Ms Sally Doughty

Job: Associate Professor Dance; Reader in Dance and Improvisation; Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Dance (CIRID); Associate Head of School (Performance);

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Humanities and Performing Arts

Research group(s): Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Dance (CIRID); Institute of Drama, Dance and Performance Studies

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH

T: +44 (0)116 257 7834

E: sdoughty@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/arts

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Personal profile

Sally Doughty has an international reputation as a facilitator and performer of improvisational practices, and has established her profile over two decades as an artist and academic in the field. She has choreographed, taught and performed in USA, Latvia, Mexico, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Estonia and variously throughout the UK. Her published articles (Choreographic Practices; Performance Research; Research in Dance Education and Theatre Insight) and book chapters emerge from her practice and she writes from a first person perspective – privileging the voice of the artist herself. Recent chapters include Body, Space, Object: Dialogues between Art and Dance; body^space^object (2020); Dance Fields: Where is Dance Studies now? (2020), and The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation (2019). Sally is produced by Dance4 (UK) and supported by Arts Council England for several practice research projects: Renaissance (2015) in which she interrogated making improvised dance performance for mid-scale venues; This is... (2017), which interrogates memory and improvisation; Body of Knowledge (2016) and Please Do Touch (2018), which focus on investigating and promoting the dancer’s body as a corporeal archive. Each project has culminated in practical and published outputs. Sally is co-Principal Investigator in a research project that addresses The identity of hybrid dance artist-academics working across academia and the professional arts sector. Sally supervises Doctoral and Masters students and teaches across studio and classroom based modules at undergraduate level.

Research group affiliations

Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Dance (CIRID)
Institute of Drama, Dance and Performance Studies

