Dr. Anna Dako
Winter 2025 | Film
Forest Within
'FOREST WITHIN' was produced during the time of lockdown, when touching or wandering about felt like forms of transgression. The only resources to sanity – access to local nature reserves, were too reduced. The film was made in the annihilated part of a forest in Aberdeenshire. As movers and compassionate human beings, we wanted a dialogue with the place and let it speak for itself in movement. ‘Forest Within’ is about an embodied reflection upon inclusive ways of being.
Film Credits:
Production, Artistic Guidance and Choreography: Anna Dako
Movement Artists: Laura Booth, Shayne Lilith-Moon, Sofia Kondylia
Instrumentals: Magi Winmill-Hermann
Filming: Anna Dako, Bircan Birol
Editing: Anna Dako
Assistance: Diana Monteiro Toombs
Photography: Noemi Dako
DUNAMI CIC - In The Open
Dr Anna Dako, AHPP, RSME/T, UKSMDT
Anna is an interdisciplinary movement artist, and a Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist with over 20 years of experience working with dance, movement and creative arts. Anna’s experience stretches from dance research, dramaturgy and on-screen productions.
Anna is the founder of Dunami - Movement Arts Wellbeing CIC, a platform for ecologically mindful growth, psycho-somatic health, intercultural dialogue and artistic development projects. Dunami’s offer includes regular practice-based workshops, Spring Seedling and Soma Scapes, as well as self-therapy resources. In her private practice Anna specialises in supporting and working through versatile psycho-somatic imbalances, and loves guiding experiential walks throughout Aberdeenshire.
As a writer, she specialises in practice-based research, eco-psychology and environmental philosophy perspectives. In her doctoral research in art-based therapeutic education she has been developing movement-based approaches toward more embodied ways for ‘being well’ with the natural environment guided by processes of Somatic Felt Thinking. The methodology is now offered as Anna’s online course in EcoSomatic Movement Education and further described in her books ‘Dances With Sheep - On RePairing the Human-Nature Condition in Felt Thinking and Moving Towards Wellbeing’, and ‘Walking to Wellbeing - A Guide to Practising Self-Care in Somatic Felt Thinking’.
As a film maker, Anna is developing her movement productions with In The Open - Outdoor Arts Initiative, and her latest film Forest Within has been nominated for Scottish Landscapes Awards 2023. She is also a winner of Images of Research Competition 2019 at the University of Aberdeen, and has delivered many workshops focused on inclusive self-care throughout UK including University of Oxford, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Bath and Edge Hill.