Introduction: Performing Embodiment

This introduction rethinks embodiment as a performative and relational process that challenges the legacy of mind-body dualism. Drawing on phenomenology, the authors present the lived body as a body-subject whose perception and knowledge emerge through situated, kinaesthetic engagement with the world. Embodiment is thus understood not as a static condition but as an ongoing choreography of affect, language, and social interaction. The introduction then presents the three interconnected domains explored in the volume: language as an embodied and world-making practice; dance and somatic choreography as paradigms of affective and temporal becoming; and socio-political norms (particularly gender and academic structures) as disciplinary performances inscribed on and enacted by bodies. Together, the essays advance an interdisciplinary framework in which embodiment appears as a dynamic process of co-constitution between bodies, world, and social power.