Dr Tom Hastings

Dr Tom Hastings is Lecturer in Dance at The Place. He holds a BA English Literature from UCL; MA Critical Theory, English Literature from University of Sussex, and PhD History of Art from University of Leeds. His PhD explored theories of the ‘body-object’ in relation to the American choreographer Yvonne Rainer’s use of props through the 1960s.

Tom’s first book, Klutz (2025), is the outcome of a six-month writer’s residency on the ‘Memorial Gestures’ programme at Holocaust Centre North, Huddersfield. Klutz explores Jewish life of the 1930s and 1940s in Berlin and London, and reflects on Jewishness today in relation to the ongoing war on Gaza. In her endorsement, performance scholar Rebecca Schneider describes Klutz as a work of narrative non-fiction that combines ‘memoir, fieldnotes, critical theory, and performance philosophy’.

Tom’s peer-review articles feature in journals including Performance Research and Sculpture Journal, and he regularly publishes art criticism in venues such as Art Monthly, Artforum, Frieze, Texte zur Kunst, and Burlington Contemporary. Tom has served as a peer reviewer for the journal liquid blackness.

Tom has performed with London-based choreographers, including Florence Peake and Joe Moran, and is committed to choreographic thinking, sharing his research internationally. He is a member of the Documenting Performance working group at TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association) and joined the ArtsCross project in Hong Kong in June 2025. Tom produced an original work for Opera North’s Youth Chorus, ‘Dear Rosa’, that was performed in 2025.


Currently working on:

Tom writes about dance performance at the intersection of critical dance studies, cultural studies, and historical materialism, and actively participates in conversations about performance and the archive.

He is writing an essay for peer review titled “Scoring Laughter: Eleo Pomare in Adelaide”. This project, which builds on a presentation delivered at TaPRA (2025), considers international Black solidarity in the early 1970s through an engagement with the Columbian American choreographer Eleo Pomare and his collaborator, the American choreographer and dance advocate Carole Y. Johnson.

A related essay, one that gestures towards a broader book project, focuses on the Trinidadian choreographer Greta Mendez, and her work across the scenes of Independent Dance, Notting Hill Carnival, and dance advocacy through the 1970s and 1980s.

He is working on his first novel, Mouthpiece, and continues to write about contemporary choreographers, dance artists, and visual artists.

You can see his recent writing at: mineralmatters.blog

I welcome PhD proposals in the following areas:

  • Dance performance and the archive
  •  Visual arts and dance
  • Literature and dance
  • Choreographic thinking

Publications or practice outputs:

  • Book: Klutz, Huddersfield: Holocaust Centre North, 2025.
  • Journal Article: ‘Shut Up and Dance’, Performance Research, 27.4: On Protest, 2023.