Sensing space, moving with intention: reframing choreographic agency through somatic and installation practices

This article redefines dancer agency as a sensory negotiation rather than a pre-given freedom. Integrating somatic practice with installation art, it introduces a Three-Layer Interactive Model of Perception that situates agency in dancers’ active construction of space through material and environmental interaction. Drawing on cross-cultural fieldwork in China and New Zealand, the study reveals that agency does not emerge from liberation but from moving within constraint, where hesitation, and sensory reciprocity transform uncertainty into embodied action. By shifting the focus from internal awareness to relational perception, this research offers a new theoretical and pedagogical framework for professional dance training, showing that creative autonomy arises through co-presence with materials, environment, and others.