Doctoral study in Dance Studies

When you join us for your PhD in Dance Studies, you'll join a high-calibre research community and will have the opportunity to publish papers, perform, teach, attend international conferences and develop your network in academia and industry.

We welcome research proposals in topics relating to our key research specialisations:

Creative practice

• Practice-led research
• Indigenous creative practice research
• Māori and Pacific practice-led research
• Choreographic practice
• Performance studies
• Dance and technology
• Dance film
• Transdisciplinary research practices
  

Dance education

• Dance education policy
• Dance pedagogies
• Māori and Pacific pedagogy and praxis
• Indigenous arts education
• Dance curriculum
• Dance education history and contexts
• Dance education in China and international contexts
• Transdisciplinary education

Community dance

• Community dance practices
• Community and inclusion
• Community dance and social needs
• Community dance and wellbeing
• Community dance and transdisciplinarity

Pedagogy

• How do we teach and learn?
• Place based education, praxis and pedagogy
• How is pedagogy shaped by culture?
• How do pedagogies translate across cultures?
• Pedagogical theories and practices
• Transdisciplinary pedagogies

Professor Ralph Buck

Ralph Buck (PhD) is Head of Dance Studies, University of Auckland. He has been recognised with several teaching, research and leadership awards. His research and teaching has been presented around the world and in leading research journals and books. His work with international organisations draws attention to potential roles of dance as a dynamic agent for change within security, health and education concerns. His supervision expertise is found in constructivism theory, pedagogy, dance education in international contexts, community dance practices.

Areas of research

• Dance education
• Dance pedagogy
• Community dance
• Dance curriculum

Find out more: Professor Ralph Buck
Contact Ralph: r.buck@auckland.ac.nz

Dr Sarah Foster-Sproull

Sarah Foster-Sproull (PhD) is a choreographer with a significant body of work in contemporary dance, ballet, and dance film. She is Choreographer-In-Residence at the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Fellow of the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University, and choreographer at the New York Choreographic Institute at the New York City Ballet (2021, 2023). Sarah is the Artistic Director of Foster Group Dance and was Creative New Zealand’s Choreographic Fellow 2017-2019. Sarah is a co-researcher on Horizon Europe project d@rts, founding member of the New Zealand Dance Company and graduate of both the New Zealand School of Dance and the University of Auckland.

Areas of research

• Creative practice, artistic practice
• Feminist choreographic research
• Creativity and collaboration
• Dance pedagogy and curriculum development
• Decolonial arts education
• Ethnographic and narrative research

Find out more: Dr Sarah Foster-Sproull
Contact Sarah: s.foster-sproull@auckland.ac.nz

Dr Mark Harvey

Mark Harvey is an artist, live artist / performance artist, social and transdisciplinary researcher. He researches across a range of topics including ecology, environmental perspectives, politics, social justice, various approaches of performance and choreography, Te Tiriti o Waitangi related issues and mātauranga Māori. He has presented widely, such as the Venice Biennale for Visual Arts, the ANTI festival (Finland) and his transdisciplinary research has been recognised by the University of Auckland with an Impact Award.

Areas of research

• Creative practice / artistic practice
• Performance art / live art / visual arts / choreography
• Transdisciplinarity and collaboration
• Ecology and environmental perspectives
• Social justice and politics
• Te Tiriti, mātauranga Māori and Indigenous perspectives

Find out more: Dr Mark Harvey
Contact Mark: m.harvey@auckland.ac.nz

Dr Sarah Knox

Dr Sarah Knox is a Senior Lecturer in Dance Studies. She is an educator, choreographer, researcher, dance education advocate and former professional contemporary dancer who has worked extensively in diverse areas of the global dance community, including in educational, community, choreographic, performance and professional dance contexts.

Areas of research

• Choreographic collaboration
• Dance techniques and performance
• Arts education and educators
• Pedagogy and curriculum
• Wellbeing and creative relationships

Find out more: Dr Sarah Knox
Contact Sarah: sarah.knox@auckland.ac.nz

Professor Alys Longley

Alys Longley (PhD) is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and teacher, whose work explores mistranslation, working across languages and disciplines to evidence a spill of ideas beyond conventional systems of meaning. Her artistic-research projects shape-shift from writing and performance, artist-book, installation, film, education curriculum, poetry, and lecture-demonstration. Her books include Let Us Drink the New Wine, Together! (Museum of Contemporary Art Santiago, 2022), The Foreign Language of Motion (2014) and Radio Strainer (2016) with Winchester University Press. She has created a wide range of performances, artist books, journal articles, books, book chapters and exhibitions exploring creative process in diverse contexts.

