About

My research explores the role of dance, movement and creative practice in supporting health, wellbeing and human experience, particularly during periods of transition, uncertainty and change. My work has examined experiences including birth and motherhood, ageing, menopause, dementia, mental health and wellbeing, and our changing relationship with the natural environment.

A central strand of my research concerns embodiment and somatic movement: how people experience, understand and reconnect with their bodies through movement, creativity and sensory experience. I am particularly interested in the potential of embodied and creative practices to support agency, connection, confidence and wellbeing across the life course.

My research also examines the conditions that enable or inhibit creativity. Current work explores creative hesitation, the moments in which people hold back from, question or disengage from creative participation, and considers how identity, education, previous experience, confidence and social context shape people's relationships with creativity.

Alongside this, I maintain an established interest in eco-somatic and environmentally responsive practice, examining how creative encounters with landscape and the more-than-human world can support connection, reciprocity and a renewed sense of orientation in the world.

I am an interdisciplinary performance artist with more than 20 years' experience across participatory arts, creative health, higher education and professional performance. My practice brings together dance, somatic movement, improvisation, writing, visual practice and interdisciplinary collaboration. Co-production and collaborative creative processes are central to both my research and practice.

Current postgraduate research students

Director of Studies

Ester Eriksson is the recipient of an Investing in Excellence Studentship. Her research is establishing an ethnography of eco-somatics in Britain and developing an evidence base around the potential of eco-somatic dance practice to increase connectedness and reciprocity between human and more-than-human life, with attention to its psycho-political and ecological implications.

Sara Rose is investigating the value and contribution of Dance Movement Psychotherapy in the co-construction of positive meaning within family narratives following brain injury.

First Supervisor

Deb Rogers is exploring ethical relationships between animal artists and human-animal artists through The Menopausal Ani-MaLady: Exploring Animal Ethics in Multi-species Artistic Research.

Carol Arnold is researching how fairy tales are used, and may be useful, within psychotherapy.

Postgraduate research student completions

Emily-Rose Cluderay – Moving through Motherhood: Co-designing Dance for Maternal Wellbeing. This research investigated the development and effects of a co-designed dance intervention for new mothers, contributing to understanding of dance, embodiment and maternal wellbeing.

Current and developing research

Creative Dementia Research: I lead research examining the role of creative and embodied approaches in supporting people living with younger-onset dementia and those closest to them. The AHRC-funded Creative Dementia Research Group developed a collaborative longitudinal case study examining a newly developed creative arts approach for people with younger-onset dementia living in the community. The research adapted elements of Neuro-Dramatic-Play, originated by Professor Sue Jennings, to explore communication, attachment, relationships and creative connection. My developing work builds upon this research by considering how embodied, playful and creative approaches might become more accessible within homes and communities, including the potential of digital and immersive approaches and connections with community, health and dementia-support services.

Creative Hesitation: My developing research into creative hesitation examines why people sometimes withdraw from, resist or feel unable to participate in creative activity, even when opportunities for creativity are available to them. Working across different stages of adulthood, this research considers how identity, confidence, previous experiences, education and social expectations influence creative participation. It seeks to move beyond assumptions that creativity is simply an individual capacity by examining the social and embodied conditions that enable people to recognise themselves as creative.

Embodiment, Somatics and Healthy Ageing: An emerging strand of my research examines the potential contribution of somatic and embodied movement practices to healthy ageing, physical activity and musculoskeletal health. This work is particularly interested in how somatic awareness might intersect with strength, movement confidence and participation, and how embodied approaches can complement more conventional understandings of exercise and physical activity.

Common Ground: A long-term collaboration between myself as a dancer, poet Scott Thurston and visual artist Sabine Kussmaul. The project explores interdisciplinary approaches to developing relationships with land, one another's creative practices, and the rhythms of nature and narrative within Bakestonedale Moor in the Peak District. It brings together movement, writing, visual practice and ecological attention.

Imagination and Belonging in a Changing Climate: Working with Dr Jamie Bird, Imagination and Belonging in a Changing Climate explored how individuals and communities relate to the more-than-human world and respond to environmental and climatic change. The project combines attentive engagement with natural environments with arts-based and embodied methods through which participants can explore and express their relationships with place, belonging and ecological change.

Teaching responsibilities

I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate provision, with particular interests in creative health, participatory arts, embodied and somatic practice, interdisciplinary working, reflective practice and research.

At undergraduate level, I contribute to the BA (Hons) Creative Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, where my teaching brings together creative practice, critical enquiry and the application of the arts within health, wellbeing and community contexts. I lead and contribute to modules across all levels of the programme, including creative and embodied self-enquiry, participatory arts practice with diverse populations, interdisciplinary practice, concepts of self, professional development and preparation for creative health practice.

