ARAWANA HAYASHI
PRESENT
Social Presencing Theather
Unfolding in conscious movement.
Everyday interactions, meditation, Dharma Art, and social change come together in Social Presencing Theater — a field of embodied awareness that nurtures personal transformation, social creativity, and systemic change.
Rooted in simple gestures, postures, and spatial awareness, it dissolves fixed concepts and opens space for direct communication, intuition, and collective intelligence.
Social Presencing Theater makes visible the present moment and the possibilities that wish to emerge. Through movement, stillness, and dialogue, it invites individuals and communities to sense themselves as part of a living whole — allowing awareness to move freely through intuition and collective intelligence.
The word theater comes from the Greek thea, meaning “a place for viewing.” Social Presencing Theater invites individuals and communities to see and sense themselves together — to make visible what is invisible, and to enact their emerging future.
More than theater in the conventional sense, SPT is a living field of practice — a space of creative social art where awareness takes form through movement, and the future unfolds.
Video credits: Aaron Lemle | Content & interviews: Arawana Hayashi, Ricardo Dutra, Adam Yukelson | Special thanks to: Valerie Janssens
Practice
20 Minute Dance
A mindfulness of body practice. It enhances the ability to synchronize body and mind by noticing the mind’s habit of wandering and supporting groundedness in the present.
Stuck Exercise
This is the main technique of Social Presencing Theater. It is a process by which one experiences the essence of the U journey by moving from Sculpture 1 (current reality) to Sculpture 2 (emerging future).
4D Mapping
4D mapping makes visible the current reality in a social system, such as a school system, and reveals how embodied sensing and knowing can lead to fresh outcomes.
Resources
BOOK
“Social Presencing Theather: the art of making a true move.”
WITH A FOREWORD BY OTTO SCHARMER
This book invites readers into a living field of awareness — a journey through the origins, principles, and gestures of an evolving social art form co-created by Arawana Hayashi and colleagues at the Presencing Institute.
Through the body as a gateway to presence, it opens pathways for individual and collective transformation.
It offers grounding for those new to the work and deeper insight for experienced practitioners wishing to create spaces where awareness, creativity, and compassionate action can unfold.
Stories and practices reveal how Social Presencing Theater comes alive in schools, organizations, and communities — wherever people gather to sense and shape the emerging future together.
- CHINESE
- ENGLISH
- ITALIAN
- PORTUGUESE
- SPANISH
CARDS
Aesthetic Language Cards
DEVELOPED BY ARAWANA HAYASHI AND RICARDO DUTRA
Aesthetic Language Cards reveal how the choices we make shape the field of relationships around us.
To express subtle experiences, we need living language.
This second edition offers 30 cards to cultivate awareness, shared meaning, and embodied understanding in everyday life.
Field of application
Reveals how Social Presencing Theater unfolds through different contexts and living systems.
Here, awareness becomes movement — transforming how people relate, learn, lead, and co-create.
Each field opens a space to sense what is emerging in the present, and to move with it in awareness.
Education
In education, Social Presencing Theater (SPT) is an art-based method that enables principals, teachers, and students to access deeper knowing through embodied practices.
It fosters a different kind of learning — one that is physically integrated, relational, and alive.
By bringing mindfulness and art into schools, SPT transforms learning from a process of information transfer into a practice of awareness and connection.
This shift supports more collaborative and compassionate educational cultures, where students rediscover engagement and trust.
The documentary below shows SPT in high schools in India, the USA, and Norway, addressing social tensions through movement, empathy, and collective insight.
Inclusion & Diversity
Environmental Sustainability
Social Justice
Systemic Mapping & Group Work
Field of practice
Each field of practice opens a different way of sensing and embodying awareness — from the foundations of movement and presence to the integration of SPT in real-life systems and initiatives.
SPT Basics
A two-day, in-person introduction to the foundational practices of Social Presencing Theater.
Participants are invited to sense the intelligence of the body, explore simple forms that reveal collective patterns, and experience how awareness moves through relationship and space.
An opening into seeing and sensing the system from within.
Continuing SPT
A next step in deepening and applying practice.
This program focuses on designing and adapting SPT within specific contexts — such as education, organizations, or community work.
It also includes workshops centered on The Village practice and the Aesthetic Language Cards, expanding the language of embodied awareness.
A field for integration — where practice begins to shape everyday life.
SPT Advanced Training
A year-long journey guided by Arawana Hayashi, Manish Srivastava, Angela Baldini, and guest faculty.
Through mentoring, group work, and personal projects, participants deepen their capacity to facilitate and co-create from awareness.
An evolving field of mastery — cultivating leadership rooted in embodied presence.
4D Mapping
A collective practice for sensing the deeper dynamics of a system.
Led by an experienced SPT facilitation team, 4D Mapping can be offered in person or online.
Through movement and spatial awareness, teams and organizations perceive emerging possibilities and shared intentions.
A practice for revealing what is alive and ready to evolve within the system.