Nancy Smithner Publishes Book on Embodied Teaching Practices

Embodied Learning in Educational Theatre explores applied and physical theatre as a means by which facilitators can foster personal and social growth.

Nancy Smithner holds her book, Embodied Learning in Educational Theatre

Nancy Smithner, clinical professor of educational theatre at NYU Steinhardt, has published a book titled Embodied Learning in Educational Theatre: Perspectives on Kinesthetic Change and Social Transformation from Urban Classrooms and Prison Settings, which demonstrates how physicalized pedagogy can be effectively used to engage students with socially transformative ideas and identities.

“Embodied teaching and learning is about getting on your feet and doing things actively, as opposed to listening to a lecture and absorbing information,” says Smithner. “My work involves the whole body—a physical warmup, vocalizations, improvisation with both word and movement—which has great value in teaching new skills and habits.”

Part of a series called Routledge Research in Arts Education, Smithner’s book draws on her extensive personal and professional experience working with physical and applied theatre in diverse environments, including 20 years as a pediatric clown doctor and teaching in urban schools and correctional facilities. She discusses the need for embodied learning in schools, where students engage less and less in physical and tactile exchange due to dependence on social media. Additionally, she explores the oppressive experience of the incarcerated body behind prison walls.

A group of people poses in clown noses — Smithner teaching a clown class at Sing Sing

“In 2008, I began volunteering with Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), which allowed me to begin bringing these physical and applied theatre practices into Sing Sing, a maximum-security prison, to work with incarcerated men,” says Smithner. “They learned how to use their voices and their whole bodies in improv, and they found it very healing. They were especially drawn to comedy study and clowning, because that release of laughter is important.”

The recent drama film, Sing Sing, is based on RTA’s work and includes some of Smithner’s formerly incarcerated students as part of the cast. Beyond working with the population at Sing Sing, Smithner went on to create her own methodology using physicalized techniques to teach acting, directing, and devising at other correctional facilities with both men and women throughout New York State through RTA, including Woodbourne, Bedford Hills, and Fishkill.

“My practice is about how people can change and break out of their perpetual habits, both on and off the stage,” says Smithner. “The incarcerated folks who have made it into my theatre program are at a point where they want to change, to break out of ingrained habits or violent tendencies. The theatre classroom is a safe space where they can express themselves, be encouraged, and learn by embodying new characteristics.”

Incarcerated men dance together — Physical theatre class at Sing Sing

For Smithner, the proof of this approach is in the data: less than 3 percent of formerly incarcerated people who participate in RTA return to prison, compared to the national recidivism rate of 60 percent within three years of release.

Embodied Learning in Educational Theatre is a scholarly book intended for applied and physical theatre practitioners in academic environments or community-based organizations. This summer, Smithner used the text during a two-week community-engaged theatre workshop in Dublin, during which she worked with Irish teaching artists and 15 graduate students from Steinhardt’s programs in Educational Theatre and Drama Therapy.

Embodied Learning in Educational Theatre is available in both hardcover and e-book format from Amazon.