Dr Dani Abulhawa | داني ابوالهوى
- Position: Lecturer in Contemporary Applied Performance
- Areas of expertise: Applied, site-based and socially-engaged performance; facilitation; physical culture; social & environmental justice; practice-as-research.
- Email: D.Abulhawa@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 2225
- Location: G.09 Stage@Leeds
- Website: Dani Abulhawa | LinkedIn | Googlescholar | ORCID
Profile
I joined the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds in September 2021. Prior to this I worked for 9 years at Sheffield Hallam University, and 4 years at the University of Chester.
I completed a Practice-as-Research PhD in 2015 in the Performance department at the University of Plymouth. My research explored the social conditions that inhibit women’s use of public urban space through the activity of public urban playing. This enquiry developed from my decades long skateboarding practice and the experiences I had as a woman playing on a skateboard in public urban spaces. Findings from my research have been used by companies and organisations working on play and urban space design, and those looking to encourage women’s and girls’ use of public play facilities.
Since completing my PhD I have continued to explore play and recreational use of the city, and accessibilty to place – particularly skateparks, urban spaces, the coast, and other actual or potential recreational sites. My work typically involves the use of performance scores, somatic movement, choreography, and audio artworks as practice research approaches to understand and communicate social and environmental justice issues, in response to the needs of communities.
Responsibilities
- Programme Leader for BA Theatre & Performance and Theatre & Performance with Enterprise
Research interests
Expressive Movement Practice: Accumulations
My performance experience and training is located across skateboarding, contemporary performance, somatic practice and community-centred facilitation. I have trained in: Creative Articulations Process (CAP), Ashtanga yoga, Laban Efforts, human-centred design for community working, Six Viewpoints, and Forum Theatre.
I am one of four co-founders of Accumulations, a community of dance and movement artists based in the North of England. We support artist-researchers to test and develop somatic and choreographic practice through access to our shared studio space in Manchester, or through peer-to-peer professional development activity. The four of us who founded Accumulations also collaborate on curatorial and choreographic projects together.
Coastal communities and ocean ecologies: PEBL CIC (Plant Ecology Beyond Land)
In response to biodiversity breakdown within the climate crisis, In 2019 I co-founded a community interest company called PEBL – Plant Ecology Beyond Land, in collaboration with Materials Scientist, Dr Christian Berger. PEBL is contributing to the development of a renewed aquaculture sector in Wales focused around the conservation and farming of seaweeds through hatchery services and environmental monitoring. In relation to this work, I am researching youth empowerment and alternative methods of engagement with ocean ecology through the facilitation of a youth leadership programme, and the use of skateparks as an experiential setting for young people to explore topics related to ocean ecology and the blue economy.
Play and spatial politics in Palestine: SkatePal
In 2015 I began working with SkatePal, a charity who build skateparks and support practitioners’ skateboarding practice in the Occupied West Bank. I helped to build SkatePal’s second skatepark in Asira Al-Shamalyia, in the north of the West Bank, and began conducting a research project in collaboration with the charity. This was initially about exploring how the charity operate in relation to conventional applied sports and performance initiatives. In the years that followed I have made annual return visits to the skatepark to conduct ongoing fieldwork, exploring how the practice and social forum of the skatepark has impacted local people.
Physical culture of skateboarding: Skate Manchester
I am the co-director of community interest company, Skate Manchester. Skateboarding is a physically demanding and highly creative activity, it is practised by a diverse range of participants, and it often engages children and adults who do not feel drawn to traditional or competitive sports. In this way, skateboarding can play an important role in helping to get as many people as possible to be more physically active. Skateboarding is also a form of accessible expressive practice – akin to dance – which raises its potential to function beyond the scope of exercise, as a form of community-based somatic practice.
Our aims are to:
- Advance the practice, culture, and heritage of skateboarding in Manchester and Greater Manchester through building a supportive and inclusive skateboarding community; and campaigning for the creation, restoration and maintenance of new and old free and open-to-all skate spots in the city.
- Educating publics within Manchester about the health, social and community benefits of skateboarding in and around Manchester.
- Promoting the democratic planning of public space in Manchester through dialogues with local authorities.
Qualifications
- PhD, University of Plymouth, 2015
- PGCert Learning & Teaching in HE, University of Chester, 2007
- MA, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2006
- BA (Hons), University of Northampton, 2005
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Student education
I teach on the Applied Theatre and Intervention masters programme and the undergraduate Theatre and Performance programme.