Research interests
- Arts Evaluation
- Arts Impact
- Feminist Performance Practice
- Cyborg Theatre
- Dance and motherhood
Current research
Jess’ currently developing a research project Birth Dance. The aim of this project is to increase agency and wellbeing of birthing parents using dance practice and visual arts.
Many birth-workers and new parents would agree that maternity services in the UK are
in crisis. Leading midwifery academics (Reed, 2018, Wickham 2021) have proposed that maternity
services have become too medicalised and interventionist. There is an argument that birthing
people’s sense of agency and empowerment is being diminished.
The Birth Dance project aims to deliver a series of creative workshops for pregnant and post-partum individuals. What we discover from these workshops will then be turned in to a dance-film that shows holistic birth positions, breathing techniques and positive imagery that can spark ideas of how the birthing and pregnant body can move in a way that creates a positive birthing experience, with the birthing person retaining their sense of agency.
Our ambition is to show the film in hospital settings and provide a creative toolkit for birth-workers.
