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ResDance Series 11: Episode 6: Situated Bodies: Context, Identity, and Dance Research with the student cohort of the MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism Programme

In this episode, students from the MA Dance Participation, Communities, Activism programme reflect on the role of context, identity, and lived experience within their creative practices. Through conversations about heritage, personal histories and the role of the self in research, they explore how their experiences shape, challenge, and transform the ways they make and understand dance. They share insights from their research journeys, considering what emerges when we ask questions, listen deeply, and remain open to new perspectives. The episode highlights how new possibilities can unfold through attention, connection, and lived experience —inviting listeners to reflect on their own relationships with others, their environments, and the ways they might participate in social change.

Contributors: Lisa Gelley, Hugo Pena, Fernanda González, Jo Parkes, Ruth Pethybridge.

Profiles of the staff and students in conversation can be found here: ⁠https://theplace.org.uk/lcds-courses/madancepca⁠

MA Dance Participation, Communities, Activism

This MA Programme is for students who want to develop a socially engaged dance practice which addresses the urgencies of our times. You will join a global community of artists and researchers working at the intersection of community dance and arts activism. You may have an emerging community, participatory or activist movement practice which you want to develop, or you may be an established maker who wants to interrogate and develop your practice in the light of the shifting discourses and challenges of the moment.

Artwork: Welcome Back by Lisa Mariko Gelley

Photo credit: Maxine Tamoto

For more information please visit: ⁠https://theplace.org.uk/lcds-courses/madancepca⁠

Instagram: @ma_dance_pca  

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research inaction.

ResDance Series 11: Episode 5: The practice of response: Reflections from the Student cohort of the MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism Programme

In this episode, students from the MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism programme explore how dance and embodied practices can become ways of responding to the world around us. Through discussions on queer methodologies, improvisation, somatic practice, and collective action, the conversation considers how movement can foster new relationships between people, places, communities, and more-than-human worlds. 

Exploring response as an alternative to control, the episode reflects on how embodied practices can support care, collaboration, activism, and more sustainable forms of resistance in times of uncertainty and change. The conversation highlights how new possibilities can emerge through attention, connection, and lived experience, inviting listeners to reflect on their own relationships with others, their environments, and the ways they might participate in social change. 

Contributors: Avni Sethi, Eve Young, Sujeong Seok, Becca Townsley, Manal Tass, Iona Hannagan Lewis, Rhiannon Colvin, Jo Parkes, Ruth Pethybridge. 

Profiles of the staff and students in conversation can be found here: ⁠https://theplace.org.uk/lcds-courses/madancepca⁠ 

MA Dance Participation, Communities, Activism  

This MA Programme is for students who want to develop a socially engaged dance practice which addresses the urgencies of our times. You will join a global community of artists and researchers working at the intersection of community dance and arts activism. You may have an emerging community, participatory or activist movement practice which you want to develop, or you may be an established maker who wants to interrogate and develop your practice in the light of the shifting discourses and challenges of the moment. 

Artwork by Moe Nakagawa (2026)

For more information please visit: ⁠https://theplace.org.uk/lcds-courses/madancepca⁠  

Instagram: @ma_dance_pca   

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research inaction.  

ResDance Series 11: Episode 4: The Language of Pain: Stories, Bodies and the Knowledge of Experience with Rebecca Stancliffe, Ruth Barber and Jo Young

In this episode, Rebecca, Ruth and Jo share their experiences of The Language of Pain — a research project that placespeople living with pain at the heart of creativity, research and community. They explore how arts-based and co-creative approaches can open up new ways of expressing experiences that are often difficult to put into words. Moving beyond medicalised understandings of pain, the project uses creativity, somatic practices and shared exploration to recognise strength, identity and the many ways people live alongside pain. From finding new language and forms ofexpression to building connection, care and community, this conversation explores how changing the way we talk about pain can transform how we understand and support those living with chronic conditions.

About our research

The Language of Pain is an arts and health research project that gives ‘voice’ to the invisible and often denied experience of chronic illness and pain. Through various arts-based methods, underpinned by somatic practice, the project interrogates understandings and orientations toward chronic pain. By listening to pain rather than seeking to cure it, the project emphasises chronic illness as a socially situated and embodied phenomenon. Resisting the deficit model of ill-health, we focus on what it means to live well with chronic illness. The research is co-constructed, centres lived experience, and is grounded in shared leadership and collective decision-making. We adopt an ethics of care where the body comes first, we show up as we are, and resist performing wellness. Our creative research takes place solely online to accommodate our health and comfort needs, addressing the need for and importance of remote practice for public engagement. 

Contributor Bibliography: Rebecca Stancliffe 

Rebecca Stancliffe is a Research Fellow at Trinity Laban where her research focuses on arts and health and digital practice. Rebecca's current project The Language of Pain (2023-present) explores co-production in research, the expression of pain narratives through arts-based methods, and online environments for community practice. 

Contributor Bibliography: Ruth Barber

Ruth Barber is a yoga teacher and mum who has lived with pain for 20 years. She loves walking and music she can dance to. Ruth enjoys calm and peace, and often find this by being in or near water. Breathing and moving with kindness help her live with pain. Ruth loves growing vegetables with her family and watching the deer and hares that leap about in my wee village near Glasgow. She has usually got a cup of tea in one hand and a library book in the other!

Contributor Bibliography: Jo Young

Jo Young is a beach love / spoonie warrior who loves tortoises, e-bikes, art, music and tai chi. I'm on a healing creativejourney. One wobbly step at a time. Jo has been a co-researcher on The Language of Pain creative research project since 2023.

Also, with thanks to the following project co-researchers:

Charlotte Mackie; Dominique Rivoal; Emma Saunders; Mira Hirtz; Rob Miller; Peter Nagle; Tefnut Huntress Asante; Tim Atkinson

Contact details

Email: R.Stancliffe@trinitylaban.ac.uk 

Instagram: rebeccajstancliffe

Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-stancliffe-phd-38609a4a

Other social media handles

Instagram: @thelanguageofpainarts

Instagram: @trinitylaban

Blog: https://medium.com/@thelanguageofpain2025

Resources of interest

Eventbrite page for September event: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-language-of-pain-centring-lived-experience-and-experiential-knowledge-tickets-1990783736747?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

 Resources and materials relating to the project: https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/research-and-knowledge-exchange/our-research/the-language-of-pain/

AHRC Funded Dance Research Matters Network Series: Episode 8: Reflections on the South Asian Dance Equity (SADE) network with Prarthana Purkayastha, Royona Mitra & Anusha Kedhar

In this episode, we explore the South Asian Dance Equity (SADE) project, a research collaboration examiningequity, inclusion and representation within British South Asian dance. In addition to asking how South Asian dance is marginalised by the wider arts sector in the UK, the project turns its attention inward, asking whose voices, practices and histories are centred—and whose remain overlooked. Theepisode explores how issues of caste, faith, gender, sexuality, disability and geography shape opportunities, visibility and belonging within the dance ecology. Reflecting on collaborative research and the challenges of navigating difficult conversations, Prarthana, Royona and Anusha discusswhat it means to approach equity as an ongoing practice of listening, care and critical reflection. This episode offers an insightful look at how research can create space for dialogue, challenge established narratives and imagine more inclusive futures for British South Asian dance.

South Asian Dance Equity (SADE)

SADE examines systemic inequities within British South Asian dance, focusing on five key areas of minoritisation: the dominance of Indian/Hindu dance forms and artists;LGBTQI+ artists; caste-oppressed artists; disabled artists; and folk and Adivasi (indigenous) arts and artists. The network aims to build a more equitable dance sector through exchanges between artists and scholars from South Asia and the UK.

Website: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-education/subjects/drama-and-theatre/research/sade/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southasiandanceequity/

Contributor biography: Anusha Kedhar

Anusha Kedhar is an Associate Professor of CriticalDance Studies at the University of California Riverside. Her teaching interests include South Asian dance and diaspora, caste and performance, global political economy, and critical dance ethnography.  She is the author of Flexible Bodies: British South Asian Dancers in an Age of Neoliberalism (2020). She is also the convener of the Caste and Corporeality conference, chair of the DSA South Asian Dance Studies Working Group, and a founding member of the University of California Collective for Caste Abolition. 

Email: anusha.kedhar@ucr.edu  

Contributor biography: Royona Mitra

Royona Mitra is Professor of Dance and Performance Cultures at Brunel University of London. She is the author of UnmakingContact: Choreographing South Asian Touch (2025, OUP) and Akram Khan: Dancing New Interculturalism (2015, Palgrave).  Her research examines systems of oppression in dance and performance cultures at the intersections of bodies, social power regimes, and choreography asresistance. Royona was Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded #DanceResearchMatters “South Asian Dance Equity” project (2023-2025) alongside Drs Prarthana Purkayastha (PI, RHUL) and Anusha Kedhar (Co-I, UC Riverside).  

Email: Royona.Mitra@brunel.ac.uk

Contributor biography: Prarthana Purkayastha  

Prarthana Purkayastha is Reader (Associate Professor) in Dance and Performance Studies in the Department of Music, Drama and Media Arts at Royal Holloway University of London. She is the author of Indian Modern Dance, Feminism and Transnationalism (2014, Palgrave Macmillan) which won the 2015 de la Torre Bueno Prize and the 2015 Outstanding Publication Award from Dance Studies Association. Her second monograph is The Archives and Afterlives of Nautch Dancers in India (2025, Cambridge University Press) and she is co-editor with Anurima Banerji of the Oxford Handbook of Indian Dance (2026, OUP-New York).

Email: prarthana.purkayastha@rhul.ac.uk

AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks

For more information, please visit:⁠danceresearchmatters.coventry.ac.uk⁠

Instagram and Twitter: ⁠@danceresearchmatters

ResDance Series 11: Episode 3: Dancing Together: The Transformative Power of Community Dance with Natalie How

In this episode, Natalie shares insight into her socially engaged dance practice, exploring how accessibility, participation, and joy create spaces for connection, expression, and belonging. Drawing on her Master’s research and experience across diverse communities, she reflects onhow dance can build confidence, encourage dialogue, and inspire social change. The conversation explores the role of language, equity, and reflective practice in creating inclusive dance environments, as well as Natalie’s hopes for futurework with intergenerational groups and adults with learning disabilities. This episode highlights the power of community dance to bring people together and transform experiences through movement.

Biography

Natalie is a Community Dance Practitioner who believes in movement that does good and feels good. She recently graduated with Distinction and received theHighest Achievement Award for her Master’s degree in Dance Leadership and Community Practice from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Natalie graduated from Royal Holloway University in 2020 with a First-Class degree inDance. Originally trained in Ballroom and Latin, she has since explored a wide range of movement practices including Contemporary, Jazz, Commercial, Hip-Hop, and Somatic Practice. With many years’ experience as a dance teaching artist, Natalie has facilitated creative movement experiences for participants aged 4–80 across diverse communities and dance styles. She is passionate about making dance accessible to everyone and creates spaces where movement can support physical and mental wellbeing, connection, and self-expression. Natalie believes in the transformative power of dance as a tool for positive social change. Her practice centres individual experiences and personal stories, usingperformance art, film, installation, and movement to explore identity, challenge social norms, and create opportunities for care, empowerment, and collective connection.

Contact details

Email: nataliehow19@gmail.com

Website: www.reflectiontoaction.co.uk/about-2-1

Social Media

Insta: @_nataliemoves_

Resources of interest

https://arestlessart.com/co-creation/

https://www.communitydance.org.uk/DB/animated-library/what-do-we-do-now-the-deconstruction-of-four-decades-of-dance-development-i

https://www.campaignforthearts.org/the-state-of-the-arts-one-year-on/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThere%20is%20a%20very%20real,Service%20year%2Don%2Dyear

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 11: Episode 2: Finding Home in The Body: Intuition, Belonging & Butoh Dance with Dominique Savitri Bonarjee

In this episode, Dominique shares her journey into Butohand reflects on how her heritage, travels, and lived experiences have shaped her creative practice. We explore the body as a site of memory and belonging, and how movement has become a way of finding an internal sense of home. Dominique discusses her intuitive, site-responsive approach to making work, revealing how she listens to and collaborates with the spaces she inhabits. She shares insights into her Collapse series, her interdisciplinary practice, and her interest in creating conditions where movement can emergethrough both doing and non-doing. We also talk about her recently published monograph, the role of collaboration, the relationship between body, space, and audience, and the value of working with uncertainty. It's a thoughtfulconversation about embodiment, creativity, and the transformative potential of movement.

Biography

Dominique Savitri Bonarjee is an Indian-French artist, dancer, and researcher working across choreography, sound, electronic instruments, and visual art. For her, dance is a"rebellion of the body" and a practice of "(more-than-) humanrehabilitation." Drawing on postwar Butoh, ritual practices, and contemplative traditions, her work explores the body as a site of continual transformation amid ecological, technological, and social change. Her monograph Butoh, as Heard by a Dancer (Routledge, 2024) documents encounters with seminal Japanese performance artists, while herdoctoral project Space of the Nameless (Goldsmiths, 2024)developed an embodied research methodology transmitted through artistic scores for exploring nondual attention in creative practice.

Alongside performances and pedagogical projects, Dominique creates site-responsive installations and participatory works presented in galleries, festivals, and research contexts internationally. Her decade-long performance action COLLAPSE is a poetic choreography of exhaustion and rest in the context of acceleration, burnout, and polycrisis, while her ongoing project Butoh Mutations reimagines Butoh's radical postwar legacy for contemporary bodies and conditions. Dominique’s enduring fascination with intuition and the transformative potential of the unknown is deeply informed by Taoist martial arts practices and Sufi dance.

