Creative workshop 'Plant Dances' held at the RSU Faculty of Social Sciences

At the end of January, a creative workshop titled 'Plant Dances' took place at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU), led by RSU lead researcher Jana Kukaine. The workshop offered a unique opportunity to create, sense, and explore one’s relationship with the plant world through imagination, embodied experience, and non-verbal forms of knowledge.

During the event, participants were invited to experiment with movement by engaging in an improvised and decentralized choreography inspired by plant body structures, life cycles, and relationships with water, soil, and light. This approach encourages an expanded understanding of human–nature interaction and offers alternative ways of exploring the surrounding world that can be applied in academic research.

The workshop was attended by representatives from various educational and state institutions, the non-governmental sector, as well as artists and lecturers and researchers from the RSU Faculty of Social Sciences. The practical component – an improvised dance performance – was led by performance artist and movement and dance therapist Simona Orinska. Meanwhile, artist Elīna Brasliņa documented the special event through drawings, visually revealing the workshop’s atmosphere and mood.

The workshop served as a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration and creative engagement, bringing together a broad and responsive audience. In the closing circle, participants shared reflections on their individual “plant dance,” highlighting personal interpretations and the significance of embodied experience.

The event demonstrated the potential of synergy between art, movement, and research, strengthening dialogue between science, society, and the environment.

'Plant Dances' was implemented within the framework of the postdoctoral grant Plant Agency and Contemporary Art: Sustainable Relationships with the More-than-Human World (No. RSU-PG-2024/1-0003) funded by the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility Plan and the state budget under the project Internal Consolidation of RSU and External Consolidation of RSU with LSPA No. 5.2.1.1.i.0/2/24/I/CFLA/005. Project leader: Jana Kukaine.