Dr Wendy Timmons (B Phil. Hons and PhD)

Lecturer in Dance Science & Education, Programme Director: MSc Dance Science and Education

  • Moray House School of Education and Sport, ISPEHS
  • Institute for Sport, Physical Education & Health Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

Moray House School of Education and Sport, SL

City
University of Edinburgh (Holyrood Campus)
Post code
EH8 8AQ

Availability

  • Typically Monday -Thursday

Biography

Background

Wendy Timmons is Programme Director of the MSc Dance Science and Education at the University of Edinburgh, Wendy has many years of  professional arts practice and experience teaching and training dance artists, young dancers and dance teachers. Wendy has a Bachelor in Philosophy (Classical Ballet and Contextual Studies) from the University of Durham and completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Alongside her teaching, research and programme development,  Wendy has undertaken many knowledge exchange and applied Dance Science and Education research projects. See CV 

Esteem Indicators

Convenor for the Traditional Dance Forum for Scotland TDFS

Trustee ( Health & Wellbeing) DanceBase , National Centre for Dance in Scotland 

Editorial Board member for Research in Dance Education journal, RIDE, Taylor & Francis Routledge.

Editorial Board, advisory panel, Scottish Journal for Performance Arts

Education Scotland Expressive Arts  National Steering Group - core member ( Dance) 

Member of the Steering Board for the School of Scottish Studies Archive 

External examiner BA Musical Theatre and Dance, University of Cumbria

CV

PDF icon 58825.pdf

Qualifications

B Phil ( Hons) in Classical Ballet and Contextual Studies, University of Durham

PhD thesis | Dancing with hypermobility: An exploration of the health risk and experience of generalized joint hypermobility within a classical ballet narrative

Responsibilities & affiliations

Wendy is a Lecturer in Dance Science & Education and Programme Director for the MSc Dance Science and Education and TQs pathway, she is also responsible for the teaching Dance , Aesthetics and Physical Culture across the Undergraduate and Post graduate PE programmes. 

External affiliations include 

Registered teacher (RTS) with the Royal Academy of Dance and a bilingual tutor (Greek and English) for the Professional Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies for the Royal Academy of Dance.

Editorial Board member for Research in Dance Education journal, RIDE, Taylor & Francis Routledge.

Convenor for the Traditional Dance Forum in Scotland TDFS

Trustee ( Health & Wellbeing) DanceBase, National Centre for Dance Scotland 

Editorial Board, advisory panel, Scottish Journal for Performance Arts

Education Scotland Expressive Arts Steering Group  core member ( Dance) 

 

Undergraduate teaching

  • Aesthetics (MA Physical Education)
  • Physical Culture ( MA Physical Education) 
  • Dance Education & Social/cultural dance in context  (MA and PGDE Physical Education)

Postgraduate teaching

 

  • MSc Dance Science & Education
  • Dance Pedagogy ( MSc Dance Science & Education)
  • Preventive Dance Medicine  ( MSc Dance Science & Education)
  • PGDE Physical Education ( Dance) 

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

My own PhD relates to the bio-psycho-social experience of joint hypermobility within the Classical Ballet Environment,  I have also many years experience and published research  that relates to dance education, the teaching and learning environment for dance and physical literacy.  

I am interesed in supervising Doctoral work realted to the application of dance science & education to dance practice 

for example 

  • Digital  technology  that supports teaching and learning in the dance studio  
  • Dance, Health and Wellbeing 
  • Dance and Dementia 
  • Dance Education

Projects that I have been involved in include:

  • The delopment  and validation of technology  and protocols for dance . For example the use of Haptic technology as a means to access dance for  people with visual impairments

Publications, book chapters  and presentations that relate to this work are available on my CV  

Current PhD students supervised

2018 Full Time PhD student, Traditional, Folk and Cultural dance 

2018 Part time PhD student , examination of the physical demands within Freestyle and Competetive dance styles

2020 Part Time PhD students, investigation of mental wellbeiing within joint hypermobility 

Research summary

The scientific principles of dance; Dance and  Health; injury prevention and performance enhancement; Screening for dance training; Technology and dance. 

