ResDance

ResDance Series 11: Episode 7: The Space Between: Reflections on Creativity and Movement with Elle Dillon- ReamsIn 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.BiographyBIO 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 detailsInstagram: @lauharveytodd / @englishnationalballetLinkedIn: @elledillonreams Website www.elledillonreams.com Other relevant linkswww.elledillonreams.com/honeybeeplaywww.elledillonreams.com/meathttps://elledillonreams.bigcartel.com/product/maladaptivePlease 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 ProgrammeIn 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/madancepca⁠MA 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 GelleyPhoto credit: Maxine TamotoFor 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 YoungIn 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 BarberRuth 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 YoungJo 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 AtkinsonContact details Email: [email protected] Instagram: rebeccajstancliffeLinked In: www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-stancliffe-phd-38609a4aOther social media handles Instagram: @thelanguageofpainartsInstagram: @trinitylabanBlog: https://medium.com/@thelanguageofpain2025Resources 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 KedharIn 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 KedharAnusha 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: [email protected]  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: [email protected] 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: [email protected] Dance Research Matters NetworksFor more information, please visit:⁠danceresearchmatters.coventry.ac.uk⁠Instagram 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.BiographyNatalie 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 detailsEmail: [email protected]: www.reflectiontoaction.co.uk/about-2-1Social MediaInsta: @_nataliemoves_Resources of interesthttps://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-ihttps://www.campaignforthearts.org/the-state-of-the-arts-one-year-on/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThere%20is%20a%20very%20real,Service%20year%2Don%2DyearPlease 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 BonarjeeIn 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.BiographyDominique 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.ukSocial Media@spaceofthenameless@butoh_mutations  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominique-savitri-bonarjee/Resources of interesthttps://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: [email protected]: www.madebykatiegreen.co.uk Social Media@madebykg (Insta)@madebykatiegreen (FB)@imaginationmuseum (Insta)@TheImaginationMuseum (FB)Resources of interestCase Studies and Resources from The ImaginationMuseum dance/heritage network: www.imaginationmuseum.co.ukArticle 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 RubinsteinIn 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.BiographySivan 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 LinkPhoto credit: Nefeli Kentoni Contact detailsEmail: [email protected]: https://www.instagram.com/sivan.rubinstein/Other Social MediaWebsite: https://www.sivanrubinstein.comVimeo : https://vimeo.com/sivanrubinsteinRelevant Resources: Link for videosCredit : Film by Upright FoolsDOP Kaasam AzizCommissioned 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.AkademiWebsite: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 BrainAshley 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: [email protected] In: Dr Ashley Brain (nee McGill)Instagram: ash_brain1 Biography: Claire FarmerClaire 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.ukInstagram: @dancesci_claire Email [email protected] share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.