 Contact details

 Website: Spaceofthenameless.art 

Website: Butoh.co.uk

Social Media

@spaceofthenameless

@butoh_mutations  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominique-savitri-bonarjee/

Resources of interest

https://www.routledge.com/Butoh-as-Heard-by-a-Dancer/Bonarjee/p/book/9780367631192#

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 11: Episode 1: Artist-led co-commissioning for dance and heritage with Katie Green

In this episode, Katie shares her experience as a choreographer creating dance, music and storytelling projects across museums, heritage sites, libraries, galleries and other unique spaces. We explore the developing Imagination Museum network, which supports artists and communities to connect through the stories held within heritage spaces. Katie reflects on the importance of collaboration, care and supporting artists, as well as therole dance can play in building belonging, empathy and connection. She discusses the growing recognition of dance and heritage work, the need for greater visibility and advocacy, and encourages listeners to explore the placesaround them and discover the stories waiting to be uncovered.

Katie Green is a choreographer specialising in working with dance, music and story-telling in museums, heritage sites, libraries, galleries and other extraordinary spaces. As well asdirecting her company, Made By Katie Green, she manages the developing Imagination Museum dance/heritagenetwork and works extensively in primary schools developing curriculum-linked programmes that engage young people and transform their experience through the arts. All of herprojects are developed collaboratively with a broad range of partners -particularly those who may not have worked with dance before. Through those projects she aims to build a stronger sense of belonging and courage within communities, providing connection with the environment and the world around us, celebrating every part of who we are, and shifting mindsets about what dancecan do.

Contact details

Email: katie@madebykatiegreen.co.uk

Website: www.madebykatiegreen.co.uk 

Social Media

@madebykg (Insta)

@madebykatiegreen (FB)

@imaginationmuseum (Insta)

@TheImaginationMuseum (FB)

Resources of interest

Case Studies and Resources from The ImaginationMuseum dance/heritage network: www.imaginationmuseum.co.uk

Article about the co-commission process from TheImagination Museum:

https://imaginationmuseum.co.uk/getting-started-with-co-commissioning/

Essential Read about getting started with dance inmuseums here: - https://imaginationmuseum.co.uk/resource/first-steps-for-working-with-dance-in-museums-and-heritage-sites/

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 10: Episode 11: Between Borders andBodies with Sivan Rubinstein

In this episode, Sivan reflects on her practice as anartist-researcher and the role of collaboration with academics, practitioners, and researchers in shaping her work. She explores how her choreographic practice engages with ideas larger than the self, using movement to investigatebelonging, identity, and what it means to feel at home.

Together, we discuss the creative process behind Novo,a work shaped by questions of embodiment, home, and transformation. We explore how dance can act as a tool for research and reflection, as well as creating during motherhood and the importance of holding space for both performers and audiences. Sivan also reflects on the influence of visual arts and interdisciplinary practice, the relationship between ideas and making, and how audiences are invited into a journey of reflection and connection. This episodeinvites listeners to consider where and how we find home—in our bodies, our communities, and the spaces we create together.

Biography

Sivan Rubinstein is a London-based choreographer,director, researcher, and movement director whose interdisciplinary practice combines dance, visual arts, and academic research. Her work explores migration, belonging, climate futures, and embodied activism through highlyvisual performances, installations, and collaborative projects. A Work Place Artist at The Place, Artist in Residence at the University of Cambridge, and Associate Artist at Pavilion Dance, she has presented work nationally andinternationally. As a neurodiverse artist, she is developing Beat Space Beat, an evolving methodology that explores creative practice and learning through a neurodivergent lens.

Biography Link

Photo credit: Nefeli Kentoni 

Contact details

Email: junemoonarts@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sivan.rubinstein/

Other Social Media

Website: https://www.sivanrubinstein.com

Vimeo : https://vimeo.com/sivanrubinstein

Relevant Resources:

Link for videos

Credit : Film by Upright Fools

DOP Kaasam Aziz
Commissioned by The Place 

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 10: Episode 10: Experiences and Reflections on South Asian Dance for Autistic Children: A Research Collaboration with Akademi 

This episode explores a collaborative research projectbringing together researchers, South Asian dance artists, educators, and families to investigate the emerging field of South Asian dance and autism. Following an introduction from Subathra (Artistic Director and Joint-CEO) on the work of Akademi, we situate the conversation within the project itself. Ashley and Claire reflect on its planning, delivery, and documentation, exploring how the experiences ofparticipants, families, and practitioners were captured throughout the research process. The episode explores how movement, rhythm, storytelling, and embodiedcommunication within South Asian dance can support autistic children’s engagement, learning, self-expression, and connection. Reflecting on their experiences of the project, Ashley and Claire highlight the value of combiningevidence-based research with the creative expertise of dance practitioners, emphasising a co-created, child-centred approach that places young people’s needs at the heart of the work.

Akademi

Website:https://www.akademi.co.uk/ 

Instagram: @akademidance

Resources:

https://www.akademi.co.uk/akademi-resources/send-digital-resources/ 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41287245/ 

Biography: Ashley Brain

Ashley holds a BA (hons) degree in Dance with a major in Ballet from the University of Calgary, Canada, an MSc in Dance Science from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music andDance, and a PhD from University of Roehampton. She continues to teach at Roehampton and Pilates conditioning for dancers at London Contemporary Dance School in the UK. Her teaching in higher education has focused primarily onballet and topics under the dance science umbrella including anatomy, biomechanics, conditioning, psychology and somatic education. Ashley has presented her research at a variety of international conferences, and she continues to publish research in the area and is interested in developing new methodologies and approaches to research in the dance for health sector.

www.ashbraindanceandhealth.com 

Contact details:

Email: ashbrain1@gmail.com

Linked In: Dr Ashley Brain (nee McGill)

Instagram: ash_brain1 

Biography: Claire Farmer

Claire Farmer is a dance educator and researcher with 15+ years’ experience in the performing arts. Her work bringstogether anatomy, dance science, somatic practice, community engagement, strength and conditioning, female health and dance for health. She has taught and collaborated with leading organisations across the UK, including All orNothing Aerial Dance Theatre, Gravity & Levity, London Studio Centre, Pagrav Dance Company, Sujata Banerjee Dance Company, Akademi, DanceEast CAT and The Circus Doc. Claire is co‑editor of The ‘Female’ Dancer, co‑host of itsaccompanying podcast, and a regular contributor to journals, magazines and sector publications. She also chairs the Strength and Conditioning Special Interest Group for the International Association for Dance Medicine andScience.

Contact details:

Website: Instagram: www.clairefarmer.co.uk

Instagram: @dancesci_claire

Email claire@clairefarmer.co.uk

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 10: Episode 9: Moving Beyond the Studio: Improvisation, Storytelling and the Practice of Being Human with Helen Kindred

In this episode, Helen shares insights from her experiences across a range of dance practices, with a particular focus onimprovisation as both a performance practice and a life skill. Drawing on the ways her artistic and teaching practices are informed by Bartenieff Fundamentals, Helen reflects on how movement has been a source of both physical and emotional safety throughout her life. She speaks about the value of slowing down, doing less, and creating space for imagination, play, and discovery. We also discuss how her approach to movement fosters a more sensory relationship with the body—one rooted in awareness, connection, and the wider role movement plays in everyday life. Throughout the conversation, Helen reflects on how movement can deepen our relationship with ourselves and others.

Biography

Helen is a dance-artist and scholar whose work over the past 30yrs has moved in layers of, community engagement, choreographic practice-as-research, and pedagogies of dance, and somatic practices. Helen’s teaching philosophy centres on relational and inclusive ways of being in theworld. Helen’s research practice builds on her long-standing practice of Bartenieff Fundamentals; using LBMS as a framework for engaging with people and places, nurturing environments of imaginative explorations and play throughimprovisation. Publications include ‘In-the-Between-ness: Decolonising and re-inhabiting our dancing’, co-authored chapter with Dr Adesola Akinleye in Narratives in Black British Dance Embodied Perspectives (Akinleye, A. (ed. 2018), ‘Improvisation and Change’ article in Animated (Summer2020), ‘Moving Meditations: embodying Bartenieff Fundamentals through sensorial awareness of breath, bones, and gravity’, Journal of Dance, Movement andSpiritualities (2022). The ‘Female’ Dancer: a soma-scientific approach (Eds with Claire Farmer, 2024), Dancing Place: scores of the city, scores of the shore, co-authored with Dr Adesola Akinleye (2026). Helen is Director ofStudies at Northern School of Contemporary Dance https://www.nscd.ac.uk, co-Artistic Director of DancingStrong Movement Lab https://dancingstrongmovementlab.com and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Dance, Movement and Spiritualities https://www.intellectbooks.com/dance-movement-spiritualities.

Contact details/Social media channels

Email: Helen.kindred@nscd.ac.uk

Social Media: Facebook: HelenKindred / Instagram: @helenkindred

Other social media handles

@northern_school

@dancingstrong_movementlab

Other links of relevance

https://dancingstrongmovementlab.com, https://www.nscd.ac.uk  

https://www.intellectbooks.com/dancing-place 

https://www.routledge.com/The-Female-Dancer-a-soma-scientific-approach/Farmer-Kindred/p/book/9781032466897

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 10: Episode 8: Co-production in participatory arts and dementia research with Olivia Turner and Katey Warran

In this episode, Olivia and Katey explore the intersections of arts and health, reflecting on how these connections shape their respective practices and research. They discuss the importance of centering diverse ways of knowing and being, grounded in relationships and lived experience. Drawing on their work in participatory arts and dementia research, they examine how co-production informs every stage of their projects—from design and delivery to evaluation. The conversation highlights their approaches to meaning-making and collaboration with people living with dementia, as well as those involved in delivering the work. They also consider the value of capturing lived experience as a way to inform research and influence policy, alongside the role of evaluation and multi-voice storytelling in empowering both participants and practitioners. Throughout the episode, they reflect on their individual journeys and emphasise the central role of relationships in shaping their evolving practice.

Biography: Olivia Turner

Dr Olivia Turner is an artist and researcher at the University of Edinburgh. Her work is at the interstices of creative practice-led research, medical humanities and arts & health. She is currently undertaking postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh. This work focuses on participatory arts, co-production and social justice, meaning-making, and evaluation. She is Deputy Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia and the PATHS (Public Health, Arts, Theory and Social Science) Research Group. She is also Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at Newcastle University.

Contact details:

Email: olivia.turner@ed.ac.uk

Personal Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviaturner-art/

Other social media handles:

@oliv.turner

Biography: Katey Warran

Dr Katey Warran is Head of the PATHS (Public Health, Arts, Theory, Sociology) Research Group and Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia (ECRED), both based in the School of Health in Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. She is the recipient of a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship exploring how to co-construct a Sociology of Arts and Health. She is also Honorary Fellow in the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at University College London, where she was previously Deputy Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Arts and Health. Katey’s research explores the complex relationship between the arts and health, and she is currently co-authoring a book with Professor Norma Daykin on the Sociology of Arts and Health (Routledge, forthcoming).

Staff Profile: https://edwebprofiles.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-katey-warran

Contact details:

Email: kwarran@ed.ac.uk

Personal Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateywarran/

Fellowship:https://linktr.ee/socarthealth  

Published sources and recommendations:

https://linktr.ee/IMAGINED

https://www.pathsresearchgroup.org/research

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 10: Episode 7: Participation and Person-Centred Practice at English National Ballet with Laura Harvey

In this episode, Laura reflects on her journey throughdance, sharing how her background and experiences continue to shape her artistic practice today. Exploring themes of connection, community, and collaboration, we situate our conversation within English National Ballet’s engagement programmes, highlighting the power of participation to enrich both individuals and the art form itself. Laura discusses the importance of creating opportunities for people to experience dance in a meaningful, embodied way,emphasising a person-centred approach that values every voice in the room.

Through exploring her approach to curating meaningfulexperiences, Laura shares insight into her role in curating spaces where individuals feel supported to explore and express their own artistic voices. She reflects on how the sector continues to evolve and how her practice responds tothese changes.  At its core, this episode centres on nurturing creativity, championing inclusivity, and making space foreveryone to connect with dance.

Biography

Laura is Head of Creative Programmes at EnglishNational Ballet, responsible for the management of high-quality, artistic, engagement programmes including ENB’s Dance for Health strand, artist development and several flagship performance projects. She has worked extensively in the sector with world-class dance organisations including Rambert, Ballet Boyz, Richard Alston Dance Company and Sadler’s Wells amongst others. In addition to her role atENB, Laura is a qualified Personal Performance Coach, Lead Dance Artist for Dance Mama and is Co-Chair of Parents in Performing Arts (PiPA). Laura is a proactive leader with a deep-rooted commitment to engage people in the arts,championing inclusivity and opportunity for all, through high-quality artistic practice.

Image Credit: Matt Nalton Photography

Contact details

Email:  info@ballet.org.uk and Engagement@ballet.org.uk

Instagram: @lauharveytodd / @englishnationalballet

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraharveydance/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/english-national-ballet/

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ResDance Series 10: Episode 6: A Decade of Dancing with Women Affected by Cancer with Emily Jenkins

In this episode, Emily shares her experiences as a dance artist and reflects on her own artistic journey and how it has shaped the spaces she creates for others.  Emily reflects on her own artistic journey and how it has shaped the spaces she creates for others. We explore the evolution of Move Dance Feel, thecommunity she founded in 2016 for women living with and beyond cancer, and what it truly means to move alongside one another through challenging and transformative moments. Our conversation places people at the center—therelationships built, the shared experiences, and the importance of reciprocity. Emily speaks about her core values of release, connection, and joy, and how these are felt in every session. While research increasingly supports dance incancer care, Emily highlights what goes beyond evidence: the joy, magic, and sense of wholeness that emerge when people dance together. She reflects on the past ten years of her work, the growth, and the deep meaning she has foundthrough the community she has nurtured, while looking ahead to what’s still to come. This episode is about dance, but more importantly, it’s about connection, support, and the transformative power of moving together.

