Self-Compassion in Dance and Performing Arts Conference

13th October 2026 | Prague | On-site & Online

We welcome theoretical, empirical, and practice-based contributions, as well as diverse perspectives from scholars, practitioners, educators, and students.

Dance and performing arts unfold through lived bodies, bodies shaped by training, expectations, and desire. As questions of well-being and mental health gain increasing relevance, there is a growing need to reconsider how dancers and other performing artists relate to themselves and to their own embodied experience. Self-compassion offers an alternative lens through which dancers and other performing artists may explore care, sustainability, vulnerability, and resilience in creative processes. This conference invites scholars, artists, educators, and practitioners to reflect on self-compassion as an embodied practice in dance and performing arts, examining how it shapes the daily lives of dancers and other performing artists across diverse cultural and professional contexts.

At this conference, self-compassion is understood as being “open to and moved by one’s own suffering, experiencing feelings of caring and kindness toward oneself, taking an understanding, nonjudgmental attitude toward one’s inadequacies and failures, and recognizing that one’s own experience is part of the common human experience” (Neff, 2003, p. 225). In relation to embodied experience, body self-compassion is understood as “a kind, understanding and non-judgmental attitude individuals extend towards their body in response to their perceived physical imperfections, limitations, and failures.” (Berry et al., 2010, p. 295).

Important: Conference language will be English. A Czech summary of the presentation will be distributed on the day of the conference.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Self-Compassion, Mental Health, and Well-Being

  • Pedagogies of Self-Compassion in Performing Arts Education

  • Self-Compassion in Performance, Auditions, and Evaluation

  • Self-Compassion and Therapeutic Process, Dance/Movement Therapy

  • Power, Harm, and the Absence of Self-Compassion

  • Body Self-Compassion: Listening to the Body

  • Artistic and Practice-Based Research on Self-Compassion

  • Career Sustainability, Post-Career Identity, and Self-Compassion

  • Similar Approaches and Their Application in Dance (e.g., Mindfulness-based, Acceptance-based, or Compassion-based, etc.)

General Abstract Guidelines

  • Character limit: 2 000 characters

    • Including in-text citations, but excluding title, sources, and keywords

    • Abstracts exceeding the limit will be returned without being reviewed to be shortened

  • Keywords limit: 3–5

  • Abstract should clearly cover the following elements within the text: objectives, method, results, and conclusions

  • APA 7 guidelines must be followed

Types of presentations

  • Oral Presentations

    • Duration: 15 mins long + 5 minutes for questions

    • Oral presentations will be gathered into a thematic session of 3–5 presenters.

  • Poster Presentations

    • The poster format will be A0 (118.9 cm height x 84.1 cm width).

    • The author is expected to be present throughout the poster session.

Submission/Review Process

  • Abstracts should be submitted via the following link: https://forms.gle/zhgwncZu1pBbWDS99

  • You will receive an email confirmation about receiving your submission (within 24 hours).

  • Some abstracts are accepted pending revisions; in that case, it will be important to resubmit your abstract within the deadline that will be communicated in the e-mail

  • Please be aware that your abstract may be accepted for a different presentation type (e.g., a short oral presentation proposal may be accepted as a poster).

  • If accepted, each participant must provide a written summary (maximum of 4 000 characters) of the presentation, which will be translated into Czech and distributed to the attendees.

  • All presenting authors must be present at the conference; online presentations are not permitted.

Important Deadlines

  • Abstract Submission: 30th June 2026

  • Abstract Notification: 15th July 2026

  • Written Summary: 15th September 2026

Registration Fees

There is no conference fee for presenting authors, in recognition of the financial and environmental costs associated with travel and participation.

Sources:

Neff, K. (2003). The Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Self-Compassion. Self and Identity, 2(3), 223–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309027

Berry, K., Kowalski, K. C., Ferguson, L. J., & McHugh, T. F. (2010). An empirical phenomenology of young adult women exercisers’ body self‐compassion. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 2(3), 293–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/19398441.2010.517035