NeuroDance Workshops | A Duet Between Brain and Movement
Motivation
In dance—an art form mediated through the moving body—understanding how the brain and body work together is an invaluable asset for artists. Insights from human physiology, neuroscience, movement science, and consciousness studies can profoundly enrich and refine the messages conveyed through movement. By exploring these scientific foundations, dancers, choreographers, and movement scholars can open up new creative pathways and deepen their artistic expression.
The NeuroDance workshops offered here draw on over 30 years of multifaceted experience exploring the intersection of neuroscience and dance. As a dance faculty member, researcher, and former Dean at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Dr. Vered Aviv has taught and mentored countless dancers, integrating insights from neuroscience and movement studies into both theoretical and studio work.
These workshops are designed as hands-on, practical experiences specifically for the professional dance community. They blend scientific knowledge of the brain and body with physical practice in the studio, enabling participants to more consciously understand, explore, and harness the mechanisms that shape our ability to create and respond to movement.
Workshop Topics
Below are five workshops developed by Vered Aviv over the past several years. Each workshop stands alone, devoted to an in-depth exploration of a specific theme. Together, they integrate knowledge about the brain, consciousness, and movement. Each workshop lasts 4-5 hours.
Dancing Empathy
Observing human movement evokes kinesthetic empathy in us: a visceral, embodied response that informs us and prompts us to feel as if we are moving similarly to the dancer we arewatching.
It also leads us to attribute intentions to the person we are observing. In this workshop, we will present the brainnmechanisms activated during such observation of a moving person (e.g., the “mirror system”),and together with the participants we’ll explore different forms of empathic identification with
the movement of others, and how to enhance
such empathy in the audience.
Embodied Presence
This workshop explores the phenomenon of “presence” of a dancer during a performance.
It is based on cognitive, neuroscientific, cultural, and somatic perspectives. “Presence” is a measurable quality; it depends on interrelational, real-time interactions between the dancer’s body, the audience, and the space. All these factors will be brought into conscious awareness and explored in practice during the workshop.
Touching Touch
Touch is one of our most fundamental ways of perceiving and relating to the world. It plays a crucial role not only in physical sensation but also in emotional connection, communication, and embodied understanding. In this workshop, we will explore different types of touch and their role in dance: from light, affective contact to deep, proprioceptive engagement— uncovering the rich sensory and expressive possibilities that touch offers. We will then examine the unique role of touch in dance, both as a dynamic element in performance and as an important tool in training, correcting, and stimulating dancers. The workshop will shed light on how tactile interaction can shape movement and artistic expression.
Reduction and Abstraction in Dance
Reductionist and abstract processes occur across the arts (e.g., in visual arts). Such reduction provides a powerful tool to capture the essence conveyed by a particular art form. In dance, abstraction takes a unique form because it is executed by the concrete (and very present) body of the dancer—so on the face of it, it may seem that abstraction is inapt to dance. However, this workshop is dedicated to exploring the unique processes of abstraction relevant to human movement and offers handson experimentation with various forms of reduction in dance. Consequently, it offers new expressive ways to utilize the dancer’s body, getting as close as possible to abstraction of movement in dance.
Rhythms, Synchronization, Unison
We will begin by observing natural biological (brain) oscillations/rhythms, heartbeat, and breath, and then experiment with how these rhythms can be expressed through movement. After that, we’ll practice several techniques for achieving movement synchronization between individuals and creating unison at varying levels of precision. Finally, we examine how these collective dynamics affect both performers and audiences, revealing the emotional and aesthetic power of moving together in time.
