We present a retrospective autoethnography grounded in data-driven design. The first author collected her movement data and subjective experience of learning the dance repertoire of modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan, which together were encoded into the design of a set of plaster artefacts physicalising her embodied dance learning progression. The artefacts reflect the first author’s bodily transformation, mirroring her transition from discomfort to ease, and changes in her expressive capabilities. Our method offers an alternative to documentation of embodied learning through design. Throughout our design process we leverage on the movement data, the field notes and the first author’s memory of her journey, all of which constitute entangled and complementary input into her experience of dance learning. We show that the data physicalisations provided a gateway into the intangible experience and allowed for a deep and reflexive understanding of our dataset.

We present a soma design process of a digital musical instrument grounded in the designer’s first-person perspective of practicing Dalcroze eurhythmics, a pedagogical approach to learning music through movement. Our goal is to design an instrument that invites musicians to experience music as movement. The designer engaged in the soma design process, by first sensitising her body through Dalcroze training. Subsequently, she articulated her bodily experiences into experiential design qualities that guided the making of the instrument. The process resulted in the design of a large suspended mobile played by touching it with bare skin. We shared our instrument with 7 professional musicians and observed how it inspires a variety of approaches to musical meaning-making, ranging from exploring sound, to choreographing the body. Finally, we discuss how engaging with Dalcroze eurhythmics can be generative to the design of music–movement interaction.

We present a long-term collaboration between dancers and designers, centred around the transmission of the century-old repertoire of modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan. We engaged in a co-design process with a Duncanian dancer consisting of conversations and participation in her transmission of Duncan’s choreographies and technique. We then articulated experiential qualities central to Duncan’s repertoire and used them to guide the design of the probes, the sounding scarfs. Our probes sonify dancers’ movements using temporal sensors embedded in the fabric of the scarfs, with the goal of evoking Duncan’s work and legacy. We shared the probes with our Duncan dance community and found that they deepen the dancers’ engagement with the repertoire. Finally, we discuss how co-designing with slowness and humility were key to the dialogue created between the practitioners, allowing for seamless integration of design research and dance practice.