KATERINA DANAE KANDYLAKI

Education

2012

Started training in Margaret Morris Movement


2016

PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience of Language


2017

Margaret Morris Movement certified teacher training


2021

Founded Dance, Movement & Breathing


2022

Dance Alchemy Teacher training


2023

Dancing for Birth certified instructor


About Me


My journey in dance and movement began as a passion and developed into a mission for life.


I was a successful academic at a world class university, I even got a personal grant to move to a new country and continue my research into my own ideas. But despite the objectively seen success, I felt tension in my body and I was stressed most of the time. There was an early alarm, my left knee was feeling weak and one day it snapped. But back then I only saw the physical symptoms and treated only those.


The second alarm came a few years later, when I had severe tooth pain, which was caused from teeth clenching in the night. I understood then, that my body was signalizing a misalignment, but I didn't know exactly what was wrong. I initially thought that it was because my temporary contract had ended and I didn't know if I would get a new one.


The clarity arrived with the third alarm, when my new contract was in place. Already in the first month I suffered from vertigo. I then realized that what my body was signalizing was that this job is not good for me anymore. I appreciated the wisdom of my body and decided to finally listen to what it was trying to say all this time. It was saying, time for change, big change, and now.


So I started my company Dance, Movement, & Breathing in order to move more myself and to teach people how to use the body to discover misalignment between wishes and actions. To start the healing from the body and ultimately facilitate change in their lives, just like I was doing.


My “tools” to listen to the body are dance, movement, and breathing. The breathing connects to the now and to the pure existence. The movement unlocks feelings and emotions. The dance brings one into a creative flow.


As I expand my knowledge in human neurophysiology and creativity in the brain, I infuse my DMB practices with neuroscientifically inspired exercises and ideas. I continue my professional training in creativity, movement, and Dancing For Birth (DFB) to update my “toolkit” and offer interesting and insightful classes.



My research


A LINGUIST TURNED NEUROSCIENTIST


I worked in neuroscientific research since 2012. First, I did my PhD in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language. Then I did a post doc at Imperial College investigating naturalistic language comprehension. In 2018 I moved to Maastricht to work on rhythm perception. In 2021 my reasearch interests shifted into the neuroscience of dance in combination with rhythm perception in the body.


For my research publications click here.


For my science communication talks about rhythm perception click here.

Me as a dancer


I PERFORM WITH

LES IMPROMPTUES


Les Impromptues is a dance company registered in France. I am a member of this dance company as a dancer and tech guru. Our mission is to bring dance into everyday life. We dance outdoors, in unexpected places. We surprise the spectators of an event. We offer a breath of freshness, art and poetry to life.


For more information please visit our website here.