Keynote

Karen Wood is a Birmingham-born dancer, maker, researcher, educator and producer. She has an MSc in Dance Science from Trinity Laban, London and a PhD from the University of Manchester. Karen has taught at a number of universities, Centre for Advanced Training programmes and in community contexts. She is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University and has previously worked as a freelance dance artist and teacher in Manchester, London and Birmingham.

She is co-founder of Manchester Dance Consortium and Associate Director of Birmingham Dance Network. Her current research interests explore concepts of collaboration, ethics of care and responsibility, collective identities and leadership in relation to freelance communities and cultural policy. Karen’s artistic research uses the lens of phenomenology, particularly perception and embodiment, and improvisation to explore digital technology, screendance and contemporary dance and tap dance practices. 

Rosamaria Kostic Cisneros is a dancer and choreographer, dance historian and critic, Roma scholar, sociologist, Flamenco historian and peace activist who graduated from UW-Madison and went on to complete her Master’s in Dance History and Criticism from UNM-Albuquerque (USA). Her PhD is in Sociology with a focus on Roma women, intersectionality, dialogic feminism and communicative methodologies.
She is currently an artist-researcher at Coventry University’s Centre for Dance Research.

Rosamaria is a professional dancer, choreographer, curator and qualified teacher, who has lived and danced in various parts of the world and collaborated with many Flamenco greats and other leaders in the Dance field. She has taught throughout Europe and the US. She is a dance writer who makes regular contributions to Bachtrack Magazine and Flamenco News. Rosamaria is involved in various EU funded projects which aim to make education accessible to vulnerable groups and ethnic minorities and sits on various Boards: Roma Coventry Project (UK), Drom Kotar Mestipen Roma Women’s Association (Spain) and the Early Dance Circle (UK).

She has organised various festivals and exhibitions. Her dance films have screened in the UK, US, Colombia, Mexico, Greece, Cyprus and Germany and her latest documentary won best documentary from the UK in 2016. She has started her own production company, RosaSenCis Film Production Co., which worked on the Society for Dance Research Oral History Project. The company aims to create dance films and documentaries that capture stories and reflect embodied traditions that might otherwise be lost.