ResDance

Dr. Gemma Harman
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Performing Arts

A podcast dedicated to research in dance practice, intended for educators, students, practitioners and performers and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action. Series 1 - 10 of ResDance are now live! podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/resdance Social media platforms - follow ResDance: Instagram: @resdancepodcast Facebook: facebook.com/resdancepodcast

  1. 11h ago

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

    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

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

  2. Jul 24

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

    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 3: Dancing Together: The Transformative Power of Community Dance with Natalie How

  3. Jul 17

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

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

  4. Jul 10

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

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

  5. Jun 19

    ResDance Series 10: Episode 11: Between Borders and Bodies with Sivan Rubinstein

    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 11: Between Borders and Bodies with Sivan Rubinstein

  6. Jun 12

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

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

  7. Jun 5

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

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

  8. May 1

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

    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 8: Co-production in participatory arts and dementia research with Olivia Turner and Katey Warran
See All (122)

About

A podcast dedicated to research in dance practice, intended for educators, students, practitioners and performers and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action. Series 1 - 10 of ResDance are now live! podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/resdance Social media platforms - follow ResDance: Instagram: @resdancepodcast Facebook: facebook.com/resdancepodcast

Information

  • Creator
    Dr. Gemma Harman
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    122
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Dr. Gemma Harman
  • Show Website
    ResDance