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Heartstrings is a somatic research practice created by Milana Aernova that weaves together movement and red string to explore the depths of human connection and our intricate entanglements with the world around us. We are continually moved and transformed by one another, both energetically and physically. We have the incredible ability to feel, to heal, and to be changed through shared experience. The red string serves as a living metaphor, revealing the invisible threads that bind us together.

Caro’s heart beats for unveiling the mysteries that nest in his body. To know the landscapes of which it is made. For training a body sensitive enough to the other pursuing the question: How can we be completely useless for the purposes of individualism, dehumanization, fascism, genocide?

Lucia’s heart beats for remembering what’s been forgotten: rhythms, stories, and truths held in the body. She moves to reclaim softness, slowness, and the sacred in the everyday.

Danette’s heart beats for healing through love with presence and gratitude. It beats to connect the body and the spirit toward union; with the highest intentions to transmute conformity into authentic expression of the souls essence.

Richie’s heart beats…dun dun dun…yearning and connecting and finding the bounds of love, care, support and capacity.

Nicholas Naylor-Leyland’s heart beats with tenderness for all who have gone beyond, and for all who come back to ask, “How can I help?”

Zuzzie’s heart beats for the mystery of being. It beats for the communion between body, earth, cosmos, and the unspoken spaces in between. It beats for the art of making the invisible visible, and for the moment sensation becomes a story witnessed.

Mio’s heart beats for… “My heartbeat, my intuition, and my thoughts are deeply connected, resonating with each other.

My heartbeat is like a compass, guiding each moment of my human journey. In moments when joy, fear, or any other emotion makes my heart race, its rhythm becomes the signpost of my path. With every beat, my heart weaves the story of who I am.”

Milana’s heart beats in the space between knowing and unknowing. She is drawn to the intricate threads that connect self and other, exploring how movement can become a pathway to deeper understanding: of oneself, of others, and of the spaces in between.

Manuel’s heart is grounded in “not knowing”. How does it feel to know? How do I know that I don’t know? I do not know what part of me you are observing? I do not know how your observation moves you? Every new beat his question becomes current. I do not know how much this red thread weighs. I do not know how much of my movement escapes. His dance is rooted in the time passing from one moment to the next. I do not know what rhythms you feel. I do not know if you sense the shifting of my boundaries. Here and gone. Here and gone….Can you?

A research collaboration with Richie Villa, Mio Watanabe, Nicholas Naylor-Leyland, Lucia Contreras, Danette Sierra, Manuel Gonzalez, Carolina Bloch, Zuzzie Kapas, and Milana Aernova