On the value of Candoco's Teacher Training Intensive

In September 2013 I was asked to write a guest blog for Candoco Dance Company, who are world leaders in inclusive dance practice. I participated in their Teacher Training Intensive in 2010 and it has had a significant effect on shaping my pedagogy as an early career academic

Hammers and blind man’s sticks: re-examining the digital double

This presentation draws on my research in to technological embodiment as part of my PhD studies, which explores a phenomenon called the ‘digital double’ – a manipulable representation of the human body in a variety of performance and new media contexts. My research uses lived experience and autoethnographic writing as a methodology to document and reveal embodied knowledge of the interfaces of body, technology and self when technologically embodied through the digital double. This presentation gives an overview of my research alongside discussion of Me and My Shadow (2012), an interactive telematic and live motion-capture performance installation by sound and media artist Joseph Hyde. Using extracts from autoethnographic writing about my embodied experience of the installation as an audience member, I illustrate the theoretical and embodied bases of my research. My intention is to highlight flaws in current theorisations of the digital double and technological embodiment in this context, which stem from reliance on Merleau-Pontian philosophy of the body as the basis for the research area, and its inherent ‘somatophobia’ (Barbour, 2005). I argue that, through an embodied research methodology and consideration of somatic philosophy and dance scholarship, a more holistic understanding of technological embodiment can be reached

Choreography and pedagogy: a provocation

The ‘Instigating, Creating and Responding’ roundtable examined the complex interactions of devising dancers and choreographers. There is a need to reassess the assumptions that have emerged around the concept of the devising dancer by unpicking the intention that lies within the choreographic process. We would argue that without an understanding of this intention, it is difficult to know what the dancer is instigating, creating or responding to. An invited panel offered insights, anecdotes, and pithy criticism of current practices and literature from your prospective as academics, choreographers and artists. Each panel member expressed their position in a 5-minute statement/provocation and engaged in a longer discussion with other panel members, before opening discussion to the floor

Embedding digital documentation in creative and pedagogical processes

This presentation will explore the conference theme of documentation and digital preservation drawing on the DECO: Developing Choreographic Practice Online project. DECO is a pedagogical project funded by the Institute of Learning and Teaching at the University of Northampton. The aim of the project is to develop an Open Educational Resource to support the development of choreographic practice. This creation of this resource will draw on my choreography teaching practice and my existing practice of documenting, archiving and reflecting on my choreographic work on tumblr. The project specifically aims to investigate how ‘tagging’ can be used to catalogue, arrange and rearrange materials to create an interactive, non-linear OER. It extends • my existing research exploring social media platforms as alternative educational interfaces to traditional Virtual Learning Environments • my practice of using tumblr to documentation, archive and critically reflect on my choreographic practice The presentation at Digital Echoes will draw on the documentation and digital preservation of a work made on first year students at the University of Northampton from September-December 2014. As part of the module Foundations in Choreography, the tutor leads a choreography project making an original work on/with the students. This approach allows students to learn about the choreographic process from within, critically engaging with and reflecting on the different tasks and decision-making processes of a choreographer. The tumblr blog for this work, Fall and Swell, acts as a blended learning resource for students alongside studio work, and as a vehicle for documentation and reflecting on my own practice. The presentation will address: • The value of the blog as a blended learning tool to support studio practice and a documentation of learning, using my own reflections and focus groups with the student cohort • The efficacy of documenting practice ‘as you go’ My interest in tumblr as a platform is due to its facility for tagging, as the multiple points of entry and non-linear engagement with materials sits more comfortably with creative processes, which are themselves non-linear. The presentation will therefore also address some initial conclusions about tagging as a process to arrange and catalogue content, and as a process of navigation and best practice

Bringing history to life: pedagogical approaches to dance history in higher education

In ‘The Sense of the Past’ (1999) Shelley Berg argues that ‘[a]lthough the performance and analysis of masterpieces of dance repertory are central to the tradition of dance history, we have not fully explored the educational potential of the process of reconstruction and revival.’ (243) Fourteen years later, dance history is still primarily a lecture/seminar rather than studio-based branch of the discipline. This scholarly paper will introduce my use of reconstruction as a pedagogical approach to teaching dance history. I will argue that as choreography is primarily taught through embodied practice in the studio, an effective way to facilitate students to make connections between their choreographic practice and its historical heritage would be through the introduction of reconstruction work into the teaching of dance history. Using reflections on my own teaching practice, I will propose that reconstruction work here can bridge the gap between students’ experience of history in the lecture/seminar with their experience of choreography in the studio. My paper therefore combines the following conference themes: developing choreographers and dancers in diverse settings and genres  approaches to dance education and training issues around heritage, adaptation and re-versioning of dance works  Reference Berg, S. (1999). The Sense of the Past. In S.H. Fraleigh and P. Hanstein (Eds.), Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Enquiry (pp. 225-248). London: Dance Books

Digital dates: using social media platforms in learning and teaching

I have been using social media platforms such as padlet, pinterest and tumblr as part of my teaching with undergraduates on the BA (Hons) Dance in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. In this session I will demonstrate some of the ways in which I have used these platforms to collate useful online resources, document creative practice and encourage discussion/critical reflection

Blended learning symposium: social media

My contribution to the symposium will outline and evaluate my recent pedagogical research into social media applications as educational interfaces. The aims of the project were: (1) to explore the use of social media platforms as alternative educational interfaces to the VLE; (2) to collate useful online resources in my subject area; and (3) to help students to recognise reliable online source materials. In the practical research carried out as part of this project I created online resources using social media platforms such as padlet and pinterest to support reconstruction work. These multimedia memo-boards functioned as digital repositories of significant critical and contextual digital materials on the choreographers and works being studied

Social media platforms as educational interfaces

This parallel session will outline and evaluate my recent pedagogical research into social media applications as educational interfaces. The aims of the project were 1) to explore the use of social media platforms as alternative educational interfaces to the VLE 2) to collate useful online resources in my subject area and 3) to help students to recognise reliable online source materials. The project draws on my approach to the teaching dance history on the second year module Theoretical Concepts in Dance, which places equal importance on theoretical and practical knowledge. I use reconstructions of seminal pieces, alongside traditional lecture delivery and analysis, to facilitate student exploration of the history of dance in the twentieth century. In the practical research carried out as part of this project I created online resources using social media platforms such as padlet and pinterest to support reconstruction work. These multimedia memo-boards functioned as digital repositories of significant critical and contextual digital materials on the choreographers and works being studied. I conducted focus groups with the students on this module to facilitate an evaluation of the above aims, which will be presented as part of this parallel session

Identifying dance in UK higher education

In this panel a group of University academics from six different UK Higher Education institutions, discusses their understandings of their academic environment with regard to both national and institutional contexts to contemplate the notion of common and distinctive features. Questions to be addressed include whether Higher Education in Dance across the UK is in any way uniform, if so, in what ways? Conversely, in what ways do the distinctive features of each setting differentiate dance education from one institution to another. How do commonalities contribute to an identity of UK Dance in HE that is in turn distinct from Dance among institutions elsewhere in the world? What are similarities across other systems? At the heart of the discussion is a partial construct of an identity of Dance in Higher Education in the UK. Viewed from within we could be forgiven for believing that we are all clearly distinct from one another. From beyond the UK it may appear that we have a common approach to Dance in HE that is in certain ways unique and distinct from the work of colleagues from other countries. Doubtlessly there are overlaps with colleagues from elsewhere and that these will probably emerge through the discussion from the floor.  What we hope to uncover in this session is the continuity and diversity of our work and how this is distinct and as such can be either a starting point from which we can learn from our colleagues or what they might learn from us

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy