Personal statement

Michelle Elliott is the Subject Leader/Senior Lecturer in Dance who joined the dance department in 2008. She is an experienced choreographer, teacher and performer who has previously worked as a dancer with the Doris Humphrey Dance Foundation, under the direction of Lesley Maine, and as the artistic director of the Arthouse Dance Project.

She is passionate about choreography and creative processes and enjoys watching, discussing, analysing and researching new dance works in many different forms. 

Michelle has extensive teaching experience and has worked in a variety of educational contexts. From 2000-2008 she was Curriculum Leader for Dance at Sussex Downs College, a Centre for Vocational Excellence in the Performing Arts. During this time she was also appointed to the role of Artistic Director of the Centre from 2006-07. She was also responsible for the development of a two-year full time undergraduate Foundation Degree in Contemporary Dance for the University of Brighton. 

Michelle has also taught in a range of different community settings and is committed to working to ensure that dance as a discipline can be open and accessible to all.  

Professional qualifications

  • MA Choreography 2009
  • PGCE in Post-compulsory Education 2003
  • PG (Dip) Arts Management 2000
  • BA (Hons) Performing Arts: Dance 1995.

Professional memberships

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Teaching specialism

  • Creativity, cultural memory and identity
  • Creativity theories and themes 
  • The choreographer-researcher.

Scholarship

Michelle has a varied range of interests and has completed resesarch into a range of different areas including; choreography and cultural identity, dance and British identity, creative theories and themes for the choreographer, critical approaches to interdisciplinary dance performance.

External roles

  • External examiner for Middlesex University 2016-2020
  • External Examiner for the University of Plymouth from 2011-2014
  • External Panel Member for the HND Dance programme run by Kidderminster College in partnership with Worcester University 2009.

Recent professional updating

  • 2023 Advance HE Diversifying Leadership Programme, March-July
  • 2021-22 Body Roots Movement Coaching with Matt Mulligan 
  • 2019, GAGA Intensive with Natalia Iwaniec, June
  • 2019 Paper Presentation: Choreographing in Troubled Times presented at the Creative Corporalities Research Group Event, 8 May
  • 2015 Paper Presentation: Examining Creativity: Theories and Themes presented at the Performance Research Centre, Bath Spa University, 29 January 
  • 2014 Performance: 'Holding Together' Interdisciplinary Dance Performance Project made in collaboration with Chris Lewis Smith and Prof. Bambo Soyinke, Commons Atrium, Bath Spa University, 5 June
  • 2014 Attended British Dance Edition in Edinburgh, 30 January - 2 February
  • 2010 Imagining Bodies: Landscape, Memory, Community Conference, Tallinn University, Estonia. 

Research and academic outputs

Go to ResearchSPAce

Philippe Decouflé
book_section

Elliott, M (2021) 'Philippe Decouflé.' In: Butterworth, J and Sanders, L, eds. Fifty contemporary choreographers. 3rd ed. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 69-73. ISBN 9780367376765

An examination of critical approaches to interdisciplinary dance performance
article

Elliott, M (2009) 'An examination of critical approaches to interdisciplinary dance performance.' Research in Dance Education, 10 (1). pp. 63-74. ISSN 1464-7893

Choreography and Britishness
conference_item

Elliott, M (2010) Choreography and Britishness. In: Imagining Bodies: Landscape, Memory, Community, 13-15 May 2010, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia.

Watching us, watching you
performance

Elliott, M (2009) Watching us, watching you. Bath Spa University Theatre, Bath, UK, 12 March 2009.

We want you to watch us
performance

Elliott, M (2008) We want you to watch us. The Nightingale Theatre, Brighton, UK, 2008.