Biography

Emily Jenkins is an established, international dance artist with an embedded social and wellbeing practice. She designs, implements and artistically leads life enhancing dance initiatives. Emily has worked in dance for over fifteen years, and in that time has created and delivered countless opportunities for dance engagement with both cultural and health organisations. Her practice fosters unity, and is centred around release, reciprocity and joy. In 2016 Emily founded Move Dance Feel, a company offering dance to womenliving with and beyond cancer, and works closely with cancer support services to incorporate dance into their care programmes. With a particular interest in addressing inequality through dance Emily created Women Who Dance in 2023, as a way of providing safe and creative spaces for all women. The initiative aims to reduce stress andloneliness among women, foster fear rebellion, and encourage physical and mental expansion. Since 2019 Emily has served as a committee member for the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, and in 2020 shewas selected as Churchill Fellow. In 2021 she won a National Lottery Art, Culture and Film Award, and Positive News magazine named her as one of ‘10 ordinary people who made 2021 extraordinary’. Additionally, she received a One Dance UK Award in Health and Wellbeing in 2025.

Full biography: https://www.emily-jenkins.com/biography

Contact details/Social media channelsmovedancefeel@gmail.com

@movedancefeel (facebook, instagram, linkedin)

@emilyjanejenkins 

Other links of relevance

https://www.emily-jenkins.com/churchillfellow

https://www.emily-jenkins.com/training

https://www.movedancefeel.com

https://www.movedancefeel.com/theargument

https://www.movedancefeel.com/anniversary

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ResDance Series 10: Episode 5: Dancing Across Borders with Anna Des Clayes

In this episode, Anna shares insights as a community dance facilitator and choreographer whose work celebrates movement, culture, and connection. Drawingon the lived experiences of participants, she leads workshops that inspire curiosity, joy, and co-creation. We explore her approach to intergenerational exchange, storytelling, and the ways movement fosters social connection. Annareflects on the creative process, ethics of care, and the power of giving participants freedom and space. Throughout, she highlights ideas of community and communitas, celebrating the transformative possibilities of moving, sharing, and connecting together.

Biography

Anna Des Clayes is a community dance facilitator and choreographer whose work explores participation,intergenerational exchange, and social connection through movement. She is particularly interested in co-creating dance with refugee and migrant communities, using creative practice as a tool for storytelling, care, and collectivebelonging. Originally training professionally at London Studio Centre, Anna’s early dance career was interrupted by injury, leading her to pursue her parallel academic interest in science. She worked as a science teacher in London and Madrid before returning to dance to complete an MA in Choreographyat the University of Chichester, graduating with a first-class degree. Anna’s recent projects include Trails of Migration (2022), commissioned by Sussex Dance Network and co-devised with refugee and migrantwomen; Communi-ties from the Past (2023), developed through South East Dance’s Brighton Fringe Bursary and featuring performers aged 11 to 86; and Portals (2025), an immersive work for Brighton Fringe. Her piece PlayTime has been presented at multiple venues, including the Southbank Centre. Alongside her choreographic practice, Annaleads regular intergenerational dance and movement sessions in Crawley, teaches yoga to children, young people, and adults, and curates community dance eventsacross Brighton and Sussex.

Headshot Photo Credit: Matilda Van Orden

Contact details/Social media channels

Email: Communitasdance@outlook.com

Instagram: @communitasdance

Other links of interest

Organisations that support refugees and migrants in Brighton: 

@voicesinexile 

@refugeeradio

Refugee Week – 16 – 22 June 2025 (lots ofresources of how to take part on the event)

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 10: Episode 4: Dance at the Centre: Rethinking Dance for Health with Emily Davis 

In this episode, Emily shares her journey to working at the intersection of dance, health, and social science. She reflects on her recently completed PhD, undertaken jointly across the University of St Andrews, the Royal Conservatoireof Scotland, and Glasgow Caledonian University in partnership with Scottish Ballet. Her research focuses on dancing with multiple sclerosis and explores dance as both a tool for health promotion and a method of inquiry.

Throughout the episode, we discuss how dance functions within health contexts, the importance of moving beyond disease-centred approaches, and innovative researchmethods such as movement-based interviews that centre the dancing body. Emily also shares insights into her current projects and the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in expanding how dance can contribute to healthand wellbeing.

Biography

Emily Davis is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Moving Bodies Lab at Durham University. Her research is focused on the intersection of dance, health, and social science, exploring the potential of dance as both a means of health promotion and a method of inquiry. Emily recently completed her PhD jointly across the University of St Andrews, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Glasgow Caledonian University, in partnership with Scottish Ballet, centred on dancing with multiple sclerosis. Alongside her research, Emily previously danced professionally with the Philadelphia Ballet and led dance health programmes across Philadelphia.

Website and Social media channels

https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/emily-m-davis/

www.linkedin.com/in/emily-davis-dancehealth

https://medhumsplatform.org/labs/moving-bodies/

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ResDance Series 10: Episode 3: You Can’t Balance AwayOppression: Dance, Power, Resistance with RoyonaMitra

In this episode, Royona reflects on her relationship to dance, from her training in classicised and contemporary Indian dance in India to specialising in physical theatre in the UK. Drawing on her experiences as a teacher,researcher, and practitioner, she explores how movement practice has become a space to question and reflect on questions of power within dance. Royona discusses how moments of discomfort throughout her training and practice have shaped her intellectual inquiry, often becoming starting points for deeper questioning. She also reflects on how these experiences, alongside her academic writing, have helped unpack questions around caste politics, caste identity, and caste supremacy, and their intersections with gender, race and other socialpositions, including how practices such as contact improvisation shift when considered within the realities of caste and power.

Themes of power, responsibility, and positionality emerge as she considers how dance and performance studies can both challenge and reproduce structuresof power. Looking ahead, Royona reflects on the need to move from reflection into action—galvanising practitioners to question and reshape the field. A thoughtful and thought-provoking conversation on dance, power, and resistance.

Biography

 Royona Mitra is Professor of Dance andPerformance Cultures at Brunel University of London, UK. She is the author of Unmaking Contact: Choreographing South Asian Touch (2025, OUP) and Akram Khan: Dancing New Interculturalism (2015, Palgrave). Her first monograph was awarded the 2017 de la Torre Bueno FirstBook Award by the Dance Studies Association (DSA); her article "Unmaking Contact: Choreographic Touch at the Intersections of Race, Caste and Gender", was awarded DSA’s Gertrude Lippincott Award in 2022 for theBest English Language Journal Article; and her co-edited journal special issue titled "Outing Archives/Archives Outing" for Contemporary Theatre Review journal,alongside Profs Bryce Lease and Melissa Blanco Borelli, was awarded the Theatre and Performance Research Association's Edited Collection Prize in 2022. Herresearch examines systems of oppression in dance and performance cultures at the intersections of bodies, social power regimes, and choreography as powerand resistance. She contributes to the fields of diaspora and performance, South Asian dance and performance cultures, critical dance studies and performance studies. Royona was Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded #DanceResearchMatters “South Asian Dance Equity” project (2023-2025) alongside Drs Prarthana Purkayastha (PI, RHUL) and Anusha Kedhar (Co-I, UC Riverside). She was also Co-Investigator on the BritishAcademy Small Grant funded “Contemporary Dance and Whiteness” project (2019) alongside Drs Simon Ellis (Coventry) and Arabella Stanger (Sussex). She was co-Chair of TaPRA alongside Drs Broderick Chow (RCSSD) (2022-2025) and Rachel Hann (2022-2024).

Contact details

Website https://royonamitra.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/royona-mitra-ab359333b/

Other related links

Unmaking Contact: Choreographing South Asian Touch (2025)

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/unmaking-contact-9780197627778?cc=gb&lang=en&#

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ResDance Series 10: Episode 2: Dancer Hormone Health: Why It Matters with Nicky Keay

In this episode, Nicky reflects on her experiences in sport and dance, and her passion for both hormone health and dancing. Framed primarily within a dance context, she shares how she applies her knowledge to support dancers in optimising both their health and performance. We explore the powerful role hormones play in maintaining stability, supporting overall wellbeing, and enhancing dance performance. Nicky offers insight into the challenges of artistic pursuits that strive for a particular aesthetic, and the delicate balancebetween these demands and the body’s natural capabilities and limitations.

Nicky advocates for a personalised approach — listening carefully, considering the whole person, and recognising the risks of neglecting hormone health to ensure each dancer is supported in what is optimal for them.  Packed with valuable insights, this conversation calls for a greater awareness of the power of hormones and encourages students and performers to become more body-aware and informed abouttheir hormonal health. She stresses the importance of early education, open communication, collaboration among support teams, and creating environments where listening and honest conversation are prioritised. The key takeaway:recognise the power of your hormones, appreciate them, and learn how to work with them to become a stronger, healthier, and more empowered dancer.

Biography

Nicky is a medical doctor specialising in dancer hormone health. Nicky is medical advisor to Scottish Ballet and a keen ballet dancer. Nicky’s clinical endocrine work provides personalised approach for hormone health, offering health advisory appointments, with a focus for those experiencing relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs) and women experiencing perimenopause and menopause. Based on her research into REDs, Nicky developed the free online personal availability questionnaire (PEAQ) https://mypeaq.streamlit.app/

Nicky offers talks on a variety of hormone topics at international conferences for organisations and groups. Nicky is the author of “Hormones, Health and Human Potential” and editor of “Myths of Menopause”. Her research into the impacts of lifestyle, nutrition and exercise on hormone networks has been published in peer-reviewed journals. Nicky holds the position of Honorary Clinical Lecturer in the Division of Medicine, University College London. Nicky studied medicine at Cambridge University. After gaining Membership of the Royal College of Physicians, London UK, Nicky worked as a Research Fellow at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, where she was part of the international medical team that developed an anti-doping test for growth hormone. Nicky is a member of the British Menopause Society (BMS) and has completed the BMS Principles and Practice of Menopause Care training programme and Management of Menopause Certification

Website

www.nickykeayfitness.com

Social media channels

@drnickykeay

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ResDance Series 10: Episode 1: From HEAD to TOE: The creative moving body in primary education with Sarah Hall

In this episode, Sarah shares insights from her work as an artist-researcher and facilitator in community and educational settings. Centered on her expertise in creative practice through embodied knowledge, our conversation explores the aims of From HEAD to TOE, a project funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund. We discuss how Sarah’s work emphasises empowerment, inclusion, and finding voice, highlighting approaches used within the project, methods of engagement and ways of movingtogether to enjoy learning, embody knowledge, and support individual wellbeing. Sarah reflects on her experiences so far, emphasising the importance of placing care at the heart of practice and the value of a co-creative approach in drivingmeaningful change.

Biography

Sarah is an experienced facilitator working in community and education settings, specialising in creative practice through embodied and improvisational methodologies. Sarah is a Senior Lecturer and Practitioner Researcher at the University of Lancashire and also leads BlueMoose Dance, a community dance organisation based in the North of England, with a specialist focus on practice with, for and by young people and Artist and Teacher CPD. Through a person-centred approach, Sarah’s work surrounds notions of empowerment, inclusion and finding voice, working co-creatively with participants through play and improvisational approaches, with care and quality at the heart of the practice. 

From HEAD to TOE project biography

We use the creative moving body and embodied pedagogies to support teachers in modelling and teaching metacognition and executive functioning skills. Working from care-filled practices, our CPD model and research inquiry supports Teachers and Pupils to connect to self, to better recognise their needs, to articulate their preferences and use creativity and movement to play, discover, connect and empower.

This phase, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund, builds on our initial focus of the creative moving body in the retention and recall of key English and Maths knowledge, which ran from 2021 - 2023, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Arts Based Learning Fund.

Website

sarah@bluemoosedance.org.uk

Social media channels

@unilancashire

@danceuclan

@bluemoosedance

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 9: Episode 11: Curating ResDance: Gemma Harman on 100 Episodes of ResDance

In this episode, Gemma reflects on her journey curating 100 episodes of the ResDance™podcast alongside her friend and colleague, Elsa Urmston. Situating the conversation within Gemma’s wider practice as an educator and researcher, they discuss the founding of ResDance, the key themes that have emerged from contributors to date, and the processesinvolved in recording the podcast. They explore the role of ResDance in celebrating and amplifying individual artists’ voices, while also engaging listeners with emergent ideas and practices central to dance research. Through the conversation, they consider the podcast as a site of practice, reflectingon its value in articulating how dance is situated within wider research contexts, while foregrounding the ongoing contribution ResDance makes to the broader dance field.

Biography

Dr Gemma Harman is an Independent Dance Educator,Researcher and Podcaster. She originally trained as a dancer before specialising in areas of dance, music and dance medicine and science. Gemma has a BA (Hons) in Performing Arts (majoring in Dance) from Middlesex Universityand an MSc Dance Science and PhD Dance and Music Science from Trinity Laban (supported by the Emerton Christie Charity). She has extensive lecturing experience as a teacher, lecturer and researcher, delivering a range of specialisms, where she continues to work across vocational and Higher Education settings as a researcher and lecturer. Until recently (January 2026), Gemma was a Senior Lecturer in Dance and Dance Science, BSc Programme Leader and MA ProgrammeCo-ordinator at the University of Chichester. Gemma won the One Dance UK ‘Research In Dance Award’ in 2025 for her work with ResDance™.

