Gestures of Connection: Exploring Intercultural Non-Verbal Communication Through Creative Practices

This thesis explores performative approaches to non-verbal communication practices with a focus on interculturality, pedagogy, embodiment, and storytelling. Grounded in both theory and lived experience, it investigates how bodies speak across languages, cultures, and contexts, often saying what words cannot. This research centers on a case study involving 24 students from Italy, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, the USA, Brazil, Georgia, and Myanmar. We engaged in creative writing, drama, and embodied storytelling for six thematic workshops, ranging from family stories to reflections on the past and dreams for the future. These sessions became a space where language barriers dissolved through movement, gesture, and shared narrative experiences. Through a performative and process-oriented lens, this thesis examines how non-verbal cues become tools for empathy, mutual understanding, and identity exploration. I will investigate whether such embodied methodologies empower learners to express identity and emotion beyond linguistic limitations, nurturing a sense of belonging and co-creation. Blending theory with personal reflection, the work invites educators and communicators to view communication not just as the transmission of information, but as a deeply human experience. In times when our differences can seem to divide us, and meaning often gets lost in translation, I propose that returning to the body and its expressive power may be the most universal language of all.