It is an attempt to look directly at the experience of dance – not through the context, technique or history but by focusing on the cognitive processes that allow us to dance and be fascinated by watching the dance. Looking at it will be possible with the use of the latest cognitive sciences findings that thanks to the technological and interdisciplinary approach allows us to see the more and more subtle aspects of the human perception. This subject is as fascinating as dangerous, being susceptible to simplifications resulting from the still limited possibilities of modern science in researching the mechanisms of perception and consciousness. Despite these dangers, creating ever-stronger connections between cultural and theater studies and the cognitive sciences gives hope for the emergence of a new paradigm of the studies of performative phenomena that will be acceptable both by practitioners and theorists.

Detailed queries, field research, practice-based research as well as consultations with top class foreign specialists will be carried out within the project. All these methods will serve to answer the main objective of the project, which is the correlation of the neurocognitive, phenomenological and practical discourse in the context of their theoretical-conceptual apparatus on the consciousness of the dancer.