ResDance

ResDance Series 11: Episode 2: Finding Home in The Body: Intuition, Belonging & Butoh Dance with Dominique Savitri Bonarjee
In this episode, Dominique shares her journey into Butohand reflects on how her heritage, travels, and lived experiences have shaped her creative practice. We explore the body as a site of memory and belonging, and how movement has become a way of finding an internal sense of home. Dominique discusses her intuitive, site-responsive approach to making work, revealing how she listens to and collaborates with the spaces she inhabits. She shares insights into her Collapse series, her interdisciplinary practice, and her interest in creating conditions where movement can emergethrough both doing and non-doing. We also talk about her recently published monograph, the role of collaboration, the relationship between body, space, and audience, and the value of working with uncertainty. It's a thoughtfulconversation about embodiment, creativity, and the transformative potential of movement.
Biography
Dominique Savitri Bonarjee is an Indian-French artist, dancer, and researcher working across choreography, sound, electronic instruments, and visual art. For her, dance is a"rebellion of the body" and a practice of "(more-than-) humanrehabilitation." Drawing on postwar Butoh, ritual practices, and contemplative traditions, her work explores the body as a site of continual transformation amid ecological, technological, and social change. Her monograph Butoh, as Heard by a Dancer (Routledge, 2024) documents encounters with seminal Japanese performance artists, while herdoctoral project Space of the Nameless (Goldsmiths, 2024)developed an embodied research methodology transmitted through artistic scores for exploring nondual attention in creative practice.
Alongside performances and pedagogical projects, Dominique creates site-responsive installations and participatory works presented in galleries, festivals, and research contexts internationally. Her decade-long performance action COLLAPSE is a poetic choreography of exhaustion and rest in the context of acceleration, burnout, and polycrisis, while her ongoing project Butoh Mutations reimagines Butoh's radical postwar legacy for contemporary bodies and conditions. Dominique’s enduring fascination with intuition and the transformative potential of the unknown is deeply informed by Taoist martial arts practices and Sufi dance.
 Contact details
 Website: Spaceofthenameless.art 
Website: Butoh.co.uk
Social Media
@spaceofthenameless
@butoh_mutations  
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominique-savitri-bonarjee/
Resources of interest
https://www.routledge.com/Butoh-as-Heard-by-a-Dancer/Bonarjee/p/book/9780367631192#
Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 11: Episode 1: Artist-led co-commissioning for dance and heritage with Katie Green
In this episode, Katie shares her experience as a choreographer creating dance, music and storytelling projects across museums, heritage sites, libraries, galleries and other unique spaces. We explore the developing Imagination Museum network, which supports artists and communities to connect through the stories held within heritage spaces. Katie reflects on the importance of collaboration, care and supporting artists, as well as therole dance can play in building belonging, empathy and connection. She discusses the growing recognition of dance and heritage work, the need for greater visibility and advocacy, and encourages listeners to explore the placesaround them and discover the stories waiting to be uncovered.
Katie Green is a choreographer specialising in working with dance, music and story-telling in museums, heritage sites, libraries, galleries and other extraordinary spaces. As well asdirecting her company, Made By Katie Green, she manages the developing Imagination Museum dance/heritagenetwork and works extensively in primary schools developing curriculum-linked programmes that engage young people and transform their experience through the arts. All of herprojects are developed collaboratively with a broad range of partners -particularly those who may not have worked with dance before. Through those projects she aims to build a stronger sense of belonging and courage within communities, providing connection with the environment and the world around us, celebrating every part of who we are, and shifting mindsets about what dancecan do.
Contact details
 
Email: katie@madebykatiegreen.co.uk
Website: www.madebykatiegreen.co.uk 
Social Media
@madebykg (Insta)
@madebykatiegreen (FB)
@imaginationmuseum (Insta)
@TheImaginationMuseum (FB)
Resources of interest
Case Studies and Resources from The ImaginationMuseum dance/heritage network: www.imaginationmuseum.co.uk
Article about the co-commission process from TheImagination Museum:
https://imaginationmuseum.co.uk/getting-started-with-co-commissioning/
Essential Read about getting started with dance inmuseums here: - https://imaginationmuseum.co.uk/resource/first-steps-for-working-with-dance-in-museums-and-heritage-sites/