Publications and outputs

Found in Translation: unlearning ‘expertise’ in inclusive dance practice
dc.title: Found in Translation: unlearning ‘expertise’ in inclusive dance practice dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally; Smith, Sue dc.description.abstract: Names of presenters: Sally Doughty and Sue Smith Nature of proposal: Presentation/provocation Title: Found in Translation: unlearning ‘expertise’ in inclusive dance practice Abstract: This presentation/provocation responds to the conference theme of ‘addressing hierarchies’, and suggests how ‘unlearning’ can challenge histories of inclusive dance practices. We reflect on our research undertaken as part of Critical Mass, an inclusive mass choreography performed at the Commonwealth Games 2022 Opening Ceremony. Interrogating how disabled and non-disabled young people learn the codified dance styles of Breaking and Kuchipudi, we propose that embedding inclusivity more rigorously in dance practices, from studio to management, promotes unlearning as a guiding disposition. Our provocation is that unlearning expertise in/of the dancing body radically shifts expectations of ‘difference’ in dance practices. Interrogating inclusive participation and translation within Breaking and Kuchipudi, we propose that good practice includes challenging individuals to explore and move beyond existing movement boundaries without prioritising certain bodies or expressive capacities over others. This, in turn, challenges current operational and conceptual hierarchies in dance pedagogy and production. Translation, interpretation and authenticity promote individual expressions of identity, participant-led agendas and the generation of new communities (Bartlett 2017; Whatley 2007; Elin and Boswell 2004), that support reinterpretation and invention rather than fulfilling the physical geometry of codified dance vocabularies. Through unlearning loyalty to a movement idea (‘that’s not a headspin, this is!’) we propose new insights for studio practice and pedagogy in which people with different bodies and neurologies can idiosyncratically express movement whilst being united by qualities, efforts, direction and intention. Approaching movement translation from this perspective requires a degree of unlearning (McLeod et al 2020; Visser 2017; Risner 2009) and the acknowledgement that earlier learnings may be incorrect and reductive. We therefore set a provocation for unlearning that challenges traditional ways of using translation in inclusive dance practices, and reimagines traditional hierarchies or ‘cascades’ of knowledge as more rhizomic structures with multi-directional forces of expertise that inform processes, experiences and outcomes. dc.description: Funding for this research project was sought when Sally Doughty was seconded to act as Research Director for Dance4 (which later merged with DanceXchange to become FABRIC) during 2021-2022.
This is...
dc.title: This is... dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally; Shenton, Pete dc.description.abstract: This proposal is for a performance titled This is… by Sally Doughty and Pete Shenton. It responds explicitly to the conference’s questions of ‘What modes of attention foster the dance between memory and motion, archive and artform’?, and ‘What matters and for which bodies in the fabulations and materials of archives’? Memories, real and false, form the backbone of This is… through the interrelationship of memory, archives, movement and speech. Setting our bodies in motion, a series of repetitive, slowly morphing gestures emerge that suggest memories and images, which we name and propose verbally to the audience. The movement repetition becomes almost mesmeric, allowing us to dig deep into our personal archives to capture and share memories from our individual lived experiences; from earlier iterations of this performance and from fabulous fabulations that are positioned concurrently with – at times – these seemingly unrelated gestures. Memory further serves as the performance’s methodology, which demands that we attend to and capture our improvised movement and speech, and commit (as much) of it to memory (as we can) in order to revisit and resolve it later in the performance. Attending to memory, motion and speech in this way develops multiple layers of meaning for performers and audience to suggest that ‘…within this passage of relation lies the logic, narrative, pattern or subject that we, as human beings, are bound to look for’ (Burrows 2010: 111). We propose that we make sense of Burrows’ ‘relation’ by finding points of connection that map directly onto our own lived experience. This is… reflects different modes of attention and opens up spaces in which we can imagine a reality that may not exist, as exemplified in McGilchrist’s example of a bird attending to a seed whilst simultaneously being alert to possible wider dangers (2022). This is… operates at the intersections between individual and collective memory to produce gentle, witty, moving, thought provoking and unexpected commentaries on one’s past and present self.
Please Do Touch
dc.title: Please Do Touch dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally; Krische, Rachel; Kendall, Lisa dc.description.abstract: This abstract is for a live dance performance titled Please Do Touch, which responds fully to the themes of the ‘Modes of Capture’ symposium. Collaborating on a research project titled Body of Knowledge, dance artist/academics Sally Doughty, Lisa Kendall and Rachel Krische interrogate how the dancer can be considered as a living archive to generate new performance work. Please Do Touch is one outcome of this project. Conceived to be performed in gallery or museum spaces, it privileges ourselves as rich artefacts and challenges traditional notions of what an archive might be. Please Do Touch aims to provoke the audiences’ personal memories as we recall and share our own histories through improvised movement, spoken and sung responses. We consider how embodied memory can be resonant and rich in history, and how active re-calling provokes the re-emergence of what was once ‘forgotten’ concurrently with the emergence of new configurations of embodied response/thinking to generate new performance. As Brian Massumi observes, ‘[our memories’] reactivation helps trigger a new event which continues the creative process from which they came, but in a new iteration’ (2016: 6) and thus our practice is conceived of as ‘an anarchive’ (Massumi 2016: 6). Please Do Touch opens up debate around the body as an archive: what it means to document/generate, re-call and re-configure our histories (in the now) and how transferable this thinking can be to a non-dancing body.
Please Do Touch