Website and Social media channels

@resdancepodcast

Other relevant links

https://www.routledge.com/Practitioner-Perspectives-on-Dance-Research/Harman/p/book/9781032566795

https://www.chi.ac.uk/news/award-winning-gemma-celebrates-one-dance-uk-win/

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ResDance Series 9: Episode 10: The mental side of injury with Carl Bescoby

In this episode, Carl shares insights from his work as a psychologist, practitioner, educator, and researcher. Drawing on his interest in the intersection of injury, pain, recovery, and performance, the conversation explores the psychological dimensions of injury and rehabilitation. Through exploringthe psychosocial models of injury and the role stress plays in injury occurrence, we discuss the importance of supporting individuals through the emotional experiences that accompany injury.

We explore barriers to implementing psychological support across different contexts, common misunderstandings around emotional responses to injury, and the challenges of translating psychological language and concepts for diversepopulations. Carl also highlights the need for greater attention to psychological care during rehabilitation, which is often overshadowed by an emphasis solely on physical recovery.

Through his work, Carl is committed to shaping a culture of greater understanding and change. He shares insights into his workshops, the development of evidence-based resources, and the delivery of individually tailored coaching. A key takeaway from the episode is that injury—or anunintended pause—can become an opportunity for personal growth, enabling a more holistic approach to recovery.

Biography

Dr Carl Bescoby is an injury psychologist working at the intersection of injury, health, wellbeing, and performance. Carl works with injured athletes & performers through one-to-one consultancy and provides group workshops/psychoeducation to help cultivate a greater awareness of the psychosocial components of injury and rehabilitation to enable positive adjustment and growth throughout recovery and return to activity. Carl also delivers training to support healthcare professionals, clinicians, and physiotherapists with evidence-based psychological practice to support the mental health and wellbeing needs of service users. 

https://www.theinjurypsychologist.com/about

Contact details

Email: carl@theinjurypsychologist.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinjurypsychologist/?hl=en

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 9: Episode 9: Breaking Barriers: Racial Equity in Dance with Imogen Aujla and Stacey Green  

In this second episode with ResDance, Stacey and Imogen explore their thinking around racial equity in dance. Drawing on the work of the TIRED movement and their three-year RED Research Project into representation in dance training and education, they share key findings and discuss the development of an evidence-informed framework for institutions. 

The conversation centres on the barriers faced by those from the global majority in accessing training and education, the role of research in driving meaningful change, and the need for greater transparency, leadership, and collective responsibility across the sector. Stacey and Imogen reflect on positive institutional shifts emerging through the RED project; the wider work of TIRED; celebrate the ongoing impact of TIRED Ambassadors and young people paving the way for change and share recent milestones — including the launch of the TIRED Connect platform and two academic publications. This episode is one of hope, responsibility, and a shared commitment to collective change. Biography: Imogen Aujla 

Imogen is a dance psychology specialist from Dance in Mind. Her work covers research, lecturing, resource development, and psychological coaching. She originally trained as a dancer before specialising in dance science and later dance psychology. She has a PhD in dance psychology and a Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Prior to going freelance, Imogen was a Senior Lecturer in Dance and Course Coordinator of the MSc Dance Science at the University of Bedfordshire. As well as her project-based freelance work, she is a regular guest tutor on the MAS Dance Science at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and is a peer tutor for the mental health charity Mind. Imogen is passionate about research that contributes to social justice and that has practical impact. 

www.danceinmind.org 

Contact details: 

Facebook: @danceinmindUK 

Instagram: @dance_in_mind_UK 

Website: www.danceinmind.org  

Published sources:

https://www.danceinmind.org/post/let-s-talk-about-representation-in-dance 

https://www.tiredmovement.com/research-project/ 

https://www.tiredmovement.com/imogen-aujla/ 

Biography: Stacey Green  
Stacey Green is the co-founder of both the TIRED Movement (Trying to Improve Racial Equality in Dance) and the UK’s new inclusive dance brand, Shades Dancewear. She is also the principal of a well-established dance school with over 30yrs teaching experience. She currently delivers talks all over the UK, raising awareness about the importance of racial representation in dance education. Stacey is the brainchild of the RED (Representation and Equity in Dance) research project, which has developed a framework that teachers, schools, and colleges can use to enable them to become diverse and inclusive. 

Shades Dancewear is the first UK dance brand to offer four shades in 5 products in all children’s and adult sizes.  Shades are now selling their products to a number of West End shows including MJ Musical, Starlight Express and Hamilton the Musical. Using their unique new face recognition app “Shadify”, dancers can now find the perfect shade to match their skin tone before they buy, allowing dancers to embrace their ethnicity, and retain their identity. 

Contact details: 

• info@tiredmovement.com  

  @movementtired on Instagram  

• TIRED Movement on Facebook 

• www.tiredmovement.com 

• https://tiredconnect.com/ 

Other social media handles: 

• info@shades-dancewear.com 

• @shadesdancewear on Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, Pinterest 

• www.shades-dancewear.com 

Other related links:  

• Two published papers from the RED project: 

https://accscience.com/journal/AC/3/1/10.36922/ac.3165 

https://accscience.com/journal/AC/articles/online_first/4709 

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action. 

ResDance Series 9: Episode 8: The menstrual cycle in pedagogical contexts: a shared responsibility towards sustainable body literacy and agency with Clarisse Roud

In this episode, Clarisse shares insights into her background and work as a movement artist, educator, and researcher, focusing on female-related challenges within pedagogical contexts. Through her teaching practices, we explore how critical pedagogy shapes her work and supports individuals in finding their voice and agency. Drawing on her research interests, Clarisse discusses her MA dissertation and the need for greater acknowledgment of menstrual cycle symptoms, particularly in relation to sustaining training and overall wellbeing. She advocates for holistic, responsive approaches that honour individual needs and promote self-understanding, positioning the studio as a progressive space that actively supports the female student.

Biography

Clarisse Roud is a Swiss-born, London-based movement artist and educator working internationally. She holds apostgraduate qualification in Dance Education from London Studio Centre, graduating with distinction, and her work focuses on addressing female-related challenges within the pedagogical context.

With a steadfast commitment to supporting pre-vocational dancers in their artistic journeys, Clarisse is dedicated to evolving contemporary dance education in ways that empower dancers to develop both technical proficiency and a deeply authentic personal voice. Her approach is grounded in humanistic, critical, activist, and feminist pedagogical principles, fostering environments in which dancers grow into articulate and confident movers—aware of their strengths, responsive to their sensations, and capable of making artistic choices with intention and clarity.

Clarisse strongly advocates for consent-based, holistic approaches that honour and respond to individual needs. Her pioneering research, co-authored with Dr Nicky Keay and Kim Hutt, into menstrual cycle-aware dance practices was presented at the prestigious 35th IADMS Annual Conference, with publication forthcoming.

Contact details

Website https://www.clarisseroud.com 

Emails: contact@clarisseroud.com

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ResDance Series 9: Episode 7: Gemma Harman in Conversation with Kate Prince (Recorded Live at The Nest, Chichester Festival Theatre)

In this episode, Kate reflects on her journey through dance, theatre, film, and music, sharing how her early dream of becoming a choreographer shaped her career. We talk about the founding of ZooNation, her mission to championartists, and the company’s role in bringing hip hop to the main stage while challenging perceptions of the art form. Kate discusses her choreographic process, the role of storytelling in her work, and how hip hop helps her address real-world themes. We also explore the importance of nurturing young talent, and the need for greater visibility and opportunities for older practitioners in dance. Throughout the conversation, Kate speaks about the value of embracing uncertainty, being brave, learning from mistakes, and surrounding yourself with supportive, like-minded people. Her message is uplifting and clear: keep dancing and keep finding joy—however it evolves throughout your life.

Biography

Kate’s work with ZooNation includes creating ground-breaking productionssuch as Into the Hoods (Novello Theatre,West End), Some Like it Hip Hop (Peacock Theatre & UK Tour), Groove on Down the Road (Southbank Centre), The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (Royal Opera House & The Roundhouse), Message in a Bottle (Peacock Theatre; UK, European, Australian & North American Tour), and SYLVIA (Old VicTheatre). The company has also delivered special performances for the 2012 London Olympics IOC Opening Ceremony, the 2011 and 2023 Laurence Olivier Awards, the 2008 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Handover Ceremonies, and Nelson Mandela’s 90th-birthday celebrations in Hyde Park. Beyond ZooNation, Kate’s theatre credits include Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield, West End & UK Tour), Bacchae (National Theatre), Dream Ballets (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Ballyturk (National Theatre), Shoes (Sadler’s Wells), I Can’t Sing: The X-Factor Musical (Palladium), and It’s a Mad World My Masters (RSC).

Her film work includes choreography for Everybody’sTalking About Jamie (Warp, Film4, New Regency & Amazon), Message in a Bottle (PBS America), StreetDance 3D (BBC Films & Vertigo), as well as The Holloway Launderette, whichshe wrote and directed for BAFTA/Channel 4. For television, her credits include Strictly Come Dancing, So You Think You Can Dance, The Royal Variety Show, Top of the Pops, Ant &Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, CD:UK, Blue Peter, Sport Relief, The Album Chart Show, and Popworld.

Kate’s personal achievements include an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Winchester, an MA from the University of Edinburgh, and an MBE (2019) for services to dance. In 2020, Kate was the subject of the BBC’s Imagine documentary series, Kate Prince: Every Move She Makes, presentedby Alan Yentob. She has been nominated for five Olivier Awards, a South Bank Sky Arts Award, a WhatsOnStage Award, and two Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. In 2024, ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company won the Critics’ CircleNational Dance Award for Best Midscale Company.

Website and Social media channels

https://zoonation.co.uk/

@zoonationuk

Linktr.ee/ZooNews

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ResDance Series 9: Episode 6: Light That Moves: Lighting as a Choreographic Tool with Natalie Rowland

In this episode, Natalie shares insights into her background and experiences as a lighting designer, aerialist, and artist-practitioner. Our conversation centres on her work as an interdisciplinary practitioner, exploring her practices across lighting, scenography, moved based practices. Natalie discusses her understanding of light as a moving entity that interacts with bodies, and space and reflects on the wider role of lighting within performative work. Her love of storytelling runs throughout the conversation, particularly in relation to her aerial practice and PhD research, where through the use of a choreographic approach she develops a series of approaches and lighting scores. She also emphasises the importance of mess, play, and curiosity in her practice, alongside a desire to challenge conventional ways of working. Throughout, Natalie reflects on her comfort in uncertainty and her embodied knowledge of being “in the air.”

Biography

Dr Natalie Rowland is based at the University of Chichester lecturing in scenography, choreographing with technology and aerial dance. Her research interest is located in the intersection and discussions between the scenographic and the choreographic, drawing on her practice both as a lighting designer and an aerial artist.  

Staff Profile: https://www.chi.ac.uk/people/natalie-rowland/

Contact details:

Email: N.Rowland@chi.ac.uk.

Instagram: @talirowland 

                   @knotted_aerial

Other related links:

Seeing Anew: the role of lighting in creation of place in site-generic/specific performance: https://eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/5554/

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ResDance Series 9: Episode 5: Being stubbornly curious with Dam Van Huynh

In this episode, Dam reflects on his background and experiences as a dancer and choreographer, grounding our conversation in his life journey as a child refugee who fled Vietnam with his family. He shares how these lived experiences continue to shape him both personally and artistically.  We explore the choreographic methods heemploys to create work—his use of collage-like approaches, provocations, and the articulation of voice, alongside themes of displacement and what it means to be a displaced person. In his choreographic practice, he invites his dancers, collaborators, and audiences to explore and navigate these ideas alongside him. Through his work with his company, Van Huynh Company, and Centre 151—a hub for culture, arts, and community, he highlights the importance of visibility and representation for young artists. Lastly, he expresses hope that the next generation of artists will continue to see thebroader potential and purpose of the art form for themselves.

Biography

Originally from Southern Vietnam, Dam Van Huynh is a UK based dancer/choreographer. As a child refugee, his family and he fled Vietnam after the war and settled in the USA where Dam was raised. He founded his own company in 2008, Van Huynh Company. Dam was appointed Director of Centre 151 - a hub for culture, arts and community in 2016.  His work is an implicit and ongoing attempt to synthesize the most dynamic and revolutionary aspects of the dual dynamic of his Vietnamese heritage and Western influences. In his latest touring productions, Dam redefines ownership of his story, calling out inequalities within society: Moving Eastman (2025), Exquisite Noise (2024), Re:birth (2022), In Realness (2022).

He graduated from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee andhas worked as a performer with various companies and choreographers including The Nevada Ballet, Merce Cunningham, Portugal’s Companhia de Dança Contemporânea, Richard Alston, Phoenix Dance Theatre. His works are performed internationally and include commissions from CEPRODAC (Mexico), Unlock Dancing Plaza (Hong Kong), British Museum, Fóramen M. Ballet (Mexico). 

Developing a deep artistic connection with composer,vocalist and movement artist Elaine Mitchener since 2009, they have together expanded the possibilities of performance through the use of sound and body. Dam is a Rauschenberg Residency Fellow (USA), he was Artist-in-Residence at TheHong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA 2010-12), Associate Artist with Dance United (2012-14), Head of Contemporary Dance at HKAPA (2019-23) and Associate Director of Dance Bridges Festival – Kolkata, India (2015-25).

Photo credit: Thuan Lam Hieu

Website and Social media channels

Website: www.damvanhuynh.com

www.instagram.com/vanhuynhcompany
www.facebook.com/VanHuynhCompany
Other social media handles

Centre 151

www.instagram.com/centre151
https://www.facebook.com/Centre151

Website: www.centre151.com
Collaborator Elaine Mitchenerwww.elainemitchener.com

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ResDance Series 9: Episode 4: Queering the everyday with Callum Anderson

In this episode, Callum talks about his work as an artist, arts marketer, and doctoral researcher. Our conversation explores his research into non-theatre dance practices—specifically site dance and screen dance—and how queer theories can open up public spaces through bodies moving in those spaces. We also discuss the methods and approaches employed in his doctoral research, from choreographic interventions to embodying the movements of everyday life.

