About

I have a particular interest in the function of dance as a route to the prevention, management and treatment of conditions affecting physical, and mental health and wellbeing. 

As such my research unpacks the ways that dance is beneficial during times of uncertainty or ill health. To date, this has been explored through a range of transitional experiences such as birth trauma, ageing, young onset dementia, military-to-civilian transition, and the impact of the climate crisis. 

This work focuses on how somatic movement practices, environmentally responsive movement and ecological perspectives offer routes to [re]connection for those who experience a growing sense of detachment from their bodies and the rest of the world. 

As a dance artist with over 20 years of experience in participatory arts, arts for health and professional performance practice, my work brings together, eco-somatic movement, improvisation and interdisciplinary collaboration combining dance, poetics, film and visual arts. Embedded in this inquiry is the desire to examine how creative interactions with nature support [re]connection, [re]enchantment and orient us in the world. 

Current postgraduate research students: 

• Sara Rose who is conducting an investigation into the value and contribution of Dance Movement Psychotherapy in the co-construction of positive meaning in family narratives after brain injury (Director of Studies)
• Deb Rogers who has been awarded a studentship to explore the ethical working relationship between animal artist and human-animal artist in The Menopausal Ani-MaLady: Exploring Animal Ethics in Multi-species Artistic Research (First Supervisor)

Postgraduate research student completions:

• Emily-Rose Cluderay who's research, Moving through motherhood: co-designing dance for maternal wellbeing, investigates the effects of a co-designed dance intervention for new mothers

Current research:

The AHRC funded Creative Dementia Research Group is a collaborative longitudinal case study testing a newly developed creative arts approach for people with younger onset dementia living in the community.  The work adapts elements of Neuro-Dramatic-Play (a play based therapeutic approach originated by Professor Sue Jennings) and explores the benefits of this to strengthen communication, attachment and relationships for people with young onset dementia and those closest to them. This work brings together the University of Derby, University of Northampton, Dementia UK's Young Dementia Network and people living with dementia in the co-production of this study.

Uncommon Ground is a long-term collaborative endeavour between a dancer (Gemma Collard-Stokes), poet (Scott Thurston) and visual artist (Sabine Kussmaul) that explores a multi-disciplinary approach to building relationship with land, with one another's practice and with the rhythms of nature and narrative that exist within the outdoor pastures of Bakestonedale Moor in the Peak District. 

Project Roam is a comparative study that explores the experiences of children and young people from inner city and rural communities participating in a series of outdoor, nature inspired, creative dance workshops called ‘Roam’. This ongoing work involves Ella&Co Dance Company and several primary schools in the South of England.

Performing Us has evolved in partnership with Buxton Opera House and uses creative journalling as a means to explore the experiences of young people from rural communities who participate in a programme of performing arts training.

I am also leading a study with The Level Centre, a contemporary arts centre based in rural Derbyshire. Together we are interested in the experiences, practices and professional development of artists creatively co-producing visual, performative or digital contemporary work that may be for, by or with learning disabled people, by a disabled creative or by an artist who considers how their work can be accessible for the wider community.

I also work alongside Dr Jamie Bird on an evolving project known as Imagination and Belonging in a Changing Climate. Together we are interested in how individuals and communities relate to the other-than-human, and how they respond and adapt to changes in the climate and the environment. Our work combines facilitating careful and attentive engagement with natural spaces and using arts-based methods to express and explore responses to those spaces.

Teaching responsibilities

I teach across all modules of the undergraduate Creative Expressive Arts Health and Wellbeing degree. 

Professional interests

I have an interest in creative processes that aim to lay bare the inner workings of collaborative processes and evolving strategies for co-creation.

I have a longstanding enquiry into the ways dance and writing can enhance, co-exist, form and inform one another. My collaboration with poet and dancer Scott Thurston has been essential to the reimagining of my moving-writing practice.

Research interests

• Dance
• Eco-somatic movement
• Body ecology
• Creative writing
• Expressive therapeutic practices
• Non-stylized experiential movement practices
• Dance history and the development of post 1960s British New Dance
• Dance and community practice
• Dance and disability
• Contemporary performance practices
• Collaborative processes
• Feminist phenomenology
• Mental health and Wellbeing
• Civic engagement and mental health

Qualifications

Doctorate - PhD 2017. University of Wolverhampton.

