Dutch Dance Research
Round Table: Why Embodied Knowledge Matters

Dr. Caroline Ribbers works as a practitioner-researcher of embodied education at the Fontys Academy of the Arts. She facilitates yoga classes within the Academy’s Dance Arts in Context programme, is a research mentor for students interested in the relationship between dance and embodied practice, and runs the Embodied Education Lab, which provides space and support for students-teachers-researchers exploring the potential and development of embodied education. Ribbers' work is deeply informed by her doctoral research, an educational design study that resulted in a yoga method for dance students to support their embodied learning through engaging in meta-learning. Caroline is also an active member of the international DEED network (Designing Embodied Education in Dance), which investigates how tertiary dance education (BA, MA, MFA, PhD) can be reimagined through the integration of embodied perspectives. Ribbers is also interested in exploring how embodied approaches to education can extent beyond dance. 

Stephen Shropshire is a choreographer, curator and dance researcher who has created new choreographic works for companies and festivals all around the world. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City, holds a MA from the University of Maastricht, and is currently a doctoral candidate at PhDArts, Leiden University Academy of Creative and Performing Arts in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Since 2017 Shropshire has been chief curator of the Nederlandse Dansdagen dansMuseum and since 2025, a core team member of the Master Choreography COMMA at Fontys Academy of the Arts and Codarts Rotterdam. 

Dr. Suzan Tunca, (Türkiye/Germany) works as a dancer, dance researcher, choreographer and educator and is responsible for the ICK Academy. Between 1998 and 2016 she performed internationally as as a dancer with among others Krisztina de Châtel and Emio Greco | PC. In 2023, she obtained her PhD at PhDArts at Leiden University with research into a "dancing language" in which she brings together bodily theory and discursive practice. She previously completed an MA in artistic research at the University of Amsterdam and is an alumna of the third cycle performing arts practice research program DAS THIRD (Amsterdam University of the Arts). She accompanies and supervises artistic research of dance artists in professional practice at ICK and in educational trajectories at PhD, MA and BA levels at Leiden University, DAS Choreography, Codarts and Fontys, among others. Since 2025, Suzan is a member of the Route Kunst, an advisory steering group for arts research at the Dutch Science Agenda.