Callum Anderson (he/him) is a PhD candidate at Bath Spa University and a dance artist-researcher whose work is influenced by site and screen-based dance practices, choreopolitics, and the queering of space and place through choreographic interventions. Working across live and digital performance he has made work for large scale screens, portable devices and installations, as well as dancing and choreographing in more traditional dance settings. He holds a BA (Hons) in Dance and an MA in Dance Performance from the University of Chichester, receiving the Valarie Briginshaw Prize for Dance Writing and Academic Excellence for his MA dissertation.

Contact Details

Email: callum@callumdanderson.com

Instagram: @callumdanderson

Website: www.callumdanderson.comResearch Outputs •

Academia: https://bathspa.academia.edu/CallumAnderson•

PhD student: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/students-and-alumni/callum-anderson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com •

ORCID profilehttps://orcid.org/0009-0008-1792-0723?utm_source=chatgpt.com

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ResDance Series 9: Episode 3: The Art of Caring Through Dance with Gemma Wright

In this episode, Gemma reflects on her background indance and her journey as the founder and leader of the Dance Network Association (DNA). By grounding our conversation in the work of the association, we explore how the charity promotes health and well-being through the dance programmes and activities it offers to the wider community. We discuss what it means to be a leader, the role of care and compassion—both for the people she teaches and for herself—and the importance of building a strong support system. Throughout the episode, Gemma emphasises the transformative power of dance and its potential to change lives.

Gemma Wright is a passionate advocate for dance health and wellbeing and is dedicated to mentoring others to lead with compassion, creativity, and care. As a feminist leader and founder of the Dance Network Association (DNA), shechampions wellbeing, inclusivity, and the power of dance transform lives. With nearly two decades of experience across community dance, arts management, and leadership, Gemma has worked with organisations including the Royal Academy of Dance, Trinity Laban, dancedigital, and DanceEast. Since founding DNA in 2015, she has raised over £1.3 million to deliver life-enhancing programmes for people across Essex from Dancing with Dementia and Dancing with Parkinson’s to intergenerational dancing andeducational dance initiatives touching thousands of people each year.

Contact Details

Email: gemma@dancenetworkassociation.org.uk 

Website: www.dancenetworkassociation.org.uk 

Social Media: Insta, Facebook and Linked @dancenetworkassociation 

Other Useful Social Media

@ParkinsonsUK @Alzeimersociety @PeopleDancing@OneDanceUK 

National Centre for Creative Health 

Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance 

NCVO 

Links to resources: 

DNA Resources: RESOURCES | Dance Network Assoc

DNA's new companion book 'Danicng for Joy Resource OUR SHOP | Dance Network Assoc 

Arts for Health - Dancing by Noyale Colin and Kathryn StampBook Dancing (Arts for Health) : Colin, Noyale, Stamp, Kathryn:Amazon.co.uk: Books

 Good Graduate Company programme (Partner organsation)Good Company receives public sector recognition | Orchestras Live

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ResDance Series 9: Episode 2: Reflections on human connections and dance activism with Richard Chappell

In this episode, Richard Chappell offers insight into his experiences as a choreographer and into the workings of his lead ensemble, Richard Chappell Dance. Our conversation explores his creative processes and the ways his work examines how human connection in dance can restore and heal. Together, we discuss the importance of building a moreemotionally healthy dance sector—one that prioritises the care and well-being of artists—and the ongoing need to highlight the positive enrichment that dance brings to people’s lives. Richard reflects on the vital role of belonging and community in creative work, and how these elements foster a collective hope and joy.

Biography

Richard Chappell is an internationally renowned and award-winning choreographer. Since 2013, Richard has led his ensemble Richard Chappell Dance as a platform for his choreographic research and critically acclaimedperformance work. Richard's creative process is rooted in collaboration and co-authorship. His creations explore human connection as an act of restoration, making space for people to connect deeper with themselves, each other and theland around them. The ensemble’s work shines a light on what people have overcome and where they are going, through the lens of social and climate justice. The ensemble produces work through partnerships with the Royal OperaHouse, BBC Arts, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Dance City, The Place, Studio Wayne McGregor, National Dance Company Wales, British Council, Bristol Museum, Greenwich and Docklands International Festival and British High Commission,amongst many others. Richard has held associateships with Exeter Northcott and Dance in Devon. Richard Chappell Dance is a sector leading organisation, working at the forefront of theatre touring, site responsive performance, artistdevelopment and community co-creation. Richard is currently Co-Chair of Swindon Dance and is a Clore Leadership Fellow.

As a guest choreographer, Richard has created work forrenowned dance companies and institutions, including Rambert School, Stuttgart Ballet, BalletWorks, English National Ballet, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore), Belfast Ensemble, Bcause Dance Company (Poland), Transitions Dance Company and Frontier Danceland (Singapore). Richard has guest lectured for renowned courses, including Rambert School, ArtEz Institute of the Arts(Holland), Lasalle College of Arts (Singapore), Singapore School of the Arts, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Bath Spa University and Tring Park School and was a Support Worker for five years through Robert Owen CommunityFoundation.

Headshot Credit:  Radek Zawadzki

Contact Details

Socials: 

Instagram: @richard.chappell.dance

Facebook: @richardchappelldance

Other Socials: @leadandcreate

 Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

AHRC Dance Research Matters Network Series: Episode 7: Reflections on the Critical Dance Pedagogy Network with Angela Pickard and Kathryn Stamp

In this episode, Angela and Kathryn revisit the central aimsand rationales of the Critical Dance Pedagogy Network.  They discuss insights that emerged from the network’s symposiums and artist labs, examining how these spaces have facilitated meaningful dialogue around critical dance pedagogy, equity, diversity, inclusion, and student-centred approaches to learning. Through reflecting on their own pedagogical and artistic practices, Angela and Kathrynconsider the significance of embodied experience in shaping both individual learning and the broader dance education environment.

Critical Dance Pedagogy Network

The network sought to connect academics, dance educators, researchers, artists, industry stakeholders in the UK with international peers in Scandinavia/Nordic and US as guest speakers, to support collaboration, and maximise opportunities for new thinking on the topic of Critical Dance Pedagogy. In particular understandings of equity, diversity and inclusion and student-centred pedagogy, through practice (Artist Labs) and discourse (four hybrid symposium events). The network attracted an international following as well as from across the UK. In addition to the original planned events, a focus on dance and PE teachers in training and PhD students was added.

Website: ⁠www.criticaldancepedagogy.com/home⁠

Twitter: @SDH

Contributor Biography: Professor Angela Pickard

Professor Angela Pickard is the UK’s first Professor of Dance Education and a globally recognised leader in the fields of dance pedagogy, dance and health, and dance science. She holds dual directorships at Canterbury Christ Church University: the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health, and the Centre for Sport, Physical Education and Activity Research (SPEAR), where she leads interdisciplinary research that bridges creative practices, public health, and education. Angela is a practitioner and academic and leads several mixed methods projects including practice based and participatory, and is Principal Investigator for the Critical Dance Pedagogy Network. Her research explores the intersections of dance education and dance and health, drawing on sociology, psychology and pedagogy. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Research in Dance Education journal, a leading international platform for scholarly dialogue in the field, and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science. She is a sought‑after keynote speaker and consultant, known for her ability to translate complex theory into practical frameworks that support dancers, educators and clinicians.
Contact: ⁠⁠angela.pickard@canterbury.ac.uk⁠

Contributor biography: Kathryn Stamp

Kathryn is a researcher and educator, currently an Assistant Professor at Coventry University’s Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE). Her work explores inclusive dance practices, critical pedagogy and the role of dance in fostering social and physical well-being. A passionate advocate for collaboration and public engagement, Kathryn is Co-Chair of the Society for Dance Research, a board member of Dance HE, an ambassador for AWA DANCE, and serves on the We Are Epic advisory board. Her recent books include Ethical Agility in Dance: Rethinking Technique in British Dance (Routledge, 2023), co-edited with Noyale Colin and Catherine Seago, and Dancing (Emerald Press, 2024), co-authored with Colin as part of the Arts for Health series.

Email: kathryn.stamp@coventry.ac.uk

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kathryn-stamp-847642137 

AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks

The five AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks explore current issues and generate change and legacy for the sector.

For more information, please visit: danceresearchmatters.coventry.ac.uk    

Instagram and Twitter: @danceresearchmatters

ResDance Series 9: Episode 1: Embedded in Dance Research: The first graduating cohort of MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism

In this episode, the cohort come together to explore movement practices and the way in which they continue to embed themselves and their practices within their own communities. Through situating our conversation around their own practices, we explore ideas around community, participatory and activist movement practice and the role of a co-creating process in negotiating a coming together in the space of cultural thinking. In this rich conversation, contributors offer insight into the ways in which they continue to interrogate and develop practice in the pursuit of making change by placing themselves atthe fore, to question how we come together in imagining how the future may look and the wider value of doing things differently in the light of the shifting discourses and challenges of the moment.

Gladys Agulhas, Marilia Bassetto Coelho, Anno Bolender, Joseph Jeffers, Filip Kijowski, Bianca Kruppa, Jo Parkes, Ruth Pethybridge

Profiles of the staff and students in conversation can befound here: https://theplace.org.uk/lcds-courses/madancepca

MA Dance Participation, Communities, Activism

This MA Programme is for students who want to develop a socially engaged dance practice which addresses theurgencies of our times. You will join a global community of artists and researchers working at the intersection of community dance and arts activism. You may have an emerging community, participatory or activist movement practicewhich you want to develop, or you may be an established maker who wants to interrogate and develop your practice in the light of the shifting discourses and challenges of the moment.

Photo credit: Carim Agulhas Dance: Gladys Agulhas

For more information please visit: https://theplace.org.uk/lcds-courses/madancepca

Instagram: @ma_dance_pca  

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research inaction.

ResDance Series 8: Episode 11: Moving Beyond Barriers: Progression and Employment in Dance for DisabledPeople with Imogen Aujla and Louisa Petts.

In this episode, Imogen and Louisa share insight into their thinking and considerations around inclusive danceand dance and disability in the sector. Through exploring the work of their research project, looking at the progression and employment in Dance for disabled people (Beyond Barriers in Dance Project), they reflect upon the accessibilityof the research and key findings from the research project. Throughout the episode, we discuss the importance of evidencing the barriers that disabled people experience when working in dance and the role of documenting experiences as ameans of initiating wider discussions, awareness and understanding of what access means in a dance organisation. Imogen and Louisa highlight the value of disabled representation on the research team, the importance of access underpinning a research process and the need for greater network opportunities and collaboration across the sector.

Imogen Aujla

Imogen is a freelance dance psychology researcher, lecturer,and life and wellbeing coach. She originally trained as a dancer before specialising in dance science and later dance psychology. She has a PhD in dance psychology and a Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Prior to going freelance, Imogen was a Senior Lecturer in Dance and Course Coordinator of the MSc Dance Science at the University of Bedfordshire. As well as her project-based freelance work, she is a regular guest tutor on the MAS Dance Science at the University of Bern, Switzerland, is a peer tutor for the mental health charity Mind. Imogen’s research interests include talent development, inclusive dance, and psychological wellbeing among dancers. She has published over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and has presented her research internationally.

Beyond Barriers in Dance: https://www.beyondbarriersindance.info/

Contact details:

Facebook: @danceinmindUK

Instagram: @dance_in_mind_UK

Website: www.danceinmind.org 

Louisa Petts

Dr Louisa Petts (she/her) is a deaf researcher, lecturer (AFHEA) and community dance artist. She recently completed her PhD at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University (2024) exploring ableism, healthism and ageism within dance for older adults. She received the Arts and Humanities Research Council Studentship Award from Midlands4CitiesDoctoral Training Partnership. Her research centres around person-centred, accessible and empowering creative practice, with a focus on ethics, positionality and methodological clarity. Her work also draws from her community dance practice with people living with dementia and Parkinson’s. Currently, she is working on funded project Barriers to Progression &Employment in Dance for Disabled People (Arts Council England), appointed by Candoco Dance Company, Corali, People Dancing, Stopgap Dance Company and TINArts, to address the lack of representation and leadership opportunities for D/deaf, disabled, neurodivergent, blind and visually impaired, learning-disabled, and chronically ill individuals within the dance sector. She also works as Editorial Manager for the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practicesand Research, Impact and Innovation Officer at LAMDA.

Contact details:

Email: Louisa.Petts@LAMDA.ac.uk

Social Media:

Instagram: lou_petts

Link to any published resources:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/louisa-petts-1702

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ResDance Series 8: Episode 12: NEUROLIVE: An interdisciplinary study of liveness with Guido Orgsand Matthias Sperling

In this episode, Guido and Matthias discuss NEUROLIVE, a 5-year interdisciplinary research collaboration that brings artists, scientists and audiences together to study what makes live experiences special.  We explore how the bringing together of performance making and cognitive performance science has shared insight into how such collaborations can questionliveness and the distinctiveness of live performance, more generally.  Guido and Matthias highlight the value of artistic and scientific disciplines being fully realised in collaborative contexts and wider considerations around the role of dance practices and knowledge in contributing to developments in other fields.

Guido Orgs

Guido Orgs is a Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience and Group Leader of the Movement & Performance Group at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, and also has a background as a dancer. He is the Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of NEUROLIVE.

Contact Details

Email: guido.orgs@ucl.ac.uk

Matthias Sperling

Matthias Sperling is an artist, choreographer and performer. His work investigates knowledge-generation in dance and choreographic practice as an embodied process of conjuring. He is Co-investigator and Artistic Director of NEUROLIVE.

