This workshop explores dance and somatic practices as methods of knowledge production, bringing together researchers from the humanities, social sciences, and performing arts. With the rise of affect theory, bodies are increasingly recognized as central to inquiry—moving, sensing, and relating provide epistemological tools that complement language and discourse. Somatic practices and dance, offer a “corporeal cognition” that reveals dynamics of resonance and dissonance between community and individuality, and situates experiences within structural systems around race, gender, and forms of exclusion. As a creative practice, dance also enables openness, transformation, and new ways of producing and communicating knowledge.

While academia often draws on artistic concepts, it is still rare to integrate embodied practices directly into research. This workshop takes dance as a “corporal-sensual experience of the social,” inviting around 15 participants to experiment with affect, movement, and group dynamics. Together we will investigate how embodied practices can reshape research questions, enrich methodology, and challenge conventional forms of knowledge.

Sessions will combine movement exercises, readings, and discussions. The workshop is hosted by Aletta Diefenbach and Sophie Schultze-Allen from project B02 with guest contributions from Jan Burkhardt (movement research), Stephanie Maher (Ponderosa Co-founder), Michelle Moura (choreographic metamorphosis), Marina Guzzo (performative rest), and Lena Pozdnyakova (graphic documentation).

Ponderosa is an internationally recognized center for dance and movement research near Berlin. With its studios and gardens, it offers a unique environment for experimentation and exchange. The aim is to develop methodological tools, foster dialogue, and expand the role of embodied knowledge in research.

The workshop is part of the laboratory format Intervention Space Art and Academia. It takes place in collaboration with the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) Affective Societies.