Nicola Forshaw

Profile

Nicola trained at the Northern Ballet School and began her career performing with contemporary dance theatre companies. She later completed an MA in Applied Theatre at York St John University. Her early teaching focused on training young dancers in conservatoire settings, before she transitioned into lecturing in dance within Higher Education.

Since completing her MA, Nicola’s interests have shifted toward the field of dance and health. She has led several practice-based research projects exploring how dance can support well-being in disadvantaged communities. Recent projects include sensory movement sessions for children with special educational needs, movement play workshops for male prison inmates and their children, and circle dancing for older adults.

Alongside this social justice work, Nicola is engaged in an ongoing performance research collaboration with Dr Morag Galloway. Their process, rooted in improvisation and co-autoethnographic methods, explores identity and connection between two practitioners who both dance and play string instruments.

Research interests

My practice-led PhD investigates how dance and embodied knowledge can contribute to reconceiving cultural narratives of ageing, with particular attention to women’s lived experience. The primary research is situated within my existing dance practice, bringing together women over the age of 65 living in communities in Yorkshire. Through participatory embodied research methods, women are invited not only to articulate experiences of growing older but to move through and reperform concepts of ageing. In this way the project addresses the primary research question: How do embodied practices deepen understanding of women’s lived experience of ageing in community contexts?

Qualifications

• MA Applied Theatre
• Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
• BA Hons Performance: Dance