dc.title: Please Do Touch dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally; Krische, Rachel; Kendall, Lisa dc.description.abstract: Collaborating on a research project entitled 'Body of Knowledge', dance artists and academics Sally Doughty, Lisa Kendall and Rachel Krische explore how the dancer’s body can be considered as a living, corporeal archive. 'Please Do Touch' continues this journey, developing this research into a performance work that inhabits DMU's Leicester Gallery. Drawing upon past experiences, movement and conversation, they consider how embodied memory can be as resonant and as rich in history as the exhibits on display in the galleries. A series of evolving performance encounters takes place between the performers and audience throughout the gallery. This new work aims to provoke the personal memories of the audience as the performers recall and share their own histories through movement, spoken and sung choreographic responses. Please Do Touch is produced by Dance4 and in partnership with New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, De Montfort University and Leeds Beckett University. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
This is...where we are now
dc.title: This is...where we are now dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally; Shenton, Pete dc.description.abstract: This chapter responds to the heading of ‘Disruptions and Confluences of Dance Studies’ and is informed by the performance This is… where we are now that was presented by the two authors at the Dance Fields conference. The performance uses dancing and speaking to investigate how memory can serve as a fundamental line of enquiry to produce improvised contemporary performance. This is… where we are now develops multiple layers of meaning for both performers and audience through the interrelationship of movement and text. Doughty and Shenton recall and tell personal memories that are positioned concurrently with – at times – seemingly unrelated movement material. It operates at the intersections between individual, collective and confluent memory to produce witty, thought provoking and unexpected commentaries on one’s past and present self. It asks performers and audience alike to consider ‘where are we now?’ at any one moment during the work, and Doughty and Shenton use that same question here to interrogate the intersection of practice and theory. The chapter challenges the tensions that (still) exist between practice-as-research and academic research by locating the text that evolved during performance within a scholarly frame, promoting it as a mode of knowing. A transcription of Doughty’s and Shenton’s performative text forms the backbone of the chapter, offering readers an insight into the multiple, complex and spontaneous decision making processes that are at play during an improvised performance, and privileging practice-as-research merely through its inclusion in the book. A video of the performance (https://vimeo.com/214462246) further disseminates the work as a practice-based output and images of the performance will be peppered throughout. The chapter is structured into three distinct parts: a preparatory section outlines the context for and purpose of the performance, and promotes the performative act as a means of knowledge production. The transcription of the text forms the second section and whilst this can stand alone, the video of This is… where we are now deepens the understanding of the work’s development, its use of improvisation in dance and spoken performance and emphasises practice-as-research. The performance text is therefore represented through a mixed economy of written and spoken word. The final section makes reference to various publications authored by dance artists that promote the practice of writing that evolves through and from movement practices, and which support alternative readings and multiple types of engagement with practice. Positioning the performative words from This is… where we are now in this chapter elevates practice onto an equal par with theory, thus blurring the boundaries in practice and scholarly research to offer a valuable intervention to academic outputs and discourse. This is… where we are now is supported by Arts Council England, Dance4 and De Montfort University.
Hourglass: Drawing in and as Performance
dc.title: Hourglass: Drawing in and as Performance dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally dc.description.abstract: In 2015, the author was commissioned by Dance4 to make an improvised dance performance, titled Hourglass, in response to artefacts from Robert Wilson’s seminal opera Einstein on the Beach (1976) exhibited at Backlit Gallery, Nottingham, UK. Reflecting upon the rehearsals and performances, the author addresses the specific themes of ‘what happens when we draw with or from the body’ and ‘choreography as drawing with and from the body’ to reveal how she used drawing in the performance as a means of documentation. The author articulates how her drawings act as a choreographic score that serves the dual function of documenting Hourglass and generating a new performance. It is a relatively common occurrence that performance is documented by someone other than the artist and from a position external to the work, which can establish ‘a distinct tension […] between the performer and documenter’ (Woolley 2014, p. 59). Through developing strategies for embedding her own documentation of Hourglass into the performance itself, the author writes from an in-vivo perspective to disrupt this normative distinction between performer and documenter. She proposes that the nature of her documentation through mark-making in performance collapses any suggestion of such ‘tension’ and offers instead an embodied and embedded practice of drawing in and as performance. Documenting Hourglass through drawing was not an additional imposition of practice-as-research but instead was integral to the artistic practice (Nelson 2013, p.87) and the underlying thrust of the performance. The author provides the context for her own drawing in performance by examining the work of other dance and performance artists who have employed strategies for drawing and performing, such as Si Rawlinson (Ink, 2017), Trisha Brown (Untitled, 2007), La Ribot (No. 26, 1997) and Carolee Schneeman (Tracking, 1973). Broadly speaking, the burgeoning literature and other source materials that cite these artists amongst many others who make marks during performance, refers to practices in which the marks are made as a result of the moving body being in direct contact with the mark-receiving surface, so that the movement of the artist generates line (Le Mens 2014, p102). However, in Hourglass, the author made drawings by hand in response to movement that she had already made during the performance, as opposed to drawings made by the full-body in motion in the moment of moving. Therefore, in this chapter, she proposes that her drawing methodology challenges the more established, familiar methods of artists such as Brown, Schneeman and Rawlinson, and addrsses a gap in contemporary performance practices and literature that refers to these two forms. The author goes on to discuss how her interrogation of methods used to draw Hourglass gave rise to her design of a wearable canvas that was integrated into the