The aim of this special issue of the Journal for Dance and Somatic Practices, ‘Authentic Movement: a field of practices’ is to deepen and contribute to the literature currently available and make a contribution to the scoping or defining of the field of practices known as Authentic Movement (AM). The intention is not to limit or prescribe what is or can be done or known but to embrace the many individuals and groups who practice AM and to ask them to give words to their unique contribution to this field. Each person who works with AM does so with specific intentions and theoretical underpinnings; each person or group has unique processes and outcomes. And yet there are surely some attributes of the form we know as AM that are shared. We hope this issue helps to clarify both the differences and similarities in approaches to the practice we call Authentic Movement.