Attunement: the Loop Within and Between Bodies

Our bodies respond to the people around us before we've said a word, through shifts in breath, posture, and gesture. A choreographer-dancer working with kinesthetic listening and a neuroscientist tracking feedback loops within (and beyond) the nervous system will show you how this happens, what causes disconnection or dissonance, and then invite you to feel it for yourself on the dance floor.

Learn from Dr. Aleksandra Piejka (Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences) about her ongoing research on ‘embodied social emotions’, loneliness, and social connection. She’ll explain the dynamic shifts and processes of our nervous systems as we relate with others over time, and what science can (and cannot yet) tell us about these responses. 

Choreographer Tanja Saban will then share her movement investigations through the lens of ‘kinesthetic listening’: sensing the body's layered awareness as it moves through space, and using that awareness to tune into emotional states.

After a cross-disciplinary conversation to delve into the ways in which neuroscience and dance can inform one another’s approaches, Tanja will lead us into a movement session to try out practices of kinesthetic listening directly. 

We’ll close with a shared discussion and reflection so you can begin to integrate the felt sense of oscillating between synchrony and dissonance with others, and carry this into your daily interactions.