About
Stacey graduated from the University of California Riverside with a BA
in Dance (cum laude) and was awarded an MA and a PhD in Dance Studies
from Laban (formerly the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance). MA and
PhD research examined the left wing dance movement in the USA through
historical and sociological perspectives. Issues of identity in dance
and its relation to society are areas underpinning other post-doctoral
research. Cross-cultural aspects of the dancing body were further
explored in fieldwork in India (2003). Stacey was a senior researcher in
the
AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance Performance,
a collaboration between SOAS (School of Oriental and Asian Studies,
London University), UniS (University of Surrey Guildford) and
Roehampton.
Research Interests
Stacey teaches on BA modules covering dance appreciation and history;
contextual approaches to dance studies; dance, power and politics; and
dance criticism. Training in kathak dance, ballet and contemporary dance
also inform her research and teaching. She contributes to the MA Dance
Cluster and is Director of Studies and Supervisor of PhD candidates.
Stacey is the current Research Student Coordinator.
She is interested in the exploration of socio-cultural issues
related to institutional and body politics across a range of dance and
performance practices. Recent research ranges from left wing dance in
1930s Britain to current South Asian dance practices in Britain.
Research Projects Undertaken
Publications and Professional Connections
Stacey regularly contributes to conferences in North America and Europe
and is published in the Society of Dance History Scholars and the
Congress on Research in Dance conference proceedings. She presented at
the Kathak at the Crossroads International Festival and Symposium
in San Francisco (2006) and the 2008 Danse et Resistance conference at
the Centre National de la Danse, France. She is currently working on a
book on dance and politics, with partial research funding support from
the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Professional affiliations include former President of the Dance
Critics Association, membership on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards
Committee, San Francisco, California, and a current member of the
Executive Committee of the Society for Dance Research.
Publications listed below include book chapters and professional and
academic journal articles. Stacey's dance criticism has been published
in Pulse, Dance Theatre Journal and Dance Chronicle. Articles on historical and sociological perspectives of dance are found in Dance Chronicle and South Asia Research (2007). Publications stemming from doctoral research include Dance Research,
'From Workers' Dance to New Dance? (Spring 1989), and 'Dance and the
Workers' Struggle' (Spring, 1990). Contributions to reference
publications include entries on Pearl Primus in the International Dictionary of Modern Dance (Detroit, Michigan: St. James Press, 1998) and three entries in the second edition of Fifty Contemporary Choreographers London: Routledge, forthcoming).
Media
Stacey authored DV8's company summary in the Just for Show programme notes. She was interviewed and cited in an article on streetdance for the BBC Online Magazine
Postgraduate Supervision
Stacey invites applications on projects investigating a range of
dance practices from socio-cultural perspectives. She has co-supervised
interdisciplinary PhDs with Film Studies and Drama, Theatre and
Performance Studies. Previous students have completed theses on the
following topics:
- Community dance and New Labour
- The Cancan and body politics (Enlightenment to Postmodernity)
- Maya Deren and screen dance
- Pina Bausch, Tanztheater and the spectator
Stacey's current PhD students are working on:
- Representation and Black British ballet dancers
- Contemporary dance and Identity in Cyprus
- Ghanaian Dance in Ghana and Britain
- Nijinska and feminism
- Unpartnered vernacular dance and body politics
- Flamenco dance communities in London