costume, onto which she hand-drew key features from the performance such as spatial pathways; movement/vocal material and moments of interaction with audience members, during the performance. Towards the end of the performance, the author repurposed the wearable canvas by removing it from her costume and hanging it in the gallery space as an exhibit. This contributed to the artefacts from the opera and evolved as archival material arising from Hourglass, but functioned also as a compositional score to inform a future performance work titled Hourglass: Archive as Muse (Doughty, October 2015). Drawing and mark making is an established and well documented approach to making compositional scores for improvised performances. The author will draw upon her experience of working with leading movement improvisers Nina Martin and Lin Snelling, to exemplify the role that mark making plays in their practices and discuss how this informed her personal approach to drawing in Hourglass. The drawing’s dual function of documenting existing and generating new performance will be discussed here. The author identifies parallels between drawing and improvising in performance, and articulates how her approach to making spontaneous decisions in one form is reflected in and informs the other. This chapter aims to contribute to the literature and contemporary performance practices that address dancing and drawing by proposing a strategy that challenges many of the established and documented mainstream approaches.
Please Do Touch
dc.title: Please Do Touch dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally; Kendall, Lisa; Krische, Rachel dc.description.abstract: Collaborating on a research project entitled 'Body of Knowledge', dance artists and academics Sally Doughty, Lisa Kendall and Rachel Krische explore how the dancer’s body can be considered as a living, corporeal archive. 'Please Do Touch' continues this journey, developing this research into a specially commissioned performance work that inhabits the New Walk Gallery and Museum. Drawing upon past experiences, movement and conversation, they consider how embodied memory can be as resonant and as rich in history as the exhibits on display in the galleries. A series of evolving performance encounters takes place between the performers and audience throughout the different gallery spaces. This new work aims to provoke the personal memories of the audience as the performers recall and share their own histories through movement, spoken and sung choreographic responses. Please Do Touch is produced by Dance4 and in partnership with New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, De Montfort University and Leeds Beckett University. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
The Holding Space: Body Of (As) Knowledge
dc.title: The Holding Space: Body Of (As) Knowledge dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally; Krische, Rachel; Kendall, Lisa dc.description.abstract: Body Of (As) Knowledge (BOK) is a collaborative practice-based research project reflecting and expanding upon the practices of dance artist-scholars Sally Doughty, Lisa Kendall and Rachel Krische. BOK examines the body as a living archive, focusing on the collection, articulation and dissemination of the moving body as opposed to more traditional archival materials of artefacts and documents. This multi-stranded project engages with Derby Museum Trust to develop understanding of how traditional processes of archiving work, and includes performative outcomes presented in the museum space, NottDance (2017) and InDialogue Symposium (2016). The three authors propose a radical contribution to the publication in the form of a link to an online holding space for this research project. The digital holding space is a repository for film, audio and written documentation of BOK and seeks to highlight and privilege the assertion that the moving body acts as a living resource of archival information. The authors recognise the inherent contradiction of constructing an online artefact of this living, embodied project, and therefore propose that the online resource, in correlation with the concept of the moving body as archive, has a finite life-span. The authors will utilise encryption technology that makes electronic data ‘self-destruct’ after a specified period of time: the holding space will ‘erode’ or ‘rust’ as time passes, and after a certain point the online document can no longer be read (Bleeker 2012: 1). Therefore, the content held on-line remains only in the memories, bodies and practices of the three artist-scholars and the readers who engage with the online artefacts within the identified timeframe. Challenging the traditional notion that ‘the archive [is] that which endures’ (Roms 2013: 45), this contribution promotes a time-sensitive archive which is ‘subject to change, or even disappearance’ (ibid), to reflect the condition of a mortal, corporeal archive.
I Notice that I'm Noticing
dc.title: I Notice that I'm Noticing dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally dc.description.abstract: This essay considers the concept of noticing in improvisational movement practices and interrogates how what and how we notice can have a significant impact on movement material that is spontaneously composed. This essay takes as its starting point the premise that the act of noticing is a conscious and active form of engagement, and then goes on to discuss this in relation to what and how dance artists notice in the moment of improvising. The author draws from her experience of studying with leading improvisers but primary focus is on the author’s experience of working with American dance maker Deborah Hay in her 2011 Solo Performance Commissioning Project (SPCP). Interviews with dance artists Simon Ellis and Matthias Sperling provide further in-vivo perspectives in order to exemplify the significance of noticing in Hay’s performance practice.
Body of Knowledge
dc.title: Body of Knowledge dc.contributor.author: Doughty, Sally; Krische, Rachel; Kendall, Lisa dc.description.abstract: Body of Knowledge is a research project that explores how the dancer’s body can be considered as a living archive by understanding experiences – dance related and other – that have been collected by and remain in the body. Recalling and categorising memories, events, performances, training, holidays, injuries – to name a few – has inspired us to develop ‘collections’ from which we have generated new performance work. Treating the body as a living archive, we challenge more traditional archives that contain tangible artefacts and documents, and emphasise the knowledge that resides in and with the dancer. This event is the last phase of their Body of Knowledge project, and Sally, Lisa and Rachel will present some of the dancing, speaking and writing practices they have been working with in order to unearth, understand and use their personal archives. They are joined in a post-performance discussion about the project by Betsy Gregory and Sally Hawsley.