Areas of research

• Artistic research
• Poetic, narrative and ethnographic research
• Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research
• Creativity and environmental sustainability

Find out more: Professor Alys Longley
Contact Alys: a.longley@auckland.ac.nz

Dr Tia Reihana-Morunga

Tia Reihana-Morunga (PhD) is a senior lecturer in Ngā Akoranga Kanikani and a Co-director of the newly established Centre for Co-Created Ageing Research (CREATE-AGE). Dr Reihana has been an educator in the secondary and tertiary sectors for over 20 years. Her research in the arts and education sectors focuses on culturally responsive praxis reflective of Indigenous knowledge systems. As an Indigenous artist, kaupapa Māori research practitioner and community facilitator, Tia works extensively in Arts, Education and Health with Mana Oceania communities in Aotearoa and the wider Pacific. Her supervision expertise is in dance education, Indigenous arts, health and education, place-based and practise-led praxis, and intercultural and culturally responsive theory and methodology.

Areas of research

• Dance education
• Indigenous dance and arts discourse
• Place-based pedagogy
• Community arts and wellbeing

Find out more: Dr Tia Reihana
Contact Tia: tia.reihana@auckland.ac.nz

Professor Nicholas Rowe

Professor Nicholas Rowe is a UNESCO Chair in Dance and Social Inclusion and he leads the Horizon Europe Project INTRACOMP, investigating transcultural competence and cultural democracy in participatory arts with a consortium of research and arts organisations around the world. His research outputs include books, films, theatre productions, journal articles and public lectures, and he conducts and supervises research in various qualitative and creative practice research methodologies.

Areas of research

• Cultural democracy
• Transcultural competence
• Social justice
• Participatory arts in communities and education
• Creativity and arts within transdisciplinary research

Find out more: Professor Nicholas Rowe
Contact Nicholas: n.rowe@auckland.ac.nz

Dr Becca Weber

Rebecca Weber (PhD, MFA, MA, RSME, RSDE, RSMT, Prov. Prof. DMT, THE, FHEA) is a Senior Lecturer in Dance Studies at the University of Auckland and a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist and Dance Movement Therapist. She researches intersections between dance, science, and somatics and engages in multimodal creative practice research. Her research outputs include live and digital dance works, installations and exhibitions, artist books, screendance works, journal articles, books, book chapters, and more. Weber’s choreography has been presented internationally and supported by Creative New Zealand, Dance/USA, Dance/UP, World Dance Alliance, Rebecca Skelton Fund, Bates Dance Festival, Tempo Dance Festival, Wimbledon Space and others.

Areas of research

• Somatic practices
• Dance and wellness
• Dance science and psychology
• Creative practice and transdisciplinary practice
• Dance and digital technologies
• Dance education and pedagogy
• Creative arts therapies

Find out more: Dr Becca Weber
Contact Becca: b.weber@auckland.ac.nz

‘Politics and Poetics of Solo: Choreopolitical negotiations of a dancing woman from Iran’ Maryam Bagheri Nesami | Supervised by Professor Alys Longley, Professor Rose Martin, Professor Carol Brown

‘Vibrant-Dance-Power: Locating Vital Materialist Incantations of Thing-power in Feminist Choreography’ Sarah Foster-Sproull | Supervised by Professor Rose Martin and Professor Ralph Buck

‘“It’s such a Tangle”: The complexities of choreography pedagogy in tertiary education’ Sarah Knox | Supervised by Professor Ralph Buck

‘Difference, Creativity and Collaboration: Challenges for Teachers of Quality Oriented Education Dance in China’ Jiahui Liu | Supervised by Professor Nicholas Rowe

‘Speculative chøreographies of darkness’ Tru Paraha | Supervised by Professor Alys Longley and Professor Lisa Samuels

‘Te mana motuhake o te kauri: A Kaupapa Māori exploration of intercultural praxis’ Tia Reihana-Morunga | Supervised by Professor Nicholas Rowe and Professor Mera Penehira

‘Tertiary Ballroom Dance Education in China: “Teaching Students how to Fish” Longqi Yu | Supervised by Professor Ralph Buck

There are several scholarships you may be eligible for when you decide to pursue your PhD in Dance Studies:

• University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarships
• Buchanan Dance Research Residency Award
• Gavin and Susan Walker Postgraduate Scholarship in Dance Studies

Do you want to chat further about your studies? Contact Dr Sarah Foster-Sproull s.foster-sproull@auckland.ac.nz