Compassion, Acceptance and Mindfulness in Dance and Performing Arts Conference

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

9:30–9:45 – Welcome: Josef Bartoš

9:45–10:45 – Keynote speaker 1: Amber Mosewich (Chair: Michal Vičar)

  • Staying on Your Own Side: Self-Compassion in Dance and Performance

10:45–11:00 – Coffee break

11:00–12:20 – Oral presentations 1: Dance education (Chair: Sanna Nordin-Bates)

  • Emma Morgan (UK)– How Self-Compassionate Are UK Undergraduate Dance Students? A Latent Profile Analysis

  • Ana Domingues (PT) – “I am Enough”: Working with Core Beliefs to Cultivate Self-Acceptance and Self-Compassion in Ballet Dancers

  • Martina Hajdyla Lacová (SK) – Non-Doing Dance: Towards a More Sustainable Dance Pedagogy

  • Marta Poláková (SK), Beata Žitniaková Gurgová (SK)– Embodied Stillness as a Space Supporting Subjective Well-Being and Creative Agency in Dance Education

12:20–13:30 – Lunch break

13:30–14:30 – Keynote speaker 2: Courtney Walton (Chair: Michal Vičar)

  • Working Towards Compassion-Based Environments in the Performing Arts

14:30–14:45 – Coffee break

14:45–15:45 – Oral presentations 2: Other applications (Chair: Amber Mosewich)

  • Josef Bartoš (CZ) – ‘Like I Want to Shed My Body, Peel It Off Myself’: Exploring Czech Professional Contemporary Dancers’ Body Self-Compassion

  • Vesna Bajić Stojiljković (SB) – Choreographic Practice and Embodied Awareness in Stage Presentations of Serbian Traditional Dance

  • Martin Maryška (CZ) – ‘You Are So Performative!’ The Aesthetics of Shame and Performed Vulnerability

15:45–16:00 – Coffee break

16:00–16:30 – Practical exercise

  • Anna Drahorádová (CZ) – Embodied Self-Compassion in Practice: Brief Experiential Exercises

16:30–17:30 – Oral presentations 3: Interventions (Chair: Courtney Walton)

  • Joanna Kotek (PL) – How to Implement Mindfulness Programs in a Specialized Performance Environment Across the Age Groups: A Pilot Study on Athletes and Dancers

  • Inês Pinto (PT) – Therapeutic Presence Through Movement: Embodiment, Attachment, and Relational Care in Dance and Clinical Practice

  • Dominika Grygarová (CZ) – Self-Compassion as Epistemic Safety: An Embodied Predictive Processing Account of Well-Being in Performing Arts

17:30–17:45 – Coffee break

17:45–18:45 – Keynote speaker 3: Sanna Nordin-Bates (Chair: Michal Vičar)

  • On Perfectionism, Dance Culture, and Why Self-Compassion is Hard to Do

18:45–19:00 – Closing: Josef Bartoš

The organizers reserve the right to make changes to the program.