Contact Details

Email: matthias@matthias-sperling.com

Social Media

Instagram: @matthias_sperling

Neurolive

NEUROLIVE is a 5-year interdisciplinary research collaborationthat brings artists, scientists and audiences together to study what makes live experiences special. Funded by the European Research Council, the project is a collaboration between University College London, Goldsmiths University, the MaxPlanck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics and Siobhan Davies Studios.

Website: neurolive.info

Instagram: @neuroliveness

Published Sources

Rai, L., Lee, H., Becke, E., Trenado, C., Abad-Hernando, S., Sperling, M., Vidaurre, D., Wald-Fuhrmann, M., Richardson, D., Ward, J., Orgs, G (2025). Delta-band inter-brain synchrony reflects collective audience engagement withlive dance performances. iScience. Available at: https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)01183-6

Lee, H., Ashwell, C., Sperling, M., Rai, L., & Orgs, G. (2025). Engaged and confused: Aesthetic appreciation of live andscreened contemporary dance. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000727

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, andinterdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Network Series: Episode 6: Reflections and Considerations on the Dance Research Matters Networks Programme with Vipavinee Artpradid and Helen Weedon

In this episode, Vipavinee and Helen reflect upon the five AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks and the wider incentive for the Dance Research Matters campaign. They share insight into the rich connections and relationships formed throughout the networks and the effectivenessof the networks programme working closely with funders and the wider sector to welcome those both within and outside of the dance field. Alongside considering the ways in which dance research can be more visible in the UK, we discuss the needfor those in the sector to find new approaches to working and remind listeners of the value of dance research and the need to continue to foster new connections, create opportunities and to keep the conversation open.

Contributor Bibliographies: Vipavinee Artpradid

 Vip’s research applies embodied and inclusive qualitative research methodologies for social change and draws from her background in media anthropology, social anthropology, and cultural studies. She is currently leading funded projects on mapping and evaluating the AHRC Dance ResearchMatters Networks (AHRC AH/Y002105/1) and collaborating with FRONTLINEdance to develop embodied phenomenography for inclusive dance programme evaluation(British Academy SRG2324 089). Her PhD (2020) applied phenomenography to dance audience engagement to explore variations in ways of understanding disability. She has written on integration and inclusion in dance (2022), embodied hearing technologies (2022), and kinaesthetic empathicwitnessing (2023). Vip is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University.

Contributor Bibliographies: Helen Weedon

Helen is a Senior Investment Manager at the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the Creative Industries Team where she has responsibility for the arts disciplines, including dance, as well as the Creative Industries Clusters Programme. Having studied Performance Arts at Middlesex University andgained a PGCE from De Monfort University Helen spent her early career teaching dance and performing arts in schools and FE colleges. She then moved into local government arts and cultural services where she managed and commissionedtheatres, galleries, museums and festivals, supporting artistic and audience development and engagement. Following a brief stint with the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site Partnership Unit Helen joined AHRC in 2019. Helen is also Co-Chair of the UKRI Staff Carers Network.

AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks

 The five AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks explore current issues and generate change and legacy for thesector. The ecosystems created by the Networks traverse across South Asian dance, digital black dance, future producing dance ecologies, critical dance pedagogies, and pluriversal dance practices and will be mapped for reach andimpact in and beyond the sector.

For more information, please visit: danceresearchmatters.coventry.ac.uk

Instagram and Twitter: @danceresearchmatters

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, andinterdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 8: Episode 10: Inclusive Dance and Empowerment: Voices from Opening Doors Malta with Angela Bettoni and Sara Accettura

In this episode, Angela and Sara share insight into their experiences as educators, practitioners, researchers and advocates for inclusive practice. Situated around their workwith Opening Doors, an arts organisation in Malta that works for the active involvement of adults with intellectual disabilities in the artistic sector, we explore what ‘inclusivity’ means in their own artistic practice and experiences within the sector.  We explore the importance of open dialogue in fostering opportunities for collaboration, the need for societal change in the perception of inclusive arts and the wider role of dance and the moving body as a non-verbal form of communication. Throughout the episode, they celebrate an openness to inclusion and working alongside everyone, advocating that dance is accessible for all.  

https://openingdoors.org.mt/  

Angela Bettoni

Born in 2001, Angela is a writer, performer and advocate with Down Syndrome. Angela has been living in Maltasince 2013 and has a Sri Lankan mother and Italian Father. Angela has just finished her BA in Creative Arts at MCAST, where she previously received her Advanced Diploma in Performing Arts. Angela is a passionate advocate forinclusion in the performing arts in Malta. She became Malta’s first TV presenter with Down Syndrome when she co-presented a 10-minute programme (Action!) on TV Malta in 2022. In 2023, she collaborated with the MindAdventures Theatre Company in Sri Lanka, performing “Heart”, a mixed-ability duet to a monologue she had written. This summer (2024), she performed a mixed-ability duet called BALM at Dance Festival Malta and at the Venere inTeatro Festival in Venice. Angela has been an Executive Committee Member of the Commonwealth Children and Youth Disability Network (2021- 22) and is a member of the Young People's Disability Rights Forum in Malta (2021-2024). In December 2022, Angela received a JCI Malta Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) award for her advocacy work.

Contact details:

Website: www.angelabettoni.net  

Social Media:

Instagram - @angelabettoni18   

YouTube - Angela Bettoni Down SyndromeAdvocate  

X- @Angie_DownSyn   -

Facebook: Angela Bettoni

Sara Accettura

Sara Accettura is an educator, practitioner, and researcher with a PhD in Inclusive Dance and Autism (University of Bedfordshire). Her work focuses on creating accessible andempowering environments for neurodiverse individuals. Originally from Italy, Sara holds a Diploma for Dance Teachers and an MA in Choreography, as well as a first-class BA (Hons) and MA in Performance from London Contemporary DanceSchool (University of Kent). She has performed and choreographed for several European dance companies, with her choreographic works receiving international recognition and awards. Sara also teaches internationally. She is the artisticdirector of Junior Dance Company (Bari and Malta), Dance Master Class, and the inclusive project Dance For All. She lectures at the University of Malta in the Dance Studies and Disability Studies departments. Additionally, she is a boardmember and dance leader with Opening Doors Association Malta, promoting access to the arts for adults with intellectual disabilities.

Contact details:

Email: sara.accettura@um.edu.mt

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sara.accettura1/

Social media:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079289806203 (Dance For All Project)

Other sources:

Accettura, S. (2023) ‘L'incontro tra danza e autismo: un'indagine qualitativa presentata attraverso l'uso di vignette’ in P. Grassi and R. Zammit Bioethics and the paradox of appearance: fragility, dependence, disability in the various phasesof life. Rome: Armando Editore, pp.703-720.

The JD Dragon Disability Rights Podcast:

(https://open.spotify.com/episode/1S6uurALuEXCbVXHHnO34G?si=mwK7WKONStytfQlJQ2AE2w)

ResDance Series 8: Episode 9: Choreography, Questions and Relationality with Nic Conibere

In this episode, Nic shares insight into her choreographic processes and on the theoretical ideas, frameworks andenvironments that more widely inform her practice-based research. Alongside sharing her processes for creating work, Nic draws upon her own formative experiences and encounters with choreography.  Throughout the episode, we explore  ideas around the body and spaces of exchange and ways of being curious and seeking out where relationality can be found.  

Nicola Conibere is a choreographer and Programme Leader for the MFA Choreography at the University of Roehampton. Her work explores the politics of bodies, performance and the potentials of the choreographic.

Headshot photographer: Christa Holka.

Contact Details

Email: Nicola.conibre@roehampton.ac.uk

Website: www.nicolaconibere.com

Staff Profile Link: https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/nicola-conibere   

Published Resources

www.nicolaconibere.com

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research inaction.

Dancing Otherwise: Reflections on Pluriversal Practices with Victoria Hunter, Daniela Perazzo and Michelle Elliott

In this second episode of their Dance Research Matters Network, Vicky, Daniela and Michelle remind listeners of the focus of their network, which aimed to explore how practices created by artists from diverse backgrounds and artistic perspectives, produce new understandings, positionalities and new modes of knowing.  In this episode, they share insight into the network activities and how these have created new opportunities for dialogue around how we might thinkdifferently in our field. Through situating thinking in their own practices, they consider what being otherwise means to them and reflect upon the richness of what they have learnt from both the network and their approaches to pluriveral thinking.  They discuss future dissemination of the network activities, the wider value of transdisciplinary debate and remind listeners as to the value of dance in demonstrating others modes of being and doing.

Dancing Otherwise: Exploring Pluriversal Practices Network

The network emerged from the investigators’ interests in dance and politics and a curiosity about the potential for dance to explore, illustrate and provoke ways of relating and being ‘otherwise’.

Website: www.dancingotherwise.com

Instagram: @dancingotherwise

Contributor biography: Victoria Hunter

Vicky Hunter is a Practitioner-Researcher and Professor in Site Dance and formerly head of the MA Choreography and Professional Practices programme at the University ofChichester. She joined Bath Spa in October 2023 and leads the AHRC ‘Dancing Otherwise: Exploring Pluriversal Practices’ network and is a member of the Ecotones research project led by Professor Amanda Bayley.

Her research is transdisciplinary and includes site dance practice and theory, embodied research methods and post human feminism, eco-somatic awareness, environmentalchoreography, practice-research methods, dance and new materialisms.

Biography: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/vicky-hunter/

Contact: ⁠ v.hunter@bathspa.ac.uk

Contributor biography: Daniela Perazzo

Daniela is Senior Lecturer in Dance and PostgraduateResearch Coordinator for the School of Arts at Kingston University London. Her research interrogates the intersections of the aesthetic and the political in contemporary choreography, focusing on the ethical, po(i)etic and criticalpotentialities of experimental and collaborative practices. Her publications include articles in Performance Philosophy, Performance Research, Dance Research Journal, Choreographic Practices and Contemporary Theatre Review, and the monograph Jonathan Burrows: Towards a Minor Dance (Palgrave, 2019). Her latest researchengages with notions of vulnerability and discomfort and attends to the gaps, difficulties and entanglements of modes of being in relation. 

Biography: https://www.kingston.ac.uk/staff/profile/dr-daniela-perazzo-179/

Contact: D.Perazzo@kingston.ac.uk

Contributor biography: Michelle Elliott 

Michelle is the Subject Leader for Dance at Bath Spa University with research interests in a range of sociocultural issues, the ontology of creativity and embodied cognitive theories.  She has publications on critical approaches to dance analysis,dance and cultural identity politics and creativity research.  Michelle is the co-convenor of the Creative Practice and Embodied Knowledge Research Group, a collective that aims to celebrate and elevate knowledge that exists and emerges from our creative, embodied interactions and experiences.  

Biography: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/michelle-elliott/

Contact: M.Elliott@bathspa.ac.uk

AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks

The five AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks explore current issues and generate change and legacy for thesector.

For more information, please visit: danceresearchmatters.coventry.ac.uk

Instagram and Twitter: @danceresearchmatters

AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Network Series: Episode 4: Centring Dance in Research with Sarah Whatley

In this episode, Sarah reflects upon the role of the five AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks and their importance in generating change and legacy for the sector. Wediscuss the incentive for the Dance Research Matters campaign and consider ways in which dance research can be more visible in the UK. Throughout this episode, Sarah considers how dance can claim its space when linking with other disciplines and a need for dance to continue to voice the valuable contributionit makes to the wider research landscape.

Contributor Bibliography

Sarah Whatley is Director, Centre for Dance Research. Her research focuses on the interface between dance and new technologies, dance analysis, somatic dance practice andpedagogy, and inclusive dance. The AHRC, the Leverhulme Trust, Wellcome Trust and the European Union fund her current and previous research, which is broadly focused on the impact of digital technologies on tangible and intangible cultural heritage. She led the AHRC-funded Siobhan Davies digital archive project, RePlay, and has since partnered with a number of other leading artist organisations. She was founding Principal Editor of the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices (JDSP) and now sits on the Journal's Board as well as severalother Journals. Sarah was a panel member in REF 2014 (Panel D35) and in 2021 (Panel D33) and is a Strategic Reviewer and member of the AHRC Peer Review College. She is also an Evaluator for the European Commission.

Full biography: https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/persons/sarah-whatley

AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks

 The five AHRC-funded Dance Research Matters Networks explore current issues and generate change and legacy for thesector. The ecosystems created by the Networks traverse across South Asian dance, digital black dance, future producing dance ecologies, critical dance pedagogies, and pluriversal dance practices and will be mapped for reach and impact in and beyond the sector.

For more information, please visit: danceresearchmatters.coventry.ac.uk    

Instagram and Twitter: @danceresearchmatters

Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, andinterdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research inaction.

ResDance Series 8: Episode 8: The value of dance in Secondary Education with Jo-Hodson Prior

In the episode, Jo shares insight into her experiencesworking in education and teaching dance to young people from 11-18 in a Secondary school, and in her role as a PGCE Dance Subject Coordinator.  Through situating our conversation in ways of maintaining high quality dance provision, we discuss different ways of accessing dance, current dance and teaching practices and the transferable skills dance can offer both young people and the wider school community. Drawing upon her experiences as a practitioner and researcher, Jo shares insight into findings from her PhD research and her holistic teaching practice underpinned by theoretical discourse.  Jo further discusses the importance of developing positive wellbeing for young people through dance and giving young people a voice, highlighting the positive role reflective practice and encouraging them to create, explore and play, can provide. Throughout the episode, she advocates the importance of dance in schools and for the awareness of inclusive practices within dance.