Thesis: Dissolving Borders: the integration of writing into a movement practice.

Masters - MA Dance Making and Performance 2011. Coventry University.

Dissertation Project: Poetry in Motion: a common language amid words and experience. 

Undergraduate - BA (Hons) Dance and Professional Practice 2010. Coventry University.

Dissertation: Finding Common Ground through Language and Movement:  examining the role of the writer in Rosemary Lee’s The Suchness of Heni and Eddie.

Recent conferences

Collard-Stokes, G., Thurston, S., & Kussmaul, S. (2022) Uncommon Ground. Harnessing our Potential: Interdisciplinary Research in the Creative and Cultural Industries symposium 20 September 2022.

Collard-Stokes, G., Thurston, S., & Kussmaul, S. (2022) Uncommon Ground. Sentient Performativities: thinking alongside the human. Dartington Hall 26-29 June 2022.

Collard-Stokes, G. & Cluderay, E. R. (2020) Moving Through Motherhood. Birth Trauma 5th annual Conference Conway Hall London. 22 January 2020.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2019) Neo-burlesque and the Ageing Performer: 'true' liberation or 'superficial' empowerment? The Arts and Society 2019 conference: Arts as Communication: THe impact of art as a catalyst for social change, Lisbon. Planned or June 2019.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2018) Birth Trauma and Dance: Towards the formulation of a movement based support programme for navigating parental distress following premature birth. LEAP Festival 2018 conference: Our Dance Democracy, Liverpool Hope University. 2 November 2018.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2018) Premature Birth and the Arts. Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth's 2018 conference, University of Oxford. 18-21 September 2018.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2018) A Little Time: the function of writing in a movement practice. A paper presentation at the Slowing and Stilling: foregrounding process in performance practice Conference, Birmingham City University. 11 June 2018.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2018) Embodied Writing: channelling a narrative of self through a moving body. A paper presentation at the Embodied Practice and Performance in the Arts Conference, Canterbury Christ Church University. 6 April 2018.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2013) Moving and Writing: a body story. A paper presentation at the Dance and Somatic Practices Conference, Coventry University. 14 July 2013.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2012) Dancing Narratives: moving towards a dance writing ecology. A paper presentation at the Research Student Conference, University of Wolverhampton. 14 May 2012.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2011) Writing Practice, Practicing Writing. A lecture-demonstration at the Dance Transformations Symposium, C-DARE. 19 October 2011.

In the media

• DANCING IN POTT SHRIGLEY
• DANCING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE 
• HOW DANCE CAN HELP WOMEN COUNTER THE EXPERIENCE OF INVISIBILITY DUE TO AGEING
•  WHAT CAN DANCE TEACH US ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE?
•  A CRISIS OF TOUCH: EAST MIDLANDS CHWA GATHERINGS, JULY 2020
•  DANCING WITH WORDS
•  MOVEMENT UTTERED
•  CRACKPOT

Recent publications

Most recent publications:

• Bird, J., Bird, L. and Collard-Stokes, G. (2023) Social Action Art Therapy and the Enhancement of Political Imagination. Journal of Applied Arts and Health: Innovation in the Arts in Therapy: A special edition 14.1 (Forthcoming publication).

• Collard-Stokes, G. and Irons, J. Y. (2021) Artist Wellbeing: exploring the experiences of dance artists delivering community health and wellbeing initiatives. Research in Dance Education, DOI: 10.1080/14647893.2021.1993176

• Collard-Stokes, G. (2020). 'Creative critical representation of the choreographer’s creation process'. Review of Jonathan Burrows: Towards A Minor Dance by Daniela Perazzo Domm. Dance Chronicle, 43(3), pp. 343-349.

• Collard-Stokes, G. (2020). 'Recreational burlesque and the aging female body: challenging perceptions'. Journal of Women & Aging, pp. 1-16. 

• Astell-Burt, Caroline McNally, Theresa Collard-Stokes, Gemma Irons, J. Yoon. (2020). '‘Withness’: Creative spectating for residents living with advanced dementia in care homes'. Journal of Applied Arts and Health, 11(1-2), pp. 125-133.
• Collard-Stokes, G. Expressing suchness: On the integration of writing into a dance practice. Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices. 2019, 11(1): 115–28.