Roehampton lecturer named Independent Innovator in Dance for Parkinson’s field

• Monday, April 16, 2018

This month marks World Parkinson’s Awareness Month. Dr Sara Houston from the Department of Dance has been named Independent Innovator in the Dance for Parkinson’s.

Commissioned by the English National Ballet in 2010, Dr Sara Houston’s research investigates the experience of dancing with Parkinson's: how people engage socially and artistically, how dance may affect functional mobility, how experiences of dancing may affect everyday lives, and what motivates people to dance and keep dancing. The project won the BUPA Foundation Vitality for Life Prize in 2011. You can read about the findings of the research project with co-investigator Dr Ashley McGill here. 

Dr Houston’s work has inspired several other research studies and programmes, including the Queensland Ballet dance for Parkinson’s program in Australia and a program at Hamilton City Ballet in Canada. She has played a key role in the development of the Dance for Parkinson’s Partnership UK. She has written the book Dancing with Parkinson's, which will be published in 2019. She also has been recently appointed to the International Advisory Board of the International Health Humanities Network.

The University of Roehampton is rated No. 1 for dance research in the UK (REF 2014).