Jo is currently the PGCE Dance Subject Coordinator and Professional Studies Tutor at the University of Chichester and has been working in education for the past 21 years, teachingdance to young people from 11-18 in a Secondary school, as well as teaching contemporary dance vocationally. Jo has continually advocated for the importance of the Arts In schools, with a specific focus on high quality dance and inclusive practice.  She is currently completing her PhD at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, focussing on the development of positive mental health and wellbeing in secondary age students, through a creative dance approach.

Contact Details:

Email: j.hodson-prior@chi.ac.uk

Related Publications:

OneDance Uk article for Education Edition

Hodson-Prior, J., (2019). University of Chichester & PGCE Dance. One Dance UK.

Available at:

https://www.onedanceuk.org/university-of-chichester-pgce-dance/?utm_source=One%20Dance%20UK&utm_campaign=452670b487-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_09_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f4ae144224-452670b487-144492377

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ResDance Series 8: Episode 7:ResDance Series 8: Episode 7: Queer:mess: Research enquiry into bringing the hidden, visible with Stuart Waters

In this episode, Stuart reflects upon his career as a dancer, maker, researcher, curator and more recently, mentor and coach. Situating our conversation around his experiences as an artist with hidden disabilities, we explore ideas around whatsafety in dance looks like; ways of languaging and sharing experience and how spaces he creates meet the things people don’t see. We explore experiences that have led to a place of practice-based research and autobiographical led inquiryin a variety of settings and how his recent mentoring and coaching work has informed both his own practice and supporting artists, more widely. In this thought-provoking episode, Stuart offers personal and honest reflections around shame, keeping disabilities hidden and the barriers to asking for support. Offering insight into ways of being openaround disability as a sector, he advocates for the importance of a sense of dance community and the value of being brave and always championing yourself.

As an alumnus of Northern School of Contemporary Dance(BA) and London Contemporary Dance School (MA) Stuart’s 26year career in the dance sector has been eclectic - performing and teaching in a wide range of educational and community settings nationally and internationally as well astouring with a range of companies and choreographers across different touring networks in the UK and overseas. Over the last decade, Stuart’s practice has shifted into maker, researcher, curator, facilitator, mentor and coach (EMCC Senior practitioner accreditation). Stuart’s practice is an evolving enquiryinto care. It is led by his lived experiences, intersectionality and his hidden disabilities as an access-led practice.

Stuart’s work includes ‘Rockbottom’ (2016-2019), a touring solo show approaching mental health and chemsex. This began Stuart’s ongoing enquiry into “safeguarding the dancer in the studio process, live performance and engagement”, beginning conversations with communities and audiences around the UK. 

Between 2021-2024, through partnerships, commissionsand collaborations with The Place, Wellcome Collection, FABRIC, Southeast Dance, PDSW, ACE, East Sussex Arts Partnership and The Brighton Festival, Stuart co-created ‘A Queer Collision’, a practice which evolved from an enquiryquestion into a touring show: how to embed access and audio description to lay the foundation for a queer, time-travelling show which told audio-described autobiographies. The show was also a deep look into care and inclusion forparticipants, audiences and teams. In the last 10 years, Stuart has also co-led and collaborated with a host of artists and partners to deliver ‘Head:ON Conversations’, a thread of Stuart’s work which looks at step-change within thedance and cultural sector. Stuart advocates for mental health and disability step-change in dance as an Unlimited and Clore ‘Inclusive Cultures’ alumnus and through his contributions as a trustee with Candoco Dance Company and STEPPS -a mental health charity for dancers.

Image credit: Joe Armitage.

Contact Details:

Email: stuartwaters90@googlemail.com

Social Media:

Instagram: @Stuart_waters

Linktr.ee/stuartwaters90

Websites:

https://stuartwaters.info/

stuartwaterscoaching.co.uk 

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ResDance Series 8: Episode 6: Dance: A Life Choice: A conversation with Dennie Wilson

In the episode, Dennie shares insight into her background and experiences as a Dance Artist, Educator and Researcher.  Through situating our conversation in how her lived experience continues to inform her dance teaching practice, Dennie shares insight into her research informed approaches to teaching, ways in which critical and embodied knowledge is passed on through teaching practice and pedagogical ideas around coaching, learning and teaching. Reflecting upon her current PhD research, Dennie reflects upon her own coachingapproach to her how she teaches; the role of the coach within vocational dance training and the skills she aims to equip her professional dancers with who look to transition fromperformer to teacher. Throughout the episode, Dennie advocates the wider value and power of dance and the need for a continued belief in what dance can offer.

Dennie is a Dance Artist, Educator and Researcher who was originally a professional dancer and then performance creator. With a driving interest in collaborative interdisciplinary practice, her career has taken her all over the world to workon projects with artists, composers, contemporary designers, jewellery makers, poets, and new media artists; using a range of mediums including film projection, stop motion animation and algorithmic choreography. She has collaborated on unique installation and theatre pieces in venues ranging fromthe Royal Albert Hall and the National Indoor Arena (Utilita) Birmingham to intimate studio spaces and art galleries.

This lived experience forms the cornerstone of her dance practice. Dennie taught contemporary dance for eight years, at Elmhurst Ballet School (6th form and graduate year), andwas a senior lecturer in Dance Practice and Performance at the University of Wolverhampton. She worked as a dance artist with the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s learning education and participation department (LEAP) for over two decades.Currently Dennie is a Programme Manager, and Lecturer in Dance Education or Professional Dancers in the Faculty of Education at the Royal Academy of Dance. She has responsibility for teacher training programmes for professional dancers looking to make the transition form professional performer to professional teacher. She also lectures on all RAD Faculty of Education programmes with a particular focus on dance technique and performance, choreography, leadinglearning and the holistic health and wellbeing of the dancer. Lastly, Dennie is also jugging the final year of a Professional Doctorate at University of Central Lancashire where her research interest is coaching practice and therole of the coach within vocational dance training and professional dance performance, to empower the dancer as independent decision-maker.

Contact Details:

 Email: dennie2@mac.com

Website: dna3d dance designdigital. https://www.dna3d.co.uk/

Website: The Blue Space Concept CoachingPractice https://bluespace.myfreesites.net/

Related publications and sources:

Building a case for coaching: informing an innovative, pedagogical approach to dancer development https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14647893.2022.2097656

Labours of Sports Coaching: When to coach, teach, or train, with Dennie Wilson

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3intt9nRsd2HqACv2Bvy0N?si=CuhZ-BtoTYW0ldpCurAYjg

On Time : Speed

https://ontimepodcastseries.podbean.com/

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ResDance Series 8: Episode 5: Dwelling in the interstice: Cross-disciplinary research as a mode of discovery with MaryKate Connolly

In the episode, Mary Kate shares insights from her experience as a writer and curator, and her particular interest in performance legacies and the material remains of performance. Situating our conversation around her recent monograph, In Smithereens: The Costume Remains of Lea Anderson’s Stage (Intellect, 2024), we discuss therole of costume in contemporary dance and explore hands-on practices as means of revealing what gets left behind in the wake of performance. In this episode, Mary Kate reflects on her preoccupation with the intersections between disparatefields of research and a willingness to embrace the role of the novice when inhabiting them.

Dr Mary Kate Connolly is a writer and curator based in London, UK. She is currently undertaking research in partnership with Victorian College of Arts, Melbourne. Mary Kate is Co-Editor (with artist David Caines) of COMPOST, a multidisciplinary arts zine.

Her monograph In Smithereens: The Costume Remains of Lea Anderson’s Stage (Intellect, 2024) is the culmination of a longstanding collaboration with choreographer LeaAnderson; many years spent experimenting in the costume archive, writing about the fabric remains of performance and curating exhibitions of costume artefacts. Mary Kate continues to be preoccupied with performance legacies (both material and immaterial). Looking to find alternative ways in which theycan be unfolded.

She has curated exhibitions and live events at studio 1.1, London, Barbican Pit Theatre, TACO! Gallery, and Anthony Wilkinson, Soho. Edited publications include Lea Anderson's The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs: 40 Years of Style and Design (2024), People Show: Nobody Knows butEverybody Remembers (2016) and Throwing the Body into the Fight: A Portrait of Raimund Hoghe (2013).

Mary Kate is former Programme Leader of the MA and MFA creative practice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She has performed at Prague Quadrennial, Brut Wien and as part of SPILL festival, UK.

Contact Details:

Email: marykate@compostartzine.com

Social Media:

@connolly.marykate

@compost_art_zine

Recent Publications and Related Links:

In Smithereens: The Costume Remains of Lea Anderson’sStage:

https://www.intellectbooks.com/in-smithereens

COMPOST Art Zine:

www.compostartzine.com

Lea Anderson’s The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs: 40 Years of Style and Design:

http://www.leaanderson.com/40th-anniversary-book

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ResDance Series 8: Episode 4: Thinking differently about training practices and the value of health care within dance with Steven McRae

In this episode, Steven reflects upon his experiences as a professional dancer and Principal of The Royal Ballet.  We position our conversation around the recently aired documentary “Steven McRae: Dancing Back to the Light”, which documents Steven’s journey with rehabilitation and return from injury. He reflects upon the revolutionary work of the Royal Ballet and a new sense of value he places on the role of scientific and embodied knowledge in underpinningand informing his practice.  Steven advocates the need for open dialogue and conversation around practices within dance and a greater accessibility of health provision within the sector.  Throughout the episode, he reflects upon the hope he holds for a greater sharing of experiences and the opportunity for a cultural shift in the training and workload practices of dancers.

Australian dancer Steven McRae is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. He joined The Royal Ballet School on a Prix de Lausanne scholarship in 2003. He graduated into The Royal Ballet in 2004 and was promoted to First Artist in 2005, Soloist in 2006,First Soloist in 2008 and Principal in 2009. McRae was born in Sydney and trained with Hilary Kaplan and at The Royal Ballet School. He won the 2002 Adeline Genée Gold Medal and the 2003 Prix de Lausanne. His roles with The Royal Ballet include all the classical repertory and leading roles in works by choreographers including Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, David Bintley, William Forsythe, Kenneth MacMillan, Alastair Marriott, Wayne McGregor, LiamScarlett and Christopher Wheeldon. His role creations include Magician/Mad Hatter (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), Jack (Sweet Violets), Sandman (Hansel and Gretel), Florizel (The Winter’s Tale), Emble (The Age of Anxiety), Creature (Frankenstein) and roles in Three Songs – Two Voices, Children of Adam, Chroma, Acis and Galatea (Royal Opera), 24 Preludes, The Human Seasons, Tetractys, Connectome, Woolf Works, Multiverse, The Illustrated Farewell, Yugen and concerto pour deux. 

McRae has performed as a guest artist with companies including American Ballet Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Australian Ballet, Tokyo Ballet and at numerous international galas. His awards include the 2006 Emerging Male Artist (Classical) and the 2011 Best Male Dancer awards at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. In 2014 he was named Young Australian Achiever in the UK by the Australia Day Foundation. 

https://www.rbo.org.uk/people/steven-mcrae

Photo Credit: ‘Ballet Nights’

Contact details:

Instagram @stevenmcrae

Other social media platforms:

@royalballetandopera@verdensballetten

@a_resilient_man.film

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ResDance Series 8: Episode 3: Exploring Dance as a Tool for Awareness and Wellbeing with Alice Marshall

In the episode, Alice shares insight into her experiences both as a professional dancer and choreographer and the work of her company - Adaire to Dance. Through exploring her choreographic identity, she offers insight into performative work and her drive for encouraging accessibility of the arts, presenting opportunities for all in dance. Alice reflects upon the role dance has as a tool for raising awareness ofexperiences and conversations that feel difficult to have, sharing her personal journey with baby loss and the role dance has played in her recovery. Throughout the episode, Alice highlights the need for open dialogue and conversation within dance and reminds listeners as to the wider value of dance.

Please note this episode contains dialogue around baby loss

Alice Marshall is a leading Dance professional in the Midlands area. After an extensive performance career with choreographers such as Paul Bloom, Katie Green and Cathy Seago, Alice went on to form Adaire to Dance – a professional performance company that demonstrates the diversity of Contemporary Dance. Her work with her own company concentrates on accessible dance and combining other art forms with the movement created. Often a collaboration with Illuminos is at the centre of her work. As Choreographer and performer within this company Alice also taught Dance toall ages in the community.

As a lecturer she has a keen interest in the development and upholding of the work of Dance Artists, and therefore strives to present them all with opportunities that her connectionsin the industry can provide. Alice's dance academic research has been recognised, and she has presented papers across the sector including ELIA and Advance HE. Her work has been published in the form of a book Entertainment in the Performing Arts by Routledge and is the start of her exploration into a new way of accessible writing for academia. Alice was awarded Derbyshire's Inspirational Woman of the Year Award in the Arts (IWA) in 2015,and was one of three shortlisted for One Dance UK’s Lecturer of the Year 2018.

https://alicevale.weebly.com/about.html  

Contact details:

Email: a.e.a.marshall@derby.ac.uk 

Instagram @aeamarshall

Linkedin: Alice Marshall (Vale) - SeniorLecturer - University of Derby | LinkedIn
Other social media platforms:

@adairetodance

@creativeparent

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ResDance Series 8: Episode 2: Giving Care: A conversation on dance, motherhood, and sustainability with Satu Hummasti and Shaun Boyle D’Arcy

Satu Hummasti and Shaun Boyle D’Arcy share insight into their individual careers and how their collaboration exploring ethics of care giving and care giving began. In the episode, they explore their ways of working and reflect upon their processes of making and collaborating. Through discussion of their sharedthinking and practices, we explore having accountability and responsibility for beings other than ourselves; gender parity; the role or policy in creating change and the value of collective dance making. Throughout the episode, Satu and Shaun highlight the importance of using dance to share livedexperiences and the hope that through open dialogue and conversation, family life can more readily be integrated into arts and dance spaces.