View a full listing of Sally Doughty's publications and outputs.

Key research outputs

PRACTICAL OUTPUTS:

DOUGHTY, S., KENDALL, L. and KRISCHE, R. (2020) 'Please Do Touch'. Performance at Leicester Gallery. Friday 28 February 2020.

DOUGHTY, S., KENDALL, L. and KRISCHE, R. (2019) ‘Please Do Touch’, at Modes of Capture: The Capturing of Process in Contemporary Dance-Making conference. Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland.  22nd June 2019.

DOUGHTY, S., KENDALL, L. and KRISCHE, R. (2018) 'Please Do Touch'. Performance at Leicester New Walk Museum and Arts Gallery. Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 December 2018.

DOUGHTY S. and SHENTON, P. (2018) ‘This is…', at Performatica International Dance Festival. Cholula, Mexico. 15 March 2018.

DOUGHTY S. and SHENTON, P. (2017) ‘This Is… Where We Are Now’, at Dance Fields: Staking a Claim for Dance in the 21st Century. Roehampton University, London, Friday 21 April 2017.

DOUGHTY, S. et al (2017) Body of Knowledge at Nottingham Castle Museum and Arts Gallery, NottDance International Festival, Sunday 12 March 2017.

DOUGHTY, S. and KRISCHE, R. (2016) ‘Handle with Care’, at InDialogue conference, Nottingham Contemporary, Thursday 1 December 2016.

DOUGHTY, S. (2015) 'Hourglass' at Backlit Gallery, Nottingham, 12 May 2015. Commissioned by Dance4.

DOUGHTY, S. et al (2015) Renaissance, at Dance4 International Centre for Choreography, NottDance International Festival, Friday 10 March 2017; Nottingham Playhouse, 13 July 2016.

DOUGHTY, S. (2011). I Think Not, thefidget space, Philadelphia, USA, 9 November 2012; Polymer Culture Factory and Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, 20 and 21 October 2012; Embrace Arts Centre, Leicester, 8 March 2012.

DOUGHTY, S (2007) une danse pour la radio: deux, SDHS/CORD Conference on Rethinking Practice and Theory, June, Paris.

DOUGHTY, S. (2006) a dance for radio. Laiks Dejot Festival, Riga, Latvia (2007); Royal Opera House, London (2006); Nottdance International Dance Festival, Nottingham (2006); University of Texas at Austin (2006); Laban Centre, London (2006, 2008); Cultural Exchanges, DMU, Leicester (2006/2008/2012)

PUBLICATIONS:

DOUGHTY, S. and SHENTON, P. (2020) ‘This Is… Where We Are Now’ in David, A., Huxley, M. and Whatley, S. (eds) Dance Fields: Where is Dance Studies Now? Hampshire, Dance Books. pp: 204-217.

DOUGHTY, S. (2020) 'Hourglass: Mark-making In and As Performance'. In: Journeaux, J., Gorrill, H., Reed, S. (Eds.) Body, Space, and Place in Collective and Collaborative Drawing: Drawing Conversations II. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars. pp 67-84.

DOUGHTY, S. (2019) ‘I Notice That I’m Noticing…’ in Midgelow, V. (ed). Oxford Handbook of Improvisation. Oxford, Oxford University Press. pp 119-134.

DOUGHTY, S. et al. (2018) ‘The Holding Space: Body of (as) Knowledge’ in forthcoming body^space^object edited collection. Basingstoke, Palgrave Publishers. Publication date tbc.

DOUGHTY, S. and Fitzpatrick, M. (2016) ‘The Identity of Hybrid Dance Artist- Academics Working Across Academia and the Professional Arts Sector’ in Choreographic Practices: Questioning the Contemporary in 21st Century British Dance. Intellect Press. Vol 7(1), April 2016

DOUGHTY, S. et al. (2015) ‘Will You Play? Implications of Audience Interventions in Improvised Dance Performance’ in Choreographic Practices: Questioning the Contemporary in 21st Century British Dance. Intellect Press. Vol 6(2), October 2015.

DOUGHTY, S. et al (2008) Technological enhancements in the teaching and learning of reflective and creative practice in dance, Research in Dance Education. 9: 2, pp.129 – 146.

