Hosting as embodied practice - dance-based methodologies for navigating embodied resources and power dynamics in artist residencies

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In times of global crisis, the need for emotional and physical safety has become more urgent than ever. The cultural field has responded to this urgency by developing residency programs that serve as “safe havens” for artists facing political persecution, war, displacement or other forms of threat. For artists arriving from such precarious conditions, residencies are not only spaces to continue their artistic practice in security but also places where emotional recovery, integration into the surrounding environment and a sense of safety become vital.

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At the same time, residency hosts, institutions and individuals alike face complex emotional and structural challenges while managing these programs. Hosts are often unprepared for the emotional intensity of supporting artists arriving from recent or ongoing crisis situations, while at the same time required to navigate a hierarchical host–guest dynamic that may reinforce power asymmetries. This artistic doctoral research asks: How can movement-based practices prepare cultural institutions and professionals to host artists-at-risk with greater empathy, sensitivity, and resilience?

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Grounded in embodied dance phenomenology and arts-based action research (Leavy, 2009, 2017; Jokela & Huhmarniemi, 2018), this study introduces the concept of embodied hosting as a framework for understanding hosting as a fully embodied, relational and ethical process.

 

Embodied hosting conceptualises hosting as a form of attunement, a bodily and affective mode of engagement through which embodied safety, co-regulation, mutual resilience, and intercultural connection can emerge. The host's body becomes an active site of sensing, where relational negotiation, non-verbal communication, autonomic responses and kinesthetic empathy shape residencies dynamics of care and hospitality. 

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The article-based dissertation consists of three case studies where movement-based methods are applied in institutional contexts to address the emotional, relational, and structural aspects of hosting.