Satu Hummasti, originally from Helsinki, Finland, is a choreographer, dancer, educator, and writer who hasperformed, choreographed and taught throughout the United States, Europe, South and Central America, and Russia. Her work has been seen in Medellin, Colombia; Bordeaux, France; Edinburgh, Scotland (as a part of the 2007 Edinburgh FringeFestival); St. Petersburg, Russia (as a part of the Open Look Festival 2011), Helsinki, Finland, Oulu, Finland (as a part of the Arctic Steps Festival 2015), Kökar, Åland, and San Jose, Costa Rica; and nationally in New York, Boston, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Edinburgh, Texas, and Seattle. Her work has beencommissioned by Compañía de Cámara Danza UNA in San Jose, Costa Rica; Repertory Dance Theater in Salt Lake City; Kannon Dance Company in St. Petersburg, Russia; for graduate students at the University of the Arts in Helsinki, Finland; and for the graduating class of professional artists at the Keskuspuisto AmmattiOpisto TanssiPuoli, also in Helsinki, and SBDANCE Curbside Theater in Salt Lake City. In NYC she has shown dances at Dance New Amsterdam, Chashama, The Construction Company, Sal Anthony’s Movement Salon, and at The John Ryan Theater at White Wave, as a part of the d.u.m.b.o. and Cool New York Dance Festivals. She currently collaborates on community-based projects and dance theater projects with Daniel Clifton- her most recent project “Shore” was awarded an ÅlandIsland Guest Artist Residency in Åland, Sweden. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Dance at the University Utah.

Contact details:

Email: satu.hummasti@utah.edu 

Instagram: @satuhummasti

Shaun Boyle D’Arcy is a dance artist and educator who hadan extensive performing career, dancing in classical ballet and contemporary companies including BalletMet (USA) and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (USA). She danced in a broad spectrum of works by leading choreographers such asGeorge Balanchine, Edwaard Liang, Jodie Gates, Larry Keigwin, James Kudelka, David Dorfman, Alonzo King, David Nixon, Marius Petipa, Emily Molnar, and Benoit-Swan Pouffer. Shaun’s own choreography stems from this lineage, intertwining her roots in ballet and contemporary styles. Her work has beenpresented internationally at venues including the Joyce Soho Theater (USA), Ailey Citigroup Theater (USA), Bonnie Bird Theatre (UK), Robin Howard Theatre at The Place (UK), and the Kennedy Center (USA) amongst others. Shaun holdsdegrees from New York University (BFA), Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (MA), and George Mason University (MFA). She currently serves as a full-time faculty member in the School of Dance at George Mason University,located just outside of Washington D.C., and previously held academic appointments at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Utah. Additionally, Shaun continues to teach and choreograph as a guest artist at dance organizations in the United States and abroad.

Contact details:

Email: sboyleda@gmu.edu

Instagram: @tiny.dancer.shaun

Instagram: @gmu_schoolofdance

Website: Website

ResDance Series 8: Episode 1: The Unknown In Dance with Rhiannon Faith

In the episode, Rhiannon shares insight into her experiences and interests in dance, choreography and theatre and the role theatrical devising continues to play in her work. Throughout the episode, we explore the inspirations for her ways of making, the thinking that underpins her processes and how her creations serve a connection and relationship with an audience. We discuss consideration of the audience in her work and the curating around which audiences the work is trying to reach, where the work is most useful and ways to create a community of work through this.  Rhiannon shares the value she places on the role of legacy in making a change and the potential both her work and more generally, artistic practice, has to make a difference.  Throughout the episode, Rhiannon reflects upon her continued appreciation for her own personal background, who she is and how she responds to her support network around her.  The importance of following your instinct and trusting in the work you make is highlighted throughout, alongside the value of surrounding yourself with a team who share the same vision and are willing to embark on the journey with you.

Rhiannon Faith is a boundary-breaking Artist whose work and experiences cross artforms.  Brought up in a big Irish Catholic, working-class family, she is an exciting British female voice making waves in choreography, directing, social activism and as a published author. Artistic Director of Rhiannon FaithCompany, nominated for five National Dance Awards; ‘Best Digital Choreography’ (2021), ‘Best Dance Film’ (2022), and ‘Best Independent Company’ (2021, 2022 & 2023). Critically acclaimed work DROWNTOWN received 4STARS across the board, and recently toured to Wuzhen Festival, China. New work Lay Down Your Burdens, Co-Commissioned by Barbican,London and Harlow Playhouse, premiered at the Barbican in November 2023 and was shortlisted for a 2023 One Dance UK Award for ‘Innovation in Dance’ and nominated for a 2024 Olivier Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Dance’.

Photographer's credit: Foteini Christofilopoulou 

Contact details:

info@rhiannonfaith.comhttps://www.rhiannonfaith.com/Social media platforms:

X: @RhiannonFaithFacebook: @RhiannonFaithCoInstagram:  @rhiannonfaithcompany

Related links:

Rhiannon Faith Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrBJ9bj8Gg4tq9x-vArHfGQ

Harlow Care Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybfu4fpKEzU

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ResDance Series 7: Episode 11: Sharing Dance Science knowledge to empower young dancers with Kendall Baab

In this episode, Kendall shares insight into her background and experiences as a dance science educator and her interests in ways of enhancing performance and preventing injury through the creation of her business, Bodykinect.  Through a focus on education and training, we discuss her online presence in generating ways to create healthier training practices and in finding accessible and original ways of disseminating dance science knowledge. Throughout the episode, Kendall shares the value she places on the individual dancer through a holistic and consistent approach in the hope to continue empowering the young dancers.

Kendall is a personal trainer for dancers and dance science educator located in Los Angeles, CA. She grew up as a competitive studio dancer and Texas high school drill team member of the Southlake Carroll Emerald Belles Dance/Drill Team in Southlake, TX. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance Science from California State University Long Beach where she trained in ballet and modern dance, and a Master of Science degree in Dance Science from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK where she completed dance science research involving perfectionism and self-efficacy in online dance classes and trained in contemporary dance. Kendall is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and a BASI Certified Pilates Instructor with a dance specialization. She is also a Certified Health Coach through Dr. Sears' Wellness Institute. Kendall works with dancers all over the United States on strength, conditioning, and flexibility to enhance performance and prevent injury. Kendall is the CEO and owner of Body Kinect. Profile weblink: https://www.bodykinect.org/meet-the-team

Contact details:

 Email: hello@bodykinect.org

 Socail media links:

 Instagram: https://instagram.com/trainwithkendall

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@trainwithkendall

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@trainwithkendall

Other links:

Free Resources & Publications: https://www.bodykinect.org/freeresources

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ResDance Series 7: Episode 10: Thinking differently about the body in interdisciplinary research contexts with Susanne Foellmer

In this episode, Susanne shares insight into her background and experiences as a researcher in dance studies and her various interests positioned within contemporary dance, choreography and performance art. Through situating her ideas within her research practice, we explore perspectives for thinking differently about the body and the importance of understanding dance theory as a critical practice. Throughout the episode, Susanne highlights the need for greater visibility of the field of dance studies and continued open conversation in interdisciplinary research contexts.

Susanne Foellmer is full professor in dance studies at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, UK. Her research interests include aesthetic theory, corporeality, media, and materiality in contemporary dance and performance art and in the Weimar era. She also engages in interdisciplinary research with regards to choreography in an expanded sense, particularly exploring social movements’ interrelations of the onsite, embodied public sphere and its media reverberations online. From 2022-23 she has been Senior Fellow at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald.

Staff profile weblink: https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/persons/susanne-foellmer

Contact details:

 Email: susanne.foellmer@coventry.ac.uk

 Bluesky: @sufoellmer.bsky.social

Other links:

LinkedIn: Susanne Foellmer

Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University

Published resources of interest

Foellmer, S. (2024). Communal Choreographies: Claiming the Embodied Public Sphere in Recent Climate Activism. Critical Stages, 29. https://www.critical-stages.org/29/commmunal-choreographies-claiming-the-embodied-public-sphere-in-recent-climate-activism/

Foellmer, S. (2023). The Archival Turn in Dance/Studies. Reflections on (Corporeal) Archives and Documents. (Reprint) Theatralia: Journal of Theatre Studies, 25(2), 129-147.

Foellmer, S. (2020). Series and Relics: On the Presence of Remainders in Performance’s Museum. In S. Whatley, I. Racz, K. Paramana, & M.-L. Crawley (Eds.), Art and Dance in Dialogue: Body, Space, Object (1 ed., pp. 147-162). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44085-5_9

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ResDance Series 7: Episode 9: The Reciprocal Relationship between Research and Practice with Catherine Haber

In this episode, Catherine shares insight into her experiences as an educator and researcher and her interests in the intersection of functional and aesthetic components of dance performance. Through situating her ideas within her research practice, Catherine offers insight into methodological approaches for validating dance-specific measures and the value of working collaboratively across disciplines.  Throughout the episode, Catherine reflects on how an openness to dialogue and embracing new perspectives continue to inform her curiosity within the field.  

Catherine Haber, MSc, MAS, FHEA, is the Programme Leader of the MSc/MFA Dance Science Programme at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London, UK. Catherine teaches Motor Control, Biomechanics, and Research Methods across the BSc and MSc/MFA Dance Science Programmes, further supervising and supporting student research. Additionally, Catherine leads the Fitness Screening and Health Tracking Program for dancers within the institution. Catherine is also a guest lecturer on the MAS Dance Science Programme at the Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Switzerland. Within her doctoral research, Catherine is particularly interested in the intersection of functional and aesthetic components of dance performance. Her research thus aims to examine methodological approaches for validating dance-specific performance measures, and to evaluate the contributions of diverse perspectives and disciplines in furthering our understanding of dance performance. Through her research, Catherine has presented her work at numerous international conferences; such as the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, Performing Arts Medicine Association, and the International Society of Biomechanics. 

Contact details:

 Email: c.haber@trinitylaban.ac.uk

 Instagram: @catherine__haber

 Instagram: @trinitylaban_dancescience

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ResDance Series 7: Episode 8: Bodies, materiality and touch in multi-person VR: creating immersive performance with Lisa May Thomas

In this episode, Lisa May shares insight into her experiences as a dance artist and researcher and how these continue to inform her interests in embodiment, immersive performance and digital technologies.  Through situating her ideas in practice, Lisa May offers insight into the body as a site of research, the use of combining dance-somatic and improvisation practices and the value of finding stillness in life and movement.

Dr Lisa May Thomas is a dance artist and researcher, investigating the intersections of dance, embodiment, immersive performance and digital futures. Her PhD (2021, University of Bristol) investigated the role of immersive technologies in performance, combining dance-somatic and improvisation practices with multi-person VR technology. She is currently a Senior Research Associate at the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF) at the University of Bristol. She is a resident at the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol and Studio Wayne McGregor QuestLab Network Artist. She directed VR experience ‘Soma’ which launched at the Bloomsbury theatre (2021) as a participatory performance and has since been remodelled as a social experience and used as a method for exploring embodiment and the senses, materiality, presence and connectedness across real and virtual worlds with a range of under-represented communities including blind and visually impaired people (working with the CenSoF, University of Bath and Bristol Digital Futures Institute. Lisa teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students in dance and somatic practices, improvisation, immersive performance, and screendance as part of BA dance/theatre and MA immersive arts courses at the University of Bristol and as guest lecture at Bath Spa University. As artistic director for her company May Productions, she is continually developing her practice in performance and film-making, as well as mentoring, consultancy, and training.

Contact details:

Freelance email: lisamay.thomas@mac.com

Work email: lisamay.thomas@bristol.ac.uk

Lisa May Thomas on LinkedIn

Published sources of interest:

Please see the following for publications:

https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/lisa-may-thomas/publications/

Projects:

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/bristol-digital-futures-institute/research/seed-corn-funding/making-mixed-reality-experiences-accessible/

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/bristol-digital-futures-institute/research/seed-corn-funding/inclusive-digital-innovation-community/

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ResDance Series 7: Episode 7: EcoSomatics, kindness as methodology, and Skinner ReleasingTechnique with Polly Hudson.

In this episode, Polly shares insight into her experiences as a dancer, maker, researcher, teacher and gardener.  Through situating her thinking in her practice and life we explore notions of care, rest and kindness as ethical stances, and as vital components of an artistic methodology that places ecological consciousness at its core.

Polly Hudson is an artist-scholar working with performance & film, with ecology (gardening), & with writing. The unifying focus of Polly's work is embodiment: how do we inhabit our psycho-physical selves in ways that serve us best in any given situation? Her work in every area is characterised by the concept of inhabiting our inner and outer landscapes simultaneously.

Her background was in ballet and then in the youth dance movement in the UK. She was a student at London Contemporary Dance School in the late 1980’s, joining their fourth-year graduate company by invitation whilst still in her third year of study, and graduating with a distinction in contemporary dance. She studied Contact Improvisation and related Somatic Practices extensively before discovering Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT). She is a certified teacher of SRT, and her PhD examined SRT in relationship to creativity and choreographic practices. She has made performance and Screendance works that have been shown internationally to critical acclaim.

Fore-fronting process within artistic making, ethical embodied approaches to teaching & leadership, and somatics in dance, Polly’s work integrates approaches from SRT, EcoSomatics & Ecofeminism. Grounding the practice in a connection to the environment, specifically an urban allotment plot, there is a current focus on her working-class roots and women’s labour of the body and on the land. She is curator of the EcoSomatic Conversations Series.

Polly is a Reader in Dance, and Head of Movement at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University.

Photo credit: Ming de Nasty

Contact details:

Personal Email: polly.hudson@bcu.ac.uk

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/polly__hudson/

EcoSomatics Conversations Series: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3022557/3022558

Published sources of interest:

https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/acting/further-info/tutor-list/polly-hudson

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