What is it about

In “Phantom Sensation” project we work at the intersection of dance and neuroscience, dwell and examine in practical and theoretical terms the phenomenon of phantom sensations. What we try to understand is if and how the phantomic experience of reality can inform the movement improvisational practices, and whether it can create a distinctive frame for thinking about some aspects of performance. It is a transdiciplinary venture.

Broadly speaking phantom sensation refers to "dissociations between physical and phenomenal body shapes" (Hilti and Brugger, 2009), and its clinical descriptions refer to conscious perception and sensation of body parts that are paralysed or are no longer present. The nature of it remains ungraspable by the scientific method: in search of cure for some phantom sensations that cause pain, more than 50 different therapeutic approaches have been developed (Weiss, 2008).

In our approach phantomic experience of reality relates to the life cycle of the sensation. In the end when we think about the phantom sensations, we can actually see it as something very natural - as a prolonged or sustained process of adaptation to a different/new environment in which certain stimuli is physically no longer present. 
 
We will work in two blocks in a city of Budapest. In February we meet all three together for the first time.
Our aim for this period is to experiment with different task-based exercises, examine the one that we know (ex. BMC or Feldenkrais method, as well as some tools from Rosalind Crisp's choreographic improvisation) and develop variations of them, that could enable us to understand better the topic of our research. We are creating a pool of exercises, experiences, ideas and images in which we will be able to navigate.