Markus’ NEW book is out and available at Amazon.com
The Just Right Next: Meditations on the Art of Mindfulness
"The Just Right Next" by Markus Scott-Alexander with artwork by Karen Queller is a book that inspires readers to create clarity in their lives. The author does not provide instructions but rather offers insights to encourage readers to achieve greater clarity in their lives. Scott-Alexander gives contemplative hints to recognize the just right next and steps to follow through. The book emphasizes the importance of living in the present moment and finding fulfillment in life through conscious awareness and presence.
One page per week can be enough to ponder Markus Scott-Alexander’s words, and Karen Queller’s images, luring you into a slow and quiet presence.
With thirty-five years of experience as an Expressive Arts educator, Markus Scott-Alexander eloquently and poetically crystalizes the wisdom he has gained into a series of contemplations. You, the reader, are invited to slow down and feel your way into resonance with each carefully chosen word and image. Ultimately, the author’s message centers around the idea of embracing life with an open heart and mind.
We would appreciate it so much if you would leave a REVIEW of the book on Amazon or on GOODREADS.
THANK YOU AND ENJOY THE BOOK!
Book Cover Art by Michael Wallace
Expressive Arts Education and Therapy:
Discoveries in a Dance Theatre Lab Through
Creative Process-based Research
By Markus Scott-Alexander, PhD
Early Reviews of Markus’ book are IN…
“The book is beautifully written and constructed with a personal and deeply meaningful voice. It shares significant research and the process of doing it. A valuable read in many ways.”
“This book is a useful addition to the EXA literature. It provides a detailed phenomenological look at EXA facilitation/education from the perspective of the facilitator/educator and describes how the theory is observed/experienced in practice. The author discusses and reflects on themes and statements that emerged through discussion with ensemble members. The result is almost like a behind the scenes view of what it is to be an EXA facilitator/educator.”
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About the book.
In Expressive Arts Education and Therapy, the reader follows the creation of art-making in tandem with the unfolding of sense-making. A dance theatre lab is the stage for exploration where what was discovered was phenomenologically and collaboratively reflected upon, the participatory nature of the creative work pouring into the research methodology. Creative Process-based Research efficacy is contingent upon the interaction of three poles – the creator, the product and an experience of the internal/external creative process of the creator. All three perspectives comprise the dynamics required of this research methodology in order to understand what is occurring in these three distinct and essential elements of the creative process. What results is an experience of cohesion that consciously describes this interplay.
The author outlines his influences that contributed to both the art-making and sense-making over the seven-year research project. His work in experimental theatre in New York, as an educator with the European Graduate School in Switzerland and his studies in philosophy are integrated into the world of research in the field of expressive arts. The visceral component of creating clarity is uncovered and articulated. This book inspires new ways of thinking about participatory, collaborative, arts-centered research where the skill of exposing the artist/researcher’s modus operendi for making art and making sense is named in a myriad of ways that call upon the intellect as well as the artist’s intuitive sense of what to focus on and its relevance to education, therapy and global health.
About the author
Markus G. Scott-Alexander, PhD, is the director of World Arts Organization, and up until his retirement in 2020, was senior faculty at The European Graduate School, Division of Arts, Health and Society. Relevant to this writing, his article on the importance of response-time in education, The Pause, was published in the Journal, Poiesis.
Excerpt from the book…
SKILL VERSUS TECHNIQUE: NOT IMPOSING A WAY
In the environment that we created during the dance theatre project, the starting point was a restedness within, a quietness inside. The starting point was not, ‘What can I learn?’ The starting point was not my trying to be a teacher of a particular technique for the participants to become better dance theatre artists. The starting point was seeing how restedness, within, affected their bodies in both stillness and movement. The collaborative research began with stillness.
Over the three months of the project, the participants/collaborators became more skilled at consciously deepening their restedness, their ability to relax, and then building their skill in moving from that place of deeper ease, again and again. In doing that repeatedly, they recognized how to enter that level of stillness or quality of movement. Something became more familiar that had been less familiar. The evolution of conscious awareness became the modus operandi of the group.
For bulk orders for Institutes, Groups or EXA Schools, please contact John Bennett at bennett@brill.com (Orders of 10+ books receive a 35% discount)
“….in this fine work that Markus gives to us to allow and encourage others, through this process, to discover what they know within themselves about their own creative process and to value that knowing ourselves. This is Markus’ gift to us all. I hope readers will take courage and curiosity from Markus’ amazing and outstanding journey.”