DOUGHTY, S, and MANGAN, M. (2004) On Civility – Quarantine Theatre’s EatEat, ‘Performance Research Journal’, December: 10:1.

PERFORMATIVE CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:

DOUGHTY, S. (2016) ‘Body Of/As Knowledge’. Performance presentation at the Body^Space^Object^Memory^Identity conference, Coventry University, Friday 20 May 2016

DOUGHTY, S. (2015) ‘Hourglass: Archive as Muse’. Performance presentation at Questioning the Contemporary: Rethinking Process, Practice and Product in 21stCentury Contemporary Dance Practices symposium at Leeds Beckett University, 16-17th October 2015.

DOUGHTY, S. et al. (2014) ‘Keep That…Leave That! Implications for the Audience in Co-Authored Improvised Performance’ at Questioning the Contemporary in 21st Century Dance Practices Symposium, Leeds Metropolitan University, 18 July 2014.

CONFERENCE PAPERS:

DOUGHTY, S. (2017) 'Hourglass: Mark-Making in and as Performance' at Drawing Conversations 2: Body, Space, Object Conference, Coventry University, Friday 8 December 2017.

DOUGHTY, S. and FITZPATRICK, M. (2017) ‘The Identity of the Hybrid Dance Artist/Academic’. Keynote speech at Challenging Futures in Dance, Drama and Music conference. University of Huddersfield, 7 and 8 April 2017.

DOUGHTY, S. and FITZPATRICK, M. (2014) Mapping the Landscape: The Identity of Dance Artist-Scholars Working Across Academia and the Professional Arts Sector, at Independent Dance, London, 17 September 2014; Questioning the Contemporary in 21st Century Dance Practices, Leeds Metropolitan University, 18 July 2014; Inventing Futures conference, ArtEZ, Arnhem, The Netherlands. Tuesday 3 December 2013.

DOUGHTY, S. and FRANCKSEN, K. (2014) ‘Emergent Learning Strategies: Inspiring the Learners’ Sense of Agency and Autonomy through Practice’ at the HEA Annual Conference, Aston University, Birmingham, July 2014.

DOUGHTY, S. (2006) Improvisation: What Do I Do and Why Do I Do It? PALATINE Improvisation Pedagogy Study Day, Leeds School of Music, May 2006 and Teacher Fellow Conference, ‘Teaching and Research: Forging new relationships’, DMU, June.

DOUGHTY, S. and STEVENS, J. (2002) ‘Seeing Myself Dance: Video and Reflective Learning in Dance Technique’ delivered at the Finding the Balance Conference at Liverpool John Moores University, 21 – 23 June 2002.

EXHIBITIONS:

DOUGHTY, S. (2015) ‘Hourglass’ at Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) Practice-as-Research Exhibition at the University of Worcester, 8 – 10 September 2015.

Research interests/expertise

Corporeal/extended archives
Memory/autobiography
Improvisation as performance
Improvisation as a means of generating movement in the rehearsal process for a fixed performance
Practice as research
Documentation and articulation of processes/practices involved in performance making and doing
Contemporary choreography
The practice of performing
Reflective practice:
- developing a framework that develops analytical and reflective skills in those involved in movement improvisation
- employing a range of technology/media to support student’s learning
Pedagogic Research

Areas of teaching

Movement improvisation
Contact improvisation
Choreography
Performance
Contemporary dance technique
Promoting dance
Reflective practice
Documentation of practice

Qualifications

MA by Independent Study: improvisation as a creative tool in the rehearsal process

BA (Hons) Performing Arts: Dance

Courses taught

BA (Hons) Dance
BA (Hons) Performing Arts
MA Performance Practices

Honours and awards

DMU Teacher Fellow, 1 August 2010. For excellence in teaching and learning.

DMU Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, 2009. Voted by students for outstanding teaching.

Membership of external committees

2015 - 2016: Board Member for Decoda

2012–2016: Board member for UK Young Artists.

2007 – 2009: Member of the project advisory board for "Embodied Generative Music: An Investigation of the Relation Between Bodily and Musical Expression", an art/science research project based at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts, Graz, Austria.

Membership of professional associations and societies

Fellow of the HEA (2002)

Projects

Please Do Touch

Body of Knowledge

Conference attendance

DOUGHTY, S. (2017) ‘Hourglass: Mark-Making in and as Performance’ at Drawing Conversations 2: Body, Space, Object conference, Coventry University, Friday 8 December 2017.

