Dance (BA)

Dr. Chi-Fang Chao 

Chi-Fang specialises in dance anthropology and has studied dance cultures in several Asian regions, such as Taiwan and Okinawa, and their diaspora communities. Her major research interests include ritual, dance ethnography and indigenous dance theatre in the post-colonial era.  

Hanna Gillgren

Hanna Gillgren is choreographer and curator for H2DANCE and Fest en Fest, an artist-run festival for expanded choreography for UK and Nordic-based choreographers. Hanna has choreographed and taught to a variety of ages and abilities both in a professional and academic context since 1998. Together with choreographer Heidi Rustgaard she formed H2DANCE in 2000, and has since made trans-disciplinary works, working primarily between Norway, Sweden and the UK. She was associate artist at the Place London 2001/02. Hanna has an ongoing fascination with meetings of differences, exploring ways in which we can negotiate hierarchy, conformity, power and manipulation. Her work is often informed by workshops and conversations with people of different ages and backgrounds. Hanna has delivered commissions for Norrdans SE, Victoria and Albert Museum for BIGDance London, Womens Playright Trust and Jerwood Foundation, Guardians of Doubt and Dance4. She has participated in research projects and workshops with among others Jonathan Burrows, Guy Dartnell, Meg Stuart, Colin Poole, Linn Snelling and Guy Cools. 

Dr Heike Salzer

Heike is a German dancer and artist-scholar. She fluidly moves between performance, choreography, and site specific screendance. In 2014 she founded WECreate Productions together with Ana Baer Carrilllo (US/MX) jointly directing award winning screendances, installations and multi-media performances that have been invited to film festivals, venues, and higher education contexts, in Asia, Europe, Middle East, and the Americas. As Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, she serves on the Curation Panel and Programming and Events Team. She has been invited internationally for arts residencies, masterclasses and short courses and taught in Higher Education in the Netherlands, Iceland, Malta, United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Heike graduated as a certified Anna Herrmann Gymnastic teacher in Germany, trained at ArtEZ-Dance Academy (NL) and holds a MA Choreography from the University of Leeds (GB) / Fontys Dance Academy (NL). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was awarded a PhD by Completed Work by the University of Roehampton (UK). 

Lalitaraja (Joachim Chandler MA)

Lalitaraja is a dance artist and educator based in the dance department at Roehampton University where he teaches choreography, contact improvisation and improvisation. As a performer he has worked with Scottish Ballet, Michael Clark, Adventures in Motion Pictures, Laurie Booth, Yolande Snaith and Charles Linehan among others. He has presented more than 25 choreographic works and continues to choreograph and perform. His research interests focus on contemplative practices, improvisation and choreography. His meditation journey began to develop during his twenties eventually teaching meditation and Buddhism regularly. The name Lalitaraja was given on ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order 1998.

Dr Nicola Conibere 

Nicola is a choreographer and scholar. She has a BA (Hons) in History from Cambridge University, and an MA (2008) and PhD (2014) from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance. As a choreographer her recent work Carareretetatakakekerers was shown at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 2021. She makes works for stages and art galleries and has presented at venues internationally including Hayward Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Tramway, Dance House Helsinki, International Biennial of Sydney. She has multiple publications exploring subjects including the politics of spectatorship, potentials of the choreographic, dance & disability and notions of bodies on display. She has particular expertise in Practice-as-Research. Her choreographic projects embed accessibility and her work explores the politics of bodies, performance and the choreographic. She has organised multiple research seminars and artist workshops at Roehampton and works in partnerships with dance organisations, recently including Independent Dance, Dance Art Foundation and Sadler’s Wells. She is an AHRC Peer Reviewer and Fellow of the HEA.

Professor Sara Houston  

Dr. Tamara Tomić–Vajagić 

Tamara works across visual culture, digital media, and performance and is a Senior Lecturer in Dance Practices within Roehampton's School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. She teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate degrees as well as researches and supervises doctoral projects on the themes of dance and visual art, mediated choreography, and dance history, aesthetics and performance studies. Her latest publications explore detective-style visual diagrams as choreographic objects in artistic practice (Performance Research: On Diagrams, 2023) and fashion and dance structural interplays in Issey Miyake’s collaboration with William Forsythe (OUP, 2021). Her artistic practice includes collaborative visual art for Art Weekend Belgrade 2021: Hotel Belgrade, and visual essays for Igor and Moreno's book On Andante (2024) and Still Life Zine (2021). Her forthcoming publications include the research chapters about internet-found images as representations of "disco dancing girls" (Disco!, OUP forthcoming) and the material culture in the hybrid fashion-multimedia performances by the Hats Theatre (Belgrade, Serbia 1993-2006) for the project The Museum of 90s, Serbia.