Coventry University has roots reaching back as far as 1843. Today it is a forward looking modern University, a provider of high quality education with a focus on quality research. We are the number 1 Modern UK University (2014 and 2015), hold worthy positions in the influential Guardian (27th), Times and Sunday Times (45th) University Guides and are ranked in the well-respected QS World University rankings. The University has a reputation for excellent teaching and research, business engagement, innovation and entrepreneurship, and employs 3,000 staff, with 24,000 students. The University offers excellent teaching and state-of-the-art facilities and equipment through programmes that are flexible and taught by leading experts across four faculties in the city of Coventry. Faculties include Faculty of Business and Law, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Environment, Engineering and Computing and The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Secondary campuses in London and Scarborough offer a range of specialised courses and the chance to study at a range of levels, designed in ways to suit learners’ lifestyles.
Coventry University is well known for being ambitious and innovative, making a significant contribution to work on important global and societal challenges. Coventry’s new £100M research strategy, ‘Excellence with Impact’, builds on this trend and will transform the way we conduct research by applying fresh and original approaches. The Centre for Dance Research is one of the University’s leading Research Centres. It is home to 19 international researchers and 30 PhD candidates and focuses on a range of research strands with dance and body-based practices at the core. Themes include dance and digital technologies, cultural heritage, inclusive practices, performance and choreography, dance philosophy, politics and dance and law.
Within the WEAVE project the team is leading on Activity 1 Involving Cultural Communities with Europeana and capacity building Activities, and coordinating the LabDay Series, contributing to scholarly articles and engaging stakeholders from across disciplines. C-DaRE is also a content provider and offering dance and cultural heritage items for publication in Europeana.
The WEAVE team is comprised of Prof. Sarah Whatley, Marie-Louise Crawley and Rosa Cisneros.
Prof. Sarah Whatley is Professor of Dance and Director of the Centre for Dance Research at Coventry University. Her research focuses on dance and new technologies, intangible cultural heritage, dance analysis and documentation, somatic dance practice and pedagogy, and inclusive dance. She has published widely on these themes and the AHRC, EU, and the Leverhulme and Wellcome Trusts fund her current projects. Those projects include coordinating EuropeanaSpace, exploring the creative reuse of digital cultural content. She is also a partner on a H2020 project, WhoLoDancE, exploring smart learning environments for dancers. One of her current AHRC-funded projects has involved creating an online toolkit for the professional dance sector, built on a MOOC model, supporting dance artists and arts organisations building knowledge about policies and practices for inclusion and diversity. She is founding editor of the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and sits on the editorial boards of several other Journals.
Dr. Rosamaria Kostic Cisneros is an artist-researcher and is involved in various EU initiatives 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, herself is Roma and is also an independent artist, dancer, curator and teacher who has organized various festivals and exhibitions. Her dance films have screened in the UK, US, Colombia, Mexico and Germany and her latest documentary won best documentary from the UK in 2016. Rosamaria also collaborates closely with the University of Barcelona’s Centre for Research on Theories and Practices for Overcoming Inequalities (CREA) and completed her PhD in Sociology and has a close relationship with various artists, companies and networks and has been responsible for transferring the LabDay underpinned by the sociological Communicative Methodology principle. Her understanding of methods introduced the LabDay idea to the CEF EU-Funded CultureMoves Project.
Dr. Marie-Louise Crawley is an artist researcher and Assistant Professor in Dance and Cultural Engagement at the Centre for Dance Research. Her research interests include dance and museums/institutional cultural heritage and areas of intersection between Classics and Dance Studies, such as ancient dance and the performance of epic. Marie-Louise worked closely with Rosa on the development of the LabDay methodology during CultureMoves and is pleased to be developing this methodology further with the team as part of WEAVE.
