Research

Body in Trouble is rooted in the conviction that the body is under pressure. Technology and media increasingly shape what we consider normal, healthy, and desirable, influencing how we perceive and relate to our own bodies.

Inspired by the concepts of Positive Health and New Corporeality developed by philosopher and phenomenologist Henny Slatman, the project critically examines dominant norms surrounding the body and health. If the “normal” body is a cultural and political construct, what does that mean for our lived, bodily experience?

Somatic practices and Eastern movement traditions offer ways to respond to this pressure and to restore a sense of balance between body and mind. Yet balance alone is not enough. Through dance improvisation, Body in Trouble explores this balance further  in relation to others, to space, and to what cannot be controlled. In improvisation, the body is not corrected or optimized but listened to and questioned. Here, power, proximity, vulnerability, and autonomy become visible through the body itself.

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Theoretical framework

What is a healthy body?

Freedom of movement, both mental and physical, forms the central thread of my work. Driven by my mission to dance and create (dance) art everywhere and with everyone, I encounter a wide range of ages, bodies, and ways of living.

It is precisely in these encounters that it becomes clear how the body is often under pressure from expectations, norms, and systems that dictate what is considered normal, healthy, or desirable. From this observation, the question arises: what, then, is a healthy body?

Physician and researcher Machteld Huber developed the concept of Positive Health from her friction with existing medical thinking. The dominant definition of health, established by the WHO, describes it as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.” As a result, health is often equated with the absence of disease. The focus lies on what is wrong, what is no longer possible, and what needs to be repaired. In this dominant model, too little attention is given to resilience and individual agency. Huber observes in her practice that people often function better when they can give meaning to their situation, learn to cope with changes, and experience control over their lives. Unfortunately, she found that the healthcare system pays little attention to these qualities. She therefore developed a model in which they are given space.

In her model, health is represented as a spiderweb with six dimensions: bodily functions, mental well-being, meaningfulness, quality of life, social participation, and daily functioning. From this perspective, health becomes a dynamic, rather than static, concept, and the human being is seen as more than just a body in need of repair.

This resonates strongly in Body in Trouble, where working through movement and art approaches the body as experiential and relational. It is not about optimization, but about creating meaning, listening, moving, and engaging with what is.

Philosopher and phenomenologist Henny Slatman explores the dominant health model and notions of a “normal body” in Nieuwe Lichamelijkheid (New Corporality). She critiques traditional Western thought, in which the body is often regarded as subordinate to the mind. Slatman advocates for a fundamental revaluation of the body in philosophy and culture. She argues that the body does not merely think, feel, and experience passively, but actively shapes how we understand the world.

Bodily experiences have moral, aesthetic, and social dimensions. Corporality is always intertwined with ethical questions: what does it mean to have a good, authentic, or meaningful body in modern society?

Body in Trouble relies on embodied knowledge and investigates how, through dance improvisation, the body can remain vital and dynamic through a balance of structure and freedom. It explores how art and metaphor can bring body and mind together, enabling the moral, aesthetic, and social dimensions of bodily experience to be examined and expressed.