My teaching draws particularly upon dance, somatic and experiential movement practices, alongside interdisciplinary approaches involving writing, visual arts, music and performance. I am interested in helping students develop the practical, relational and critical skills required to facilitate inclusive creative experiences with individuals and communities. This includes teaching around co-production, participation, access and inclusion, power and ethics, trauma-informed practice, safeguarding, evaluation and reflective practice.

I also work closely with community, cultural and health partners to create opportunities for students to learn through applied practice. This includes supporting students to develop, facilitate and evaluate participatory arts activity within community settings and to understand the wider professional landscape of creative health.

Postgraduate teaching and research supervision

At postgraduate level, I contribute to the development of students undertaking independent research within creative, arts, health and interdisciplinary fields.

I supervise MRes research, supporting students through the development of research questions and proposals, literature reviewing, research design, methodological decision-making, ethics, data collection and analysis, and the development of the final dissertation. My particular contribution is supporting students to develop coherent, achievable research designs and to understand the relationship between their research questions, theoretical perspectives, methodology, and chosen methods.

I am an experienced doctoral supervisor and Director of Studies, supervising interdisciplinary PhD research across dance, somatics, creative health, psychotherapy, disability, ecology and arts-based research. My supervisory practice includes supporting traditional and practice-based approaches to doctoral research, with particular interests in qualitative, arts-based, embodied and interdisciplinary methodologies.

Alongside individual supervision, my postgraduate responsibilities include supporting research progression and researcher development, doctoral examination processes, and the development of ethical and methodologically robust postgraduate research.

I also contribute to the wider postgraduate research environment through my roles within University research governance, including membership of the College Research Degrees Committee and the Health and Humanities Research Ethics Committee.

Professional interests

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Ethics Champion

Research interests

• Dance, embodiment and somatic movement
• Creative health and arts for health
• Healthy ageing and movement across the life course
• Creativity, creative identity and creative hesitation
• Eco-somatic movement and body ecology
• Participatory and community arts practice
• Dance, disability and inclusive creative practice
• Co-production and collaborative creative processes
• Creative writing and moving-writing practices
• Improvisation and non-stylised experiential movement
• Expressive and therapeutic arts practices
• Feminist phenomenology
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Dementia and creative practice
• Civic engagement and community health
• Environment, place and more-than-human relationships
• Contemporary and interdisciplinary performance practice
• Dance history and post-1960s British New Dance

I have a longstanding interest in creative processes that make visible the often-hidden dynamics of collaboration and co-creation. I am particularly interested in how creative practice can enable different forms of knowledge (embodied, experiential, relational and artistic), to contribute alongside more conventional research approaches.

I also maintain a longstanding inquiry into the relationship between dance and writing and the ways in which the two practices can coexist, challenge and inform one another. My collaboration with poet and dancer Scott Thurston has been central to the continuing development of my moving-writing practice.

Membership of professional bodies

People Dancing Membership (2026 - 2027)

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Qualifications

Doctorate - PhD 2017. University of Wolverhampton. Thesis: Dissolving Borders: the integration of writing into a movement practice

Postgraduate - MA Dance Making and Performance 2011. Coventry University. Dissertation Project: Poetry in Motion: a common language amid words and experience

Undergraduate - BA (Hons) Dance and Professional Practice 2010. Coventry University. Dissertation: Finding Common Ground through Language and Movement: examining the role of the writer in Rosemary Lee’s The Suchness of Heni and Eddie

Recent conferences

Collard-Stokes, G. (2026) Pocket, Field, Body. Creative contribution to the Creative Therapeutics Workshop, Centre for Culture and the Mind, Copenhagen. An interdisciplinary research gathering exploring creative therapeutics across arts, health, embodiment and care. The contribution used poetry to explore embodiment, eco-somatic pedagogy, creativity, unlearning and alternative forms of knowledge-making.

Collard-Stokes, G., Thurston, S. & Kussmaul, S. (2025) Finding Common Ground. Workshop, Nature Connections Conference, University of Derby, 16–17 June 2025.

Holmwood, C., Ward, A. & Collard-Stokes, G. (2025) Creative Dementia: Using Arts to Support People with Young Onset Dementia and their Families. Dementia Digest, University of Northampton, 15 January 2025.

Collard-Stokes, G., Ward, A. & Holmwood, C. (2024) Creative Support: Building Bonds through Play for People with Young Onset Dementia and their Caregivers. Creative Dementia Research Group Knowledge Café, University of Derby, 18 September 2024. Co-organiser and research contributor.