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

ResDance Series 10: Episode 11: Between Borders andBodies with Sivan Rubinstein
In this episode, Sivan reflects on her practice as anartist-researcher and the role of collaboration with academics, practitioners, and researchers in shaping her work. She explores how her choreographic practice engages with ideas larger than the self, using movement to investigatebelonging, identity, and what it means to feel at home.
Together, we discuss the creative process behind Novo,a work shaped by questions of embodiment, home, and transformation. We explore how dance can act as a tool for research and reflection, as well as creating during motherhood and the importance of holding space for both performers and audiences. Sivan also reflects on the influence of visual arts and interdisciplinary practice, the relationship between ideas and making, and how audiences are invited into a journey of reflection and connection. This episodeinvites listeners to consider where and how we find home—in our bodies, our communities, and the spaces we create together.
Biography
Sivan Rubinstein is a London-based choreographer,director, researcher, and movement director whose interdisciplinary practice combines dance, visual arts, and academic research. Her work explores migration, belonging, climate futures, and embodied activism through highlyvisual performances, installations, and collaborative projects. A Work Place Artist at The Place, Artist in Residence at the University of Cambridge, and Associate Artist at Pavilion Dance, she has presented work nationally andinternationally. As a neurodiverse artist, she is developing Beat Space Beat, an evolving methodology that explores creative practice and learning through a neurodivergent lens.
Biography Link
Photo credit: Nefeli Kentoni 
Contact details
Email: junemoonarts@gmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sivan.rubinstein/
Other Social Media
Website: https://www.sivanrubinstein.com
Vimeo : https://vimeo.com/sivanrubinstein
Relevant Resources:
Link for videos
Credit : Film by Upright Fools
DOP Kaasam Aziz
Commissioned by The Place 
Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 10: Episode 10: Experiences and Reflections on South Asian Dance for Autistic Children: A Research Collaboration with Akademi 
This episode explores a collaborative research projectbringing together researchers, South Asian dance artists, educators, and families to investigate the emerging field of South Asian dance and autism. Following an introduction from Subathra (Artistic Director and Joint-CEO) on the work of Akademi, we situate the conversation within the project itself. Ashley and Claire reflect on its planning, delivery, and documentation, exploring how the experiences ofparticipants, families, and practitioners were captured throughout the research process. The episode explores how movement, rhythm, storytelling, and embodiedcommunication within South Asian dance can support autistic children’s engagement, learning, self-expression, and connection. Reflecting on their experiences of the project, Ashley and Claire highlight the value of combiningevidence-based research with the creative expertise of dance practitioners, emphasising a co-created, child-centred approach that places young people’s needs at the heart of the work.
Akademi
Website:https://www.akademi.co.uk/ 
Instagram: @akademidance
Resources:
https://www.akademi.co.uk/akademi-resources/send-digital-resources/ 
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41287245/ 
Biography: Ashley Brain
Ashley holds a BA (hons) degree in Dance with a major in Ballet from the University of Calgary, Canada, an MSc in Dance Science from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music andDance, and a PhD from University of Roehampton. She continues to teach at Roehampton and Pilates conditioning for dancers at London Contemporary Dance School in the UK. Her teaching in higher education has focused primarily onballet and topics under the dance science umbrella including anatomy, biomechanics, conditioning, psychology and somatic education. Ashley has presented her research at a variety of international conferences, and she continues to publish research in the area and is interested in developing new methodologies and approaches to research in the dance for health sector.
www.ashbraindanceandhealth.com 
Contact details:
Email: ashbrain1@gmail.com
Linked In: Dr Ashley Brain (nee McGill)
Instagram: ash_brain1 
Biography: Claire Farmer
Claire Farmer is a dance educator and researcher with 15+ years’ experience in the performing arts. Her work bringstogether anatomy, dance science, somatic practice, community engagement, strength and conditioning, female health and dance for health. She has taught and collaborated with leading organisations across the UK, including All orNothing Aerial Dance Theatre, Gravity & Levity, London Studio Centre, Pagrav Dance Company, Sujata Banerjee Dance Company, Akademi, DanceEast CAT and The Circus Doc. Claire is co‑editor of The ‘Female’ Dancer, co‑host of itsaccompanying podcast, and a regular contributor to journals, magazines and sector publications. She also chairs the Strength and Conditioning Special Interest Group for the International Association for Dance Medicine andScience.
Contact details:
Website: Instagram: www.clairefarmer.co.uk
Instagram: @dancesci_claire
Email claire@clairefarmer.co.uk
Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.

ResDance Series 10: Episode 9: Moving Beyond the Studio: Improvisation, Storytelling and the Practice of Being Human with Helen Kindred
In this episode, Helen shares insights from her experiences across a range of dance practices, with a particular focus onimprovisation as both a performance practice and a life skill. Drawing on the ways her artistic and teaching practices are informed by Bartenieff Fundamentals, Helen reflects on how movement has been a source of both physical and emotional safety throughout her life. She speaks about the value of slowing down, doing less, and creating space for imagination, play, and discovery. We also discuss how her approach to movement fosters a more sensory relationship with the body—one rooted in awareness, connection, and the wider role movement plays in everyday life. Throughout the conversation, Helen reflects on how movement can deepen our relationship with ourselves and others.
Biography
Helen is a dance-artist and scholar whose work over the past 30yrs has moved in layers of, community engagement, choreographic practice-as-research, and pedagogies of dance, and somatic practices. Helen’s teaching philosophy centres on relational and inclusive ways of being in theworld. Helen’s research practice builds on her long-standing practice of Bartenieff Fundamentals; using LBMS as a framework for engaging with people and places, nurturing environments of imaginative explorations and play throughimprovisation. Publications include ‘In-the-Between-ness: Decolonising and re-inhabiting our dancing’, co-authored chapter with Dr Adesola Akinleye in Narratives in Black British Dance Embodied Perspectives (Akinleye, A. (ed. 2018), ‘Improvisation and Change’ article in Animated (Summer2020), ‘Moving Meditations: embodying Bartenieff Fundamentals through sensorial awareness of breath, bones, and gravity’, Journal of Dance, Movement andSpiritualities (2022). The ‘Female’ Dancer: a soma-scientific approach (Eds with Claire Farmer, 2024), Dancing Place: scores of the city, scores of the shore, co-authored with Dr Adesola Akinleye (2026). Helen is Director ofStudies at Northern School of Contemporary Dance https://www.nscd.ac.uk, co-Artistic Director of DancingStrong Movement Lab https://dancingstrongmovementlab.com and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Dance, Movement and Spiritualities https://www.intellectbooks.com/dance-movement-spiritualities.
Contact details/Social media channels
Email: Helen.kindred@nscd.ac.uk
Social Media: Facebook: HelenKindred / Instagram: @helenkindred
Other social media handles
@northern_school
@dancingstrong_movementlab
Other links of relevance
https://dancingstrongmovementlab.com, https://www.nscd.ac.uk  
https://www.intellectbooks.com/dancing-place 
https://www.routledge.com/The-Female-Dancer-a-soma-scientific-approach/Farmer-Kindred/p/book/9781032466897
Please share this episode with students, educators, practitioners, performers, and interdisciplinary researchers curious to learn more about dance research in action.