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Dr Sara Houston
Sara Houston is a principal lecturer in Department of Dance at the University of Roehampton in London. Her special interest is in community dance, particularly with those marginalised in society. Her Parkinson’s research won her a BUPA Foundation ‘Vitality for Life’ Prize in 2011. A creative facilitator, whose initial training was at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance, Sara has inspired students to see the worth in themselves as future dance practitioners and leaders within the dance and education sectors. Sara’s primary interest is in community dance, exploring the social and political contexts of people dancing. She has undertaken dance research with adult male prisoners (in conjunction with Motionhouse Dance Theatre), within schools, residential care homes and within dance companies. As a research consultant she undertakes evaluations for community work by dance organisations, most recently for BalletBoyz. In addition, Sara maintains an interest in the professional development of dance teachers and managers, and this has also been incorporated into the Dance for Parkinson’s study. Researching Dance for Parkinson’s Sara led a ground-breaking University of Roehampton’s study |
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investigating the experience of dancing with Parkinson’s. Through the use of participant observation, one-on-one multiple interviews,
focus groups, participant diaries and film footage, they investigated over a four-year period how the dance programme affects people socially, within their everyday lives, what motivates them to dance and keep dancing and how participants engage artistically and technically with movement. Dr Sara Houston’s latest work was launched at an event on 24 August 2019. The book ‘Dancing with Parkinson’s’ explores the experience and value of dancing for people living with the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson's disease, the impact of dance on their attitudes and identities. https://www.intellectbooks.com/dancing-with-parkinsons Presenting personal narratives from a study that investigates the experience of people with Parkinson’s who dance, intertwined with the social and political contexts in which the dancers live, this volume examines the personal and systemic issues as well as the attitudes and identities that shape people’s relationship to dance. “In the book I describe freedom in different yet linked ways. It is what people feel when they forget their identity as someone with Parkinson’s. We are present in the moment of dancing. We are also |
lifted up into an imaginative and emotionally stimulating world that is played out in our moving bodies. If your body has closed down, if
your emotional response to your body is negative, then dancing can be even more powerful in pulling you up out of this state. That’s pretty magical.”
Roehampton college conducts a wide range of research on dance topics: https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/research-centres/centre-for-dance-research/
your emotional response to your body is negative, then dancing can be even more powerful in pulling you up out of this state. That’s pretty magical.”
Roehampton college conducts a wide range of research on dance topics: https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/research-centres/centre-for-dance-research/
