination,written in collaboration with Chris Crickmay, Miranda Tufnell now takes us into the field ofdance and health. For fourteen years she worked in a GP surgery in rural Cumbria. The bookopens with a moving account of an arts project that she and her collaborators ran for peoplewith long term health conditions. Miranda Tufnell is both a dance artist and a body therapistand this gives the book its particular flavour.This is a book about the body and movement, about imagination and health. It is a gatheringof many stories, voices and activities from artists, patients and health practitioners. The artshave long played a role in medicine and there is a substantial body of evidence of the potencyof arts practice in strengthening a person's resources and capacity for well being.While the work described here is sourced in the body and movement, it is not only writtenfor people with a dance background. Being able to listen creatively to the body strengthensour body intelligence and ability to look after ourselves effectively. Practitioners from manybackgrounds come into this field and will find something of interest. This book sets out toinspire rather than to teach, to offer windows into practice, and to convey something of whatit is like to work in this field.