Glenna Batson ScD, PT, MA

For more than four decades, Glenna Batson, has sourced from multiple discourses as catalysts for teaching, research, and artistic growth. She is an independent researcher and lecturer who has honed a trans-disciplinary approach to the study of embodiment. Her teaching and publications have bridged between theory and practice within dance, human movement science and somatic education (Somatics). Glenna is professor emeritus of physical therapy at Winston-Salem State University (North Carolina, USA). She holds a Master’s in dance education (1978), and Master of Science (1983) and Doctor of Science in physical therapy (clinical neuroscience) (2006). She is an internationally recognized teacher of the Alexander Technique (qualified 1989) and was pivotal in the early establishment of IADMS (International Association of Dance Medicine and Science). Faculty of the American Dance Festival (1986-2013) and the Hollins/ADF M.F.A. (2006- 2013), Glenna currently teaches Somatics for the MFA in dance at Duke University. She is a Fulbright Senior Specialist in dance, with residences atTrinity Laban Conservatoire of Dance (London, UK) the Universities of Tallinn and Tartu (Estonia), and Bath Spa University (Bath, UK). Between 2008-2016, she conducted pioneering research on the effects of improvisational dance on agency in people living with Parkinson’s disease. In addition to her published research, she is author of Body and Mind in Motion: Dance and Neuroscience in Conversation and Dance, and co-editor/contributor to Somatics and Spiritualities: Contemporary Sacred Narratives (University of Chicago press, 2014). At 72 years young, she remains inspired by many inroads to embodied knowledge – contemplative to expressive, artistic to scientific – as solutions to many of today’s societal challenges. www.glennabatson.net www.humanorigami.com

In May of 2020 Glenna Batson sat down with Culture Mill for a 30-minute interview to discuss her own history with researching dance and Parkinson’s Disease, touching many topics along the way such as improvisation, somatics, potential uncharted territory for the future of research into dance and movement disorders and why we should expect researchers themselves to dance.