DOUGHTY, S. (2016) ‘Body Of/As Knowledge’. Performance presentation at the Body^Space^Object^Memory^Identity conference, Coventry University, Friday 20 May 2016

DOUGHTY, S. (2016) Managed and curated symposium: Dance Improvisation: The Estranged Cousin, at Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester. Saturday 12 March 2016.

DOUGHTY, S. (2012) Thinking about I Think Not, at the Improvisation Practices Symposium, University of Northampton, 26 June 2012.

Current research students

Marguerite Galizia, PhD in Dance (awarded DMU Graduate Bursary), Multiplying the Self: technology and solo choreographic practice. 1^st Supervisor.

Angharad Harrop, PhD in Dance, Embodiment and Performance: The use of folk and cultural dance in choreographic practice and performance. 1^st Supervisor.

Jessica Murray, PhD in Dance (awarded AHRC-funded Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership) Facilitating collective dramaturgy in dance and music collaborative improvisation from the perspective of Rhythm Tap practice. 1^stSupervisor.

Lucy Ovenall, PhD in Drama (awarded DMU High Flyers Scholarship), Can we play now?: Reapplying historical feminist discourse to the hierarchical and patriarchal structures of contemporary British theatre practices. 2^ndSupervisor.

Matthias Sperling, PhD in Choreography (awarded AHRC-funded Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership), No-How Generator. 1^st Supervisor.

Externally funded research grants information

2018: As PI, Grant for the Arts, Arts Council England (£11,039) to undertake Please Do Touch research project.

2016: As PI, Grant for the Arts, Arts Council England (£5,100) to undertake the Body of Knowledge research project,

2015: As PI, Grant for the Arts, Arts Council England (£13,170) to undertake the Renaissance research project and I plan to submit a second application in 2018 to produce the work.

2015: As PI, I performance commission of £7,860 from Dance4 to interrogate improvised performance

2013: As CI, Grant for the Arts, Arts Council England (£13,000) to support and develop activities and audience engagement as part of Quick Shifts improvisation collective.

2004: As PI, AHRC small grant funding (£3,832) for practice-based research project The still moving body – disposing of, recycling and documenting improvisation that resulted in a performance output, a dance for radio.

Internally funded research project information

Improvisation: what do I do and why do I do it? Pedagogic Research Project funded by Centre for Excellence in Performing Arts, De Montfort University. 2006 and 2007. Sole researcher.

Professional esteem indicators

2017: Keynote address on Hybrid Dance Artist-Academic research project at Challenging Futures in Dance, Drama and Music conference, University of Huddersfield, 8 April 2017.Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 2012/2012: peer reviewer

2016: Granted University Research Leave from January – May 2016.

2014: Invited by Dance4 to represent the UK in an international online conversation with artists from Australia and India. Friday 28 November 2014.

2013: Interviewed for the leading Korean dance journal Dance and People (2013, Vol 8: p.82)

BOOK REVIEWS:

BUCKWALTER, M. (2010) Composing While Dancing: An Improviser’s Companion, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin. Review published in Dance Research Journal (2013) 31(2): pp.216 – 217.

BUTCHER, R. and MELROSE, S (eds) (2005) Rosemary Butcher: Choreography, Collisions and Collaborations. Middlesex, Middlesex University Press. Review published in Research in Dance Education, (2008) 9(1), pp 107-109.

GERE, D and COOPER ALBRIGHT, A. (2003) Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press.

PEER REVIEWER:

2014: Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices

2012: Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy:

2008: Dancelines

Bibliometrics

Cited in:

BURT, R. (2009). History, memory, and the virtual in current European dance practice, Dance Chronicle, 32:1–26.

BROCKBANK, A. and McGILL, I. (2007). Facilitating reflective learning in Higher Education, 2^nd ed. Berkshire, The Society for Research in Higher Education and Open University Press, pp128.

DE SPAIN, K. (2014) Topography of movement improvisation, Oxford University Press.

TEMBRIOTI, L. and TSANGARIDOU, N. (2014) Reflective practice in dance: a review of the literature. Research in Dance Education. 15(1): pp4-22.

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Sally Doughty performing I Think Not.
Photo credit: Hana Vojáčková

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Renaissance, performed by Sally Doughty and Pete Shenton.
Photo credit: Jason Senior sally-doughty-img-02 Renaissance, performed by Sally Doughty and Pete Shenton.
Photo credit: Jason Senior