Are We Still in Touch?: Towards Inter-embodied Dramaturgies in Participatory Performance Practices

This article introduces inter-embodied dramaturgies as a theoretical and practical framework for understanding interrelational dynamics in participatory performance practices. Drawing on the Practice-as-Research (PaR) project From Haptic Deprivation to Haptic Possibilities, the discussion centres on Are We Still in Touch?, a case study investigating the convergence of participatory dynamics in workshop and performance formats. The work invites participants to explore self-directed touch as a method for embodied presence, relational dynamics, and inquiry, even in the absence of physical contact with others. Grounded in Merleau-Ponty’s fleshy intersubjectivity, refined by Sarah Ahmed and Jackie Stacey’s inter-embodied differentiation, and Ahmed’s ethics of encounters, the proposed methodology aims to foster ethical awareness through embodied attention in encountering the self and, by extension, others. In dialogue with Maaike Bleeker’s “doing dramaturgy” and Vida Midgelow’s “dramaturgical consciousness”, inter-embodied dramaturgies position embodiment as dynamic relationality, differentiation, responsiveness, and care, expanding the roles of performer-facilitator and participants as co-creators. By unpacking performative facilitation and somatically inspired witnessing methods alongside participants’ contributions, this project proposes the potential of self-directed touch in cultivating empathy, inclusivity, and social change. The article concludes by outlining wider applications of inter-embodied dramaturgies within and beyond performance contexts, proposing a praxis of being-with others differently.