Introduction

This research explores the dynamic interaction between embodied memory and cognition during dance improvisation, using Practice-as-Research (PaR) to examine how the body generates knowledge in real-time through movement. Embodied memory refers to the bodily encoding and expression of past experiences, often recalled through habitual or instinctive motion rather than conscious effort (Connerton, 1989). Embodied cognition emphasises that thinking and decision-making are not confined to the brain but arise through the body's perceptual interaction with the environment (Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 2017). Practice as a mode of enquiry treats artistic movement—in this case, dance improvisation—as a legitimate method for generating and articulating knowledge. 

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New research has helped clarify these concepts. Lindberg et al. (2023) showed that improvisational dance workshops help people use their bodies to make sense of things, highlighting dance as an important way for enactive cognition. Houston (2024) also looked at how dance can help people develop soft skills and a sense of their own agency, highlighting the connection between movement and learning. 

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Although dance improvisation is often thought of as unrestricted and free, it is not truly random. Instead, improvisation emerges from a nuanced and continuous interplay between bodily memory, sensory perception, and moment-to-moment decision-making. Movements are often shaped by embodied traces of past training and, at the same time, influenced by present emotional and spatial stimuli (Paxton, 1975; Fuchs, 2011). In Steve Paxton's Contact Improvisation, for example, dancers respond to weight, gravity, and touch, generating motion through real-time physical dialogue rather than pre-planned sequences. Improvisation, in this view, is a cognitive process enacted through the body, where memory and perception are in constant flux. 

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My decision to pursue this research stems from my personal experience as a dancer. In my improvisational practice, I often observe that movements arise not from conscious planning but from bodily intuition. After over a decade of Chinese folk dance training, many movements in my improvisation unconsciously reflect that prior training. At the same time, other responses appear to be shaped by the environment or emotional impulses in the moment. These experiences led me to two central questions: How is memory stored and activated in the body? And how are movements spontaneously generated through improvisation? This research seeks to understand these processes not only as artistic phenomena but as embodied cognitive functions. 

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Traditionally, memory is associated with recalling the past, while cognition is tied to present thinking. In improvisation, however, these processes are inseparable. Movements are not solely initiated by the brain but emerge through embodied interaction with space, emotion, and perception (Fuchs, 2011; Varela et al., 2017). Understanding this embodied simultaneity is essential to deepening our knowledge of how movement functions as both memory and thought in action. 

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To provide a theoretical foundation for this study, two main frameworks are drawn upon: Embodied Memory and Embodied Cognition. According to Connerton (1989), bodily practices—such as gestures, postures, and everyday movements—serve as key mechanisms for preserving and transmitting memory. In the context of dance, this suggests that movement habits embed deep bodily memory, which can be instinctively accessed during improvisation. Additionally, this study is informed by the theory of Embodied and Enactive Cognition, as proposed by Varela, Thompson, and Rosch (2017), which holds that cognition does not reside solely in the brain but is generated in real-time through bodily perception and dynamic interaction with the environment. 

While some scholars have explored the mechanisms of memory and embodied cognition, most existing research remains theoretical, lacking analysis of how these processes unfold in practice. This study responds to that gap by using dance improvisation to investigate the real-time generation of knowledge through bodily experience.