Odysseys: what is the role of dance theatre in recovery from brain injury?

: Might an understanding of this practice from a phenomenological point of view provide a theoretical framework that enables wider opportunities for the arts in healthcare settings?

Abstract

In 2015 Rosetta Life, the arts-in-health innovation charity that I lead, was commissioned by Guys and St Thomas’ Charity to co-design, co-produce and implement an interdisciplinary arts intervention combining movement, song making and song with South London stroke communities that would help reduce the anxiety and depression experienced by those living with the effects of a stroke by making an effective and measurable impact on their rehabilitation

This PhD Practice as Research project is the result of this funding from Guys and St Thomas Charity. The Phd fees have been funded by Rosetta Life. The practice itself has emerged over twenty-five years of project delivery by Rosetta Life. This Practice as Research PhD will draw on over 100 videos produced with communities of people living with brain injury. The videos are of workshops, performances and seminars that have been produced as part of the research processes over the past six years. I look at this archive to analyse particular aspects of the co-design process; I have tried to select defining moments in the development of the methodology through practice. The thesis explores whether the sensing and perceptive skills of a dancer and performance maker can contribute to recovery from brain injury and whether phenomenology might help us articulate the experience of a practice of movement, song and performance improvisation and communicate it to participants, artists and health practitioners. The purpose of this analysis is to be able to share this approach for wider practitioners and researchers and to develop a language that might bridge neuro rehabilitation and performance practice.

The practice that emerged from this research we named Stroke and Brain Odysseys, partly in tribute to the struggle that people have to make to get back home after a stroke, and partly in simple tribute to the journeys we make between islands of cognition, movement, language, music and image to recover our functioning.

Date of Award	18 Mar 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Paul H Clarke (Supervisor) & Havi Carel (Supervisor)