Future Bodies: Dancing Towards Repair

An international online symposium from MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism

Artwork by Moe Nakagawa (2026)

About Future Bodies: Dancing Towards Repair

The symposium is currently live: Join Here

Welcome to the digital symposium of MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism

Launched three years ago, the MA enables a global learning exchange between a community of dance artists working towards social justice and change in their local contexts.

Our second Future Bodies symposium centres our second graduating cohort who present their research projects. The third cohort of students share creative documentations of their international collaborations working with dance across borders in the digital space. The Curatorial Team, who lead the course, host the event while our keynote listeners, invited academics with related research interests, practice a deep engagement with the student presentations in order to weave the strands of each project together from their own position.

The learning community is based in many different countries and thus the symposium seeks to create encounter across time zones – making the impossible, possible. From preventing burn out in activist practices in the UK, to feminist cartographies in Chile, to diasporic dances in Canada and the Caribbean, the diversity of praxis is celebrated in this event. Come join us for an hour, or persist with us over thirteen, as we move towards repair…

When so many systems are broken, what does it mean to repair or to 're-pair'? Repair is also about noticing and undoing the deeper habits we carry, especially those shaped by dominance or control… How can we mend without just papering over the cracks and can we use dance to move towards our desires for a better world?

— The learning community of MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism

Research presentations at a glance

TimePresentation
09:10-09:40State Subject; Dance Object by Avni Sethi (India)
09:40-10:10Birdsong Dancing: A Chorus of Voices by Eve Dent (England)
10:30-11:00The Uracha Project: Dancing to Pull Each Other Together by Sujeong Seok (South Korea)
11:00-11:30Rocking it! Adventures in Embodied Matrescence by Becca Townsley (England)
13:10-13:40Pleasure Gardens by Iona Hannagan Lewis (Cymru)
13:40-14:10Remaining Otherwise by Manal Tass (Morocco/Germany)
14:10-14:40Resourcing Resistance by Rhiannon Colvin (England)
16:25-16:55Women Cartography by Fernanda González (Chile)
16:55-17:25Disobedient Bodies by Sádé Budhlall (Trinidad and Tobago)
17:25-17:55Dancing the Conversation by Silva Laukkanen (USA/Finland)
18:55-19:25Derecho de Permanecer by Melissa Gmuer de Mora (USA)
19:25-19:55BODY, ARCHIVE, MEMORY by Hugo Peña (Chile/Germany)
20:15-20:45No Slowing by Bronwen Wilson Rashad (Cymru/England)
20:45-21:15Welcome Back by Lisa Mariko Gelley (Canada)

Full Programme

9:00-11:45 Research Presentations by Graduating Students

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9:00-9:10 Welcome

Brown cardstock sheet with rows of pen or marker strokes, including scribbles, dashed lines, straight lines, and wavy patterns, on a speckled surface.
Credit: Fatima Juned

9:10-9:40am

Avni Sethi (India)

State Subject; Dance Object

How is citizenship lived, rehearsed, negotiated, and felt through the body? How do bodies belong, to the law, to the land, and to themselves?

Two people dance along a garden path, one with arms raised, surrounded by flowering shrubs and dense greenery. The scene captures a relaxed moment in a lush, landscaped garden, with blooming bushes lining the path and trees in the background
Credit: Eve Dent

9:40-10:10am

Eve Dent (England)

Birdsong Dancing: A Chorus of Voices

Exploring embodied kinship with the more-than-human

Short Break

A group participates in physical activity indoors, holding a large blue fabric sheet in a circle. One person walks through the centre while others coordinate the movement of the fabric around them.
Credit: Dayoon Yim

10:30-11:00am

Sujeong Seok (South Korea)

The Uracha Project: Dancing to Pull Each Other Together

Rebuilding kinship and social weaving among South Korean youth through community dance.

Two barefoot women balance against each other's backs inside a sunlit wooden studio with large windows. Green trees are visible outside, and exposed wooden beams frame the open space.
Credit: Becca Townsley

11:00-11:30am

Becca Townsley (England)

Rocking it! Adventures in Embodied Matrescence

A creative movement exploration of the lived experiences of mothering.

11:30-11:45

Keynote listener response by Kyra Norman

12:15-12:45 International Collaborations by First Year Students

In the first year of the MA Dance: Participation, Communities and Activism, students take part in an international collaboration that connects communities, cultures, and practices across different countries. Working remotely with a peer and their local community, students explore how digital collaboration can foster connection, participation, and activism.

This online exhibition showcases creative documentations of these collaborations, capturing the relationships, challenges, and discoveries that emerged through processes of listening, moving, and making together across difference.

