ResDance

ResDance Series 11: Episode 7: The Space Between: Reflections on Creativity and Movement with Elle Dillon- Reams

In this episode, Elle talks about finding freedom in the spaces between dance, acting, writing and movement. She shares insight int her unconventional journey into contemporary dance and how her practice has evolved into a way ofexploring the body, storytelling and ideas that can be difficult to put into words. We discuss creative process, the pressures and expectations placed on the body, and Elle’s interest in making work around taboo subjects and the questions we often avoid. From “showing, not telling” to embracing uncertainty, this is a conversation about the power of art to connect, challenge and make us see things differently. A thought-provoking conversation about creativity, movement and what happens when we give ourselves permission to explore beyond the expected.

Biography

BIO Elle Dillon-Reams is a neurodivergent, queer, multi-disciplinary artist, originally from Brighton. Alongside Yoga, Pilates and Barre teaching, Elle is a multi-award winner of Poetry Slams across the UK, alumni of the inaugural New Writing South Playwrights collective, and her debut poetry collection Maladaptive was published by Verve Poetry Press. Elle's poem BUOY was recently long listed for theprestigious Forward Poetry Prize for best performed poem 2026. Elle was selected by Craig Charles and BBC6 Music as part of the Poetry class of 2023, she has since had several commissions from the BBC, and has performed her writing at festivals including Glastonbury, Latitude, LedburyLiterary Festival, and The Edinburgh International Festival. Elle's show MEAT was shortlisted for both The Cabaret awardand the International Touring award for Brighton Fringe 2026, and won the Most Outstanding Dance Production Award from South East Dance.

Elle's debut show HoneyBEE won both The Three WeeksEditors award and Best Newcomer from The Scotsman, she took both HoneyBEE and her second solo show MEAT to Edinburgh in 2023, and in 2025/26 toured both shows across the UK receiving five star reviews, sellouts, and an OffieNomination. Elle is currently developing her next show BUOY with Brighton Dome and PlayOn Theatre, and will be making her west end debut this Xmas show yet to be publicly announced!

Contact details

Instagram: @lauharveytodd / @englishnationalballet

LinkedIn: @elledillonreams

Website www.elledillonreams.com

Other relevant links

www.elledillonreams.com/honeybeeplay
www.elledillonreams.com/meat
https://elledillonreams.bigcartel.com/product/maladaptive

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 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: http://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/

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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: http://www.clairefarmer.co.uk

Instagram: @dancesci_claire

Email claire@clairefarmer.co.uk

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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 aNational 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)

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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

http://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

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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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