This paper looks at how the practice of dance improvisation and somatic movement modalities inform and transform our experience of being in our bodies (via embodied knowledge, kinaesthetic awareness). In both individual and collective practice, they offer an alternative means for engaging with ourselves and others that allows us to transcend individual and social constraints within certain conditions. I’ll discuss these practices as an ongoing process or state of freedom in the performative space, in daily ‘non-performative’ life, in the many spaces in between, and the conditions necessary to thrive.