Formerly Humanistics Dance
A global alliance for collaboration, choreography, performance, research and dialogue
 
 

Project Title:
Neurodivergent Choreographies: Embodied Inquiry at the Intersection of Dance and Science

 

Project Brief:
This project investigates choreographic thinking as a rigorous, embodied form of inquiry—one that is especially potent when co-developed with neurodivergent collaborators. Rooted in both artistic and scientific methodologies, the project proposes that movement-based decision-making and somatic perception are not only expressive tools but also valid epistemologies. I will engage in research-practice that foregrounds how neurodivergent brains process, generate, and respond to choreographic information, with the goal of creating new models for collaborative creation and embodied cognition.

 

Working in dialogue with a researcher, I will design and conduct choreographic experiments that mirror the scientific method: developing movement-based hypotheses, testing them through improvisation and structured scores, and gathering sensory, emotional, and cognitive feedback. Key areas of inquiry will include pattern recognition, sensory modulation, and nonverbal communication. I am especially interested in how neurodivergent perception might illuminate aspects of choreographic structure, sequencing, and flow that are often overlooked in traditional neurotypical processes.

 

This work is informed by my doctoral research exploring mental health, creative labor, and systems of care within the arts. I draw on scholarship from neuroscience, cognitive science, and disability studies to expand how choreography can function not just as performance, but as a space of co-learning, inquiry, and mutual transformation. The project resists the medicalization of neurodivergence and instead positions it as an integral and generative force within the choreographic process.