Spiritual Herstories Call of the Soul in Dance Research

Amanda Williamson directs the Centre for Somatic Movement and Dance Therapy, where she trains students and has a private practice. She is also director for the Association of Somatic Movement Therapies, UK and the Republic of Ireland, and a visiting professor at Coventry University (C-DaRE). Amanda supervises Ph.D. students in the UK and USA and is considered one of the pioneers within the ISMETA paradigm. Her life is dedicated to emerging and bringing visibility to the field, training students and merging science with creativity. She is chief editor of the peer-reviewed journal Dance, Movement & Spiritualities.

Barbara Sellers-Young is a Senior Scholar and Professor Emerita in the Dance Department at York University where she was also Dean of the School of Arts, Music, Performance and Design. She has taught at institutions in United States, Australia, China and England. She is the author of three single authored books: Teaching Personality with Gracefulness, Breathing, Movement, Exploration (2002), and Belly Dance: Pilgrimage and Identity (2016) as well as the jointly authored book Movement OnStage and Off (2017) with Robert Barton. She co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity (2013) and Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism and Harem Fantasy (2005) with Anthony Shay. Other co-edited volumes include: Embodied Consciousness: Performing Technologies and Narrative in Performance (2013) with Jade Rosina McCutcheon.