Lisa Parsons
BA Hons; MPhil; PhD
Lisa Joins the dance department staff in January 2010 as a senior lecturer. Her recent PhD study evolves an aesthetic and ideology for integrated dance practice (working with disabled and non-disabled dancers) that is theoretically situated at the intersection of issues of consciousness, perception, and temporality. The core of her teaching and performance practice is improvisation; evolving methodologies that challenge the traditional ‘beauty’ aesthetic in dance. This research has involved working with international practitioners Adam Benjamin (co-founder Candoco Dance Company, England) and Alito Alessi (Joint Forces Dance Company, America) alongside numerous research projects working with integrated dance companies in Germany, Holland, and Romania. Her PhD research culminated in an integrated research project at the Place (London) with Adam Benjamin. Lisa continues to evolve improvisation methods as an effective learning tool within higher education, recently working with actors at the University of Central Lancashire where she has also been continuing research into holistic bodywork practices for performers (specifically, Alexander technique). Formerly a student at the Laban Centre (1983) Lisa became a member of London Youth Dance Company in 1984 and worked with a number of choreographers and performers during this time, most notably, Emilyn claid (Extemporary Dance Theatre). Since then, Lisa has been working in both education and community practice for the past 15 years working with her own community dance company, Dance Pace Arts, Eating Peaches Dance Company, and more recently, as a member of an innovative interdisciplinary performance/research company, Theybreakinpieces, that involves an investigation into movement, sound, and technology.
