Material for the brain

This episode was recorded on May 4th, 2025. My guest for this episode Christos Galanis - an interdisciplinary artist, cultural geographer, Animist, and ritual facilitator based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work intricately weaves themes of displacement, ancestry, and the sacred, drawing from a rich tapestry of personal history, ethnography, and experiential practices. Christos earned a BFA in Inte...

In this solo episode, Matan Levkowich explores the complex terrain of inclusivity in dance and movement spaces. Reflecting on personal experiences and recent conversations at a contact improvisation festival, he distinguishes between participatory and missionary forms of inclusivity, and unpacks the paradoxes that arise when openness becomes an obligation. A thoughtful inquiry into boundaries, val...

In this solo episode, I explore a question that has been with me for years: Why do humans dance? Beyond self-expression or personal growth, dance may hold something much deeper—something ancient. I dive into the idea of dance as a social technology, a form of collective sacrifice, and a gateway to the transcendent. Whether you're a dancer, a seeker, or simply curious—this episode is an invitat...

My guest for this episode is Sean Green - a couples and relationship coach, trainer of communication and meditation, a father of 3 children, and musician based in Vienna. Sean has spent thousands of hours meditating, practising and learning from many traditions and schools on the Inner Path for over 20 years. His professional engagements are characterised by his calmness, clarity and loving presen...

My guest for the 50th episode is Smadar Goshen, a choreographer, dancer, a certified Gaga teacher and a Gyrotonic & Gyrokinesis trainer and teacher’s trainer. Smadar completed her B.A in dance and M.A in choreography at the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance. Since 2011 her pieces are performed on various platforms worldwide. In the yearbook of magazine tanz 2023, She was honoured as one of...

My guest for this episode is Daphne Horenczyk - a choreographer, dancer, teacher and mentor. Daphna’s artist work is center around the exploration of the gap between experience and representation. Her work has been funded by the city of Vienna and coproduced by different dance houses in the city.  I invited her to the podcast once more to explore her current creation ‘Rage’, in which Daphna examin...

My guest for this episode is Nita Little - a dance researcher, theorist/artist, and one of the founding developers of Contact Improvisation (CI). Nita holds a PhD in Performance Studies with a focus on the articulation of presence and creative actions of attention. Her life work is inclusive of mindbody training, performing, choreographing, researching and writing about the ethics, politics and en...

My guest for this episode is Zuna Vesan Kozánková, a dancer, choreographer and writer. Zune is a leading authority on traditional Chinese medicine in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.  Over the last 30 years, she has developed a unique approach to working with the human body, combining anatomical understanding with the energy systems flowing within it. Through her studies of Chinese medicine and Qi...

My guest for the 46th episode is Asia Shcherbakova, a scientist and movement educator. Asia holds a Master of Science in Human Genetics and a PhD in Biotechnology. She is also a co-developer of the Baseworks method, where her focus lies in understanding the brain areas involved in both movement and cognitive tasks. In her second appearance on the podcast, we delved into the topic of dance and its...

In this solo episode, I dive into the age-old question: what should evolve, and what deserves preservation?  Inspired by the recent U.S. election ,I explore the ongoing tension between conservatism and progressivism, examining each side’s core intuitions. Through personal stories and broader insights, I aim to reveal how these opposing intuitions might complement each other, offering a path toward...

My guest for this episode is Moritz Lembert is a life/business/personal coach, dedicated to helping individuals unleash their potential and do it with peace. With background in dance and embodied practices, His work is grounded in practical wisdom and radical honesty, with a no-nonsense approach that catalyses profound personal and professional transformations. His coaching encompasses everything...

We are two weeks away from marking a year since the events of October 7th. It has been a challenging year for many Jews, Israelis, and Palestinians alike. In this solo episode, I take the time to dissect a common argument that has become very prevalent in the dance world: "I’m not antisemitic, I’m only anti-Zionist." As an Israeli Jew, I am very familiar with the different expressions of antisemit...

My guest for the 42nd episode is Christian Felber, an internationally renowned speaker, contemporary dancer and author of several economics bestsellers. In our conversation we talked about his perspective about the boundaries of the term ‘economy’ and what we should consider under this term. We explore the boundaries of the term universal human needs and their relation to the current economical or...

In this solo episode, I address the topic of ‘Community’ within the Movement Lab context and beyond. Join our Open Day: https://movementlab.eu/open-day Subscribe to get the podcast to your email: https://movementlab.eu/subscribe The podcast was recorded using riverside.fm - remote recording in studio quality: http://www.riverside.fm?via=matan

My guest for the 40th episode is Ohad Interator, a certified Physical Therapist, an independent movement practitioner and explorer, dedicated to teaching, helping and empowering people to live more fully within their bodies. His interests are rooted in discovering and developing better models for movement, health and wellbeing, within a human centric, holistic approach. Ohad has a diverse movement...

My guest for the 39th episode is Eran Dorfman. He is a professor at the Department of Literature, Tel Aviv University, and a former Directeur of the program at the Collège International de Philosophie, Paris. He specializes in 20th century French Theory and Literature, Continental philosophy, phenomenology and psychoanalysis. He is the author of several books of which the latest is Double Trouble:...

My guest for the 38th episode is Olivia Court Mesa, a Chilean-Israeli independent dance artist. In the last 30 year She has devoted herself  to performance art,  performing, choreographing, improvising, researching and teaching. Olivia promote the idea that performance is a conscious meeting point between art and people and aims to use this medium as a space for individual and collective reflectio...

My guest for episode 37 is Johan Nilsson, an explorer of natural sciences and art. He’s a trained gardener and teacher in Biodynamic farming, gardening and Permaculture Design. He is a contact improvisation dancer and teacher. In his work Johan opens a space in which we can learn more about our own individual bodily system through the study of larger ecosystems, and cultivating our empathy for the...

In this conversation I am speaking with Shady Greis, a dance artist from Egypt. We have delve into our histories and personal experiences, growing in the middle east, in an attempt to shad light on the development of our perception of the 'other'. This is another episode in the special series 'conversations in times of crisis'. Connect to Shady: https://www.facebook.com/4haDy. EmaD Support Shady's...

This is a special episode in what may become a series of conversations in which I invite anyone who is interested to join me in discussing the current state of affairs in the Israel-Hamas war. I have taken the exceptional decision to open up my platform to content that has a direct bearing on politics. In the near future, I will return to publishing content that touches on the more typical areas I...

My guest for episode 34 is Rafe Kelly, founder of Evolve Move Play. Rafe is a parkour athlete, movement coach and entrepreneur based on the west coast of the US. Rafe's approach to training goes much deeper than the physical aspects and through his exploration of the physical, he revolves around existential questions of meaning, connection, wisdom and health. I was thrilled to dive into this c...

MY guest for the 33rd episode is Asia Shcherbakova, a scientist and movement educator. Asia holds a Master of Science in Human Genetics and a PhD in Biotechnology. She has been involved in projects related to the effects of stress on learning and memory and currently she is studying the pro-cognitive effects of medium-chain triglycerides. Beside her scientific research, she is a co-developer of th...

My guests for the 32nd episode are Roser Tutusaus and Tom Weksler who are contemporary dancers, choreographers and teachers. They are the founders and artistic directors of Wonderground dance company and the founders of Movement Archery - their pedagogical body from which they offer workshops and intensives world wide. I have known both Tom and Roser for several years in which we have collaborated...

My guest for 31st episode is Christian Lechner, who is a communication trainer, dance & movement educator, and an entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of the Tau Magazine, and a co-founder of the Auenweide eco village. I have known Christian for around 7 years. We met through our shared interest in dance and movement. Christian professional engagements form together a body of work that is tightly...

The guest for 30th episode is Gabriella Voss, a religious studies scholar with a personal background in dance and theatre who is currently working on her PHD thesis in the university of Vienna. She is a strong advocate to the notion that there are profound and important insights to learn from contemporary dancers that can be understood as spiritual or even religious in nature.   Despite the fact t...