Collard-Stokes, G., Ward, A. & Holmwood, C. (2024) A Creative Arts Approach to Working with People Living with Younger Onset Dementia and their Families to Support Interpersonal Engagement and Enhance Personhood. 36th Global Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International, Kraków, Poland, 24–26 April 2024.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2024) Ecologically Conscious Movement Workshop. Nature Connections Conference, University of Derby.

Collard-Stokes, G., Thurston, S. & Kussmaul, S. (2022) Our Common Ground: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration with the Open Pastures of Bakestonedale Moor. Harnessing Our Potential: Interdisciplinary Research in the Creative and Cultural Industries Symposium, University of Derby, 20 September 2022.

Collard-Stokes, G., Thurston, S. & Kussmaul, S. (2022) Our Common Ground. Sentient Performativities: Thinking Alongside the Human, Dartington Hall, 26–29 June 2022.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2021) Body as Place: The Role of the Body in Placemaking. Workshop, CivicLAB Symposium, University of Derby.

Collard-Stokes, G. & Cluderay, E-R. (2020) Moving Through Motherhood. 5th Annual Birth Trauma Conference, Conway Hall, London, 22 January 2020.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2019) Neo-burlesque and the Ageing Performer: ‘True’ Liberation or ‘Superficial’ Empowerment? The Arts and Society Conference: Arts as Communication, Lisbon.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2018) Birth Trauma and Dance: Towards the Formulation of a Movement-Based Support Programme for Navigating Parental Distress Following Premature Birth. LEAP Festival: Our Dance Democracy, Liverpool Hope University, 2 November 2018.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2018) Premature Birth and the Arts. Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth Conference, University of Oxford, 18–21 September 2018.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2018) A Little Time: The Function of Writing in a Movement Practice. Slowing and Stilling: Foregrounding Process in Performance Practice Conference, Birmingham City University, 11 June 2018.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2018) Embodied Writing: Channelling a Narrative of Self through a Moving Body. Embodied Practice and Performance in the Arts Conference, Canterbury Christ Church University, 6 April 2018.

In the media

• Creative Dementia Research Group 
• Dancing in Pott Shrigley
• Dancing for Climate Change 
• How Dance Can Help Women Counter the Experience of Invisibility due to ageing
•  What Can Dance Teach us About our Relationship With Nature?
•  A Crisis of Touch: East Midlands CHWA Gathering, July 2020

Recent publications

Holmwood, C., Collard-Stokes, G. and Ward, A. (2026) ‘A research project considering the adaptation and practice of NDP for adults with a diagnosis of young onset dementia’. In Holmwood, C. and Jennings, S. (eds), The Handbook of Neuro-Dramatic-Play: Cross-Cultural, Attachment-Based Play for Clinicians and Practitioners. Routledge.

Cluderay, E-R., Barnes, C., Collard-Stokes, G. and Hogan, S. (2025) ‘Arts-based interventions for maternal well-being: a systematic review’. Current Psychology, 44, pp. 4614–4633. DOI: 10.1007/s12144-025-07496-6.

Abu-Odah, H., Wang, M., Su, J.J., Collard-Stokes, G., Sheffield, D. and Molassiotis, A. (2024) ‘Effectiveness of dance movement therapy and dance movement interventions on cancer patients’ health-related outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis’. Supportive Care in Cancer, 32, Article 235. DOI: 10.1007/s00520-024-08431-4.

Holmwood, C., Ward, A. and Collard-Stokes, G. (2023) ‘Drama and Dementia’. Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal.

Bird, J., Bird, L. and Collard-Stokes, G. (2023) ‘Social Action Art Therapy and the Enhancement of Political Imagination’. Journal of Applied Arts and Health, 14, pp. 47–61. DOI: 10.1386/jaah_00126_1.

Collard-Stokes, G. and Irons, J.Y. (2022) ‘Artist wellbeing: exploring the experiences of dance artists delivering community health and wellbeing initiatives’. Research in Dance Education, 23(1), pp. 60–74. DOI: 10.1080/14647893.2021.1993176.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2020) ‘Creative critical representation of the choreographer’s creation process’. Dance Chronicle, 43(3), pp. 343–349

Collard-Stokes, G. (2020) ‘Recreational burlesque and the ageing female body: challenging perceptions’. Journal of Women & Aging.

Astell-Burt, C., McNally, T., Collard-Stokes, G. and Irons, J.Y. (2020) ‘“Withness”: Creative spectating for residents living with advanced dementia in care homes’. Journal of Applied Arts and Health, 11(1–2), pp. 125–133.

Collard-Stokes, G. (2019) ‘Expressing suchness: On the integration of writing into a dance practice’. Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 11(1), pp. 115–128.