Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology

Science on the Dance Floor

How do we humans experience our own movements? And what can science learn from the experience every dancer has?

"Science on the Dance Floor" bridges cognitive neuroscience and creative movement practice, exploring how we consciously experience our own movements. It’s a dynamic blend of science and dance, inviting you to move, sense, question, and reimagine your awareness of your moving body. Creativity, introspection and expression meet knowledge!

 

Public Engagement: Science in exchange with dancers

In interactive workshops under scientific supervision participants are invited to introspect their bodily sensations and engage in a dynamic exchange of knowledge. Aimed at everyone studying, working with or interested in movement — including dancers, actors, athletes, therapists, and embodiment practitioners, and other curious minds, this project not only communicates cutting-edge research but also fosters collaboration between science and the arts.

Aim of the project

We want to establish a channel for dialog where we can discuss the scientific work we did and do, with the population that can use it. We will share our work on how to measure and potentially improve motor awareness, with those who routinely work with, or think about, motor awareness: dancers, actors, athletes and movement practitioners in general. We aim to provide this audience with a solid theoretical basis and very clear intuitions about what science has found (and what it does not yet know) about motor awareness.
But also, importantly, we want to enter into a knowledge exchange (Wissensaustausch) in order to learn from groups that work with movement awareness and see how their approach could contribute to current scientific methods

#metacognition
#PublicEngagement

Our questions

Do dancers and other “movement experts” have a more refined or precise awareness of their own movements than otherwise non-dancers?

How can we conduct a scientific study on the precision of this awareness?

What did dancers learn in their training?

Can we learn to improve our motor awareness within a single introspection session?  

… and many more!


Background

"Science on the Dance Floor" lies at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and movement practice. Neuroscience has helped us understand in exquisite detail how our brain moves our body. But most of this work focuses on how the brain sends and corrects motor commands, forgetting our subjective experience of being in a moving body. 

  • How does the brain consciously knows how it moves our body?
  • How much can the brain consciously know about that process, what happens unconsciously?
  • Are there limits to our introspection?

 

The Concept of Motor Metacognition

The project explores motor metacognition – how we consciously experience and assess our own movements — by blending scientific research with dance practices. 

 


A project of the Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, under the direction of Dr. Elisa Filevich.
Funded by Volkswagen Stiftung.
Supported by the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.