Dalija Acin Thelander (SE/SER) works within the performing arts field as a choreographer, theatre maker and cultural worker since 1997. She is involved in intensive research and creation in the field of contemporary dance for babies and children since 2008. She creates immersive durational performances and installations for babies and neurodiverse children. Her practice foregrounds pre-discursive and pre-reflective dimensions of embodied experience, underlying the importance of inter sensoriality and emplacement. She has been teaching and lecturing internationally, asserting the importance of early encounters with art. Her performances for the youngest audiences have been presented in Japan, Korea, India, China, Singapore, Brazil, South Africa and across Europe. She is the recipient of ASSITEJ International Artistic Excellence Award, awarded at the 20th ASSITEJ World Congress 2021. She is currently conducting her academic research project Towards sensuous ecologies, Rethinking Ableism in Choreographic and Movement Practices at Stockholm University of Arts, Sweden (2022-2024)