13:00-15:00 Research Presentations by Graduating Students

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13:00-13:10 Welcome

A black-and-white scene shows a person kneeling on the floor, pouring or drawing a swirling line of white granules from a small container. Long-stemmed flowers are arranged in rows across the floor around them, creating a ritual-like or artistic installation.
Credit: Cheye Williams

13:00-13:40

Iona Hannagan Lewis (Cymru)

Pleasure Gardens

Cruising, community and queer choreographies.

A person wearing glasses, a white T-shirt, and red pants is captured mid-movement behind a window, with one arm raised as if dancing. Reflections of cars and buildings on the glass partially overlap their figure, creating layered views of the street and the indoor space.
Credit: Salima Hamrini

13.40-14.10

Manal Tass (Morocco/Germany)

Remaining Otherwise

Dances of relating and resisting in the SWANA context.

A group of about twenty people dances with their arms raised inside a stone-walled room lit in pink, purple, and amber tones. Large white star-shaped decorations hang overhead, adding to the festive atmosphere.
Credit: Charley Williams

14:10-14:40

Rhiannon Colvin (England)

Resourcing Resistance

To sustain our social movements, we must sustain ourselves.

14:40-15:00

Keynote listener response by Shivaangee

15:30-16:00 Graduate Game Show: Where are they now?

With Gladys Agulhas, Anno Bolender, Andrea Carmona Hernandez, Marília Coelho, Filip Kijowski, Bianca Kruppa

Members of the first graduating cohort of the MA return to share their news 12 months after finishing the course. What has happened in the meantime?

16:15-18:15 Research presentations by graduating students

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16:15-16:25

Welcome

Four people stand spaced apart against a dark backdrop, appearing to take part in a movement exercise. In the foreground, a woman wearing black clothing raises one arm overhead while the others stand upright, with their eyes close.
Credit: Tere Cruz

16.25-16.55

Fernanda González (Chile)

Women Cartography

Dancing in between otros mapas.

A person balances on very tall wooden stilts in a bright indoor hall while another person in a red tunic stands nearby, looking up at them. The stilt walker wears a black T-shirt and shorts, and the long stilts extend several feet above the floor, emphasizing their height.
Credit: Renaldo Matamoro

16.55-17.25

Sádé Budhlall (Trinidad and Tobago)

Disobedient Bodies

An exploration of Afro–Indo relational politics in Trinidad and Tobago through a collaborative practice-as-research process between Odissi and Moko Jumbie practice.

A group of performers spread across a theatre stage engages in a dance piece, with some standing, some seated in wheelchairs, and others moving or resting on the floor. Bright stage lights illuminate the scene as participants strike varied poses, creating a dynamic and inclusive performance.
Credit: Karime Arabia

17.25-17.55

Silva Laukkanen (USA/Finland)

Dancing the Conversation

Rehearsing belonging in dance and disability dance education.

17:55-18:15

Keynote listener response by Kate Marsh

18:45-21:30 Research presentations by graduating students

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18:45-18:55

Welcome

Two hands trace the raised pathways of a circular bronze labyrinth mounted against a tree trunk outdoors. The close-up view highlights the textured metal surface and the fingers following the winding pattern toward the centre.
Credit: Melissa Gmuer de Mora

18.55-19.25

Melissa Gmuer de Mora (USA)

Derecho de Permanecer

Walking, visibility and belonging across the fault lines of US immigration practice.

Three people participate in a movement workshop in a bright studio with white walls and mirrors. At the centre, a woman with grey hair in a grey hoodie holds both hands raised at chest height while two other people face them, each striking expressive, dance-like poses.
Credit: David Trujillo

19.25-19.55

Hugo Peña (Chile/Germany)

BODY, ARCHIVE, MEMORY

Where borders cross us, where we cross borders — intergenerational and intercultural dances of forced displacement in Berlin.

Short Break

Several women walking single file along a narrow grassy path through tall wild vegetation at sunset. The sky is filled with dramatic purple-grey clouds, while a bright orange glow on the horizon lights the landscape ahead, silhouetting the figures as they move toward it.
Credit: Bronwen Wilson Rashad

20.15-20.45

Bronwen Wilson Rashad (Cymru/England)

No Slowing

What can a dance, woven from the land by the women who live there, do?

A double-exposure image layers a group of people shaping dough around a table with a translucent figure standing and moving in the background. The overlapping scenes create a dreamlike effect, blending hands-on activity, conversation, and motion within a bright indoor room.
Original photo by Dan Loan collaged with a video still from Nikkei National Museum Archive selected by Lisa Mariko Gelley

20.45-21.15

Lisa Mariko Gelley (Canada)

Welcome Back

Choreographies of hosting emergent rituals for intergenerational futures.

21:15-21:30

Keynote listener response by Funmi Adewole Elliott

21:30-22:00 Collective Rest and Closing Ritual

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