ResDance

ResDance Series 6: Episode 9: Advocating and celebrating dance research with Louisa Petts

Louisa joins ResDance for a second episode and shares insight into her PhD research through discussing her research processes and considerations. Through reflecting on her research experiences, we explore ideas around the continued need for advocacy in research, the value of person centeredness in dance practice and the importance of imploring researchers to question the decisions they make and to explore ways of facilitating research and teaching practice. Sharing honest reflections on her PhD journey thus far, Louisa explores her identity and positionality as a researcher and her ongoing experience of importantly finding the confidence to staking a claim as a dance researcher.

Louisa is a postgraduate researcher at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University. Her PhD thesis is titled, ‘All dance is legitimate: an advocation and celebration of person-centred older adult dance practice’. She is the recipient of the Arts and Humanities Research Council studentship award, offered by Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. Her research interests broadly concern person-centred dance practices, that work to empower and include disadvantaged and marginalised communities. She has worked as a community dance artist for people living with dementia and Parkinson’s. She lives with mild/moderate hearing loss and is currently learning British Sign Language (BSL). In 2019, Louisa graduated with a Distinction in MSc Dance Science from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and with First Class Honours in BA Dance Studies from the University of Roehampton in 2018. She currently works as a lecturer at bbodance, and as editorial manager for the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices.

Contact details:

Instagram: lou_petts

Link to any published resources:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/louisa-petts-1702

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