Event leaders Emily Davis, Daniel P. Jones, and Gabriela Minden write…
On 28 April 2026, Moving Bodies Lab researchers Emily Davis, Daniel P. Jones, and Gabriela Minden co-led Dancing Across Disciplines, a sector-wide event exploring the role of dance across research and practice, with a focus on health, education, and community contexts.
This one-day, in-person event brought together researchers and practitioners working with and around dance from a range of disciplinary and professional backgrounds. Across the day, contributors showcased emerging directions for dance-based collaboration and considered how dance can function as a method, practice, tool, and mode of engagement across disciplines.
The event was structured around three thematic sessions. The first, Dancing in Text, featured Gabriela Minden (Durham University) and Megan Girdwood (University of Edinburgh), who explored the role of dance and the body in thinking through poetry, fiction, medical narratives, and anti-fascist performance.
The second session, Dancing Through Space, considered the role of environment, space, and time in dance research and practice. Led by Daniel P. Jones (Durham University) and Ellen Jeffrey (Dance City), the session drew on performance-research practice and findings from recent projects. This pairing highlighted the role of space, place, and time in understanding moving bodies.
The final session, Dancing in Communities, brought together Emily Davis (Durham University), Lewis Hou (Science Ceilidh), and Matthew Reason (York St John University) to discuss the power of dance and its role in promoting more equitable, democratic knowledge making and, in turn, supporting epistemic justice, including in health and other research, education, and community-based contexts.
The day opened up multiple routes for future collaboration across institutions, sectors, and disciplines, while highlighting the diverse ways dance is being used in academic and community contexts. The event concluded by putting the day’s discussions into practice, i.e., into dance, with a participatory ceilidh facilitated by Lewis Hou.
On behalf of the organising team, we would like to thank everyone who contributed to the event, whether by presenting, participating, or attending. We are also very appreciative of the support provided by the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities, particularly the Institute for Medical Humanities Events team.
