Kinaesthetic Stories is a 5-hour interdisciplinary workshop led by artists Esther Sabetpour and Vanio Papadelli, working at the intersection of arts and wellbeing across studio, community, and public spaces.

The session offers a space to reimagine identity and memory through guided somatic movement, witnessing scores, free writing, and partner-curated self-portraits. Together, you’ll explore past and present stories rooted in the body and a felt sense of place. Guided movement explorations will help you attune to the body’s impulses for interacting with light, framing, and instant composition. We will gradually build trust for focused touch and eye contact as a preparation for witnessing and documenting movement with a partner. Free writing will serve as a connective tissue between movement and photography, helping define the photographic theme.

Approaching the body kinaesthetically, we’ll treat ‘seeing’ not only as a visual act but as an embodied experience where light, body, and camera move in dialogue. This process softens boundaries between observer and observed, nurturing a way of seeing that’s felt through the skin rather than only through the eyes. You’ll receive technical guidance for assisted self-portraiture and we’ll provide materials (such as large fabrics) to play with concealing and revealing the body. This is a free session at taking place at Saddlers Wells East.