What influence can contact improvisational dance have on an Autistic and bipolar person’s lived experience?

Through a first person narrative, Paris Simone Mágdala Antillón shares her autistic relational transformation through the discovery of contact improvisational dance. Antillón explores how this discovery allowed her to challenge the anxieties and social difficulties she faced as an Autistic and bipolar person. Now able to recognize her body as a site of selfhood and relationality with other beings, Antillón embraces the ability to communicate through movement and touch.

Body as Place navigates the chronological journey from undiagnosed Autism in college, to challenging the feelings of dissociation —not fully enfleshed and unreal—and embracing the possibility of relational wellness and empowerment into young adulthood. A deeply personal account on the development of identity, this book is ideal reading for students of Disability Studies, and related courses, as well as students of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Somatics, Movement Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Psychology, Philosophy, and Dance.

Paris Simone Mágdala Antillón is a writer, dancer, and nutrition counsellor. She holds a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the California Institute.