Current and recent research

PhD completed 2020, Dancing with hypermobility: An exploration of the health risk and experience of generalized joint hypermobility within a classical ballet narrative

Current research interests

My current research is about the experience of disordered connective tissue, Joint hyper-mobility and Dance training and I am very interested in developing young dancers to reach their potential I am also involved in several projects related to both Health for Dance and Health through Dance  and I am currently investigating 1. The 'Reaction to and recovery from COVID-19 in the Performance Arts in Scotland with colleagues from the Human Performance Science Research Group and 2. Consulting for the Erasmus SHIFT dance project at Northern Ballet https://shiftdance.eu/

Past research interests

The development of Technology for use in  the dance environment including Haptic technology

Knowledge exchange

 

  1. Welcome Trust: Body Language project PI Rachel Hosker ( Special collections UOE), CO I’s:  W Timmons , M Mcdowell , J Ravenscroft, Proposed duration of project: 2 years (September 2017-September 2019) Total: £129,961.84  - awarded ( May 2017)
  2. STANDARD INNOVATION VOUCHER SCHEME AY2016/17, Partner organisation:  Dance Base in kind costs £6800, UOE W Timmons Voucher Funding £5000. Total £11800 – Successful  (May 2017) service evaluation of the Seated Swing project Seated swing BBC short documentary film internet sensation 21 million views (2017) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04wb721  
  3. ADVANCED INNOVATION VOUCHER SCHEME AY2019/20, Project - Understanding and Developing Technical Skills in Classical Ballet: Ensuring Safe and Healthy Practice, Partner organisation Scottish Ballet Total project: £10, 000 (December 2020)
  4. COVID 19 ( EFI/DDI funding) £24,000 W Timmons, H Carson, C Nash, D Collins

Project activity

I am currently involved in the Body Language project ( Welcome Trust funded) and in particular looking at the Margaret Morris Archive 

I am also the innovator and mentor for the ongpoing MHSE Dance Artist in Residence , new residency to launch in November 2018 ( Nic gareiss ) will be in residence for 9 months and will work alongside me researching and Scottish Studies Archive  (UOE) and the Traditinal Dance Forum of scotland in order to promote and devellop Traditional Dance in Scotland. 

Current project grants

Seated swing BBC short documentary film internet sensation now @ over 21 million views 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04wb721

Welcome Trust: PI Rachel Hosker ( Special collections UOE), CO I’s:  W Timmons , M Mcdowell , J Ravenscroft, Proposed duration of project: 2 years (September 2017-September 2019) Total: £129,961.84  - awarded ( May 2017) ongoing 
8. ADVANCED INNOVATION VOUCHER SCHEME AY2019/20, Project - Understanding and Developing Technical Skills in Classical Ballet: Ensuring Safe and Healthy Practice, Partner organisation Scottish Ballet Total project: £10, 000 (December 2020)
9. COVID 19 ( EFI/DDI funding) £24,000 W Timmons, H Carson, C Nash, D Collins

Past project grants

1. 2011 AHRC Digital Transformations research development, Lycouris S, Timmons W, Ravenscroft J
Enhancing the experience of dance performance for the visually impaired using real time Haptic feedback, £30,000
2. 2012 Knowledge Transfer grant, Timmons, W. Clough, S.
£2940, funding for dissemination event in August 2012 related to Choreo-Haptic project.
3. 2012 Lycouris S, Timmons W, Ravernscroft J. University of Edinburgh’s IKTF scheme application, reference 9bP-12/0773, £11,766 Knowledge Transfer funding to develop the Choreo-haptic technology
4. 2012 -2015 CHSS, UOE Successful Exchange Fellowships and funding, collaborator, Timmons W
Organisation and mentorship of successful Dance Artists in Residencies at Moray House School of Education,
a. 2012 Vincent Hantam, (former principle at Scottish Ballet) Collaborative Residency to investigate the work of Margaret Morris (Colours) (WT Successful application to Creative Scotland, £15,000,
b. 2013 Chris Kidd (freelance dance Artist and Educator) Collaborative Residency to investigate Socratic choreographic methodology in Dance education (Heavenly View project) (WT Successful application to Creative Scotland, £9,000, further £10,00 Cashback for Creativity application Jan 2016, unsuccessful )
c. 2015 White & Givan (Former Errol White Dance Company) Unique 2 year Dance Company in Residency across the UOE & Traverse Theatre. The residency will focus on developing new audiences for Dance retour of existing work (Breath Spring 2016) (WT Successful applications to Creative Scotland total of £71, 000 awarded Jan 2016)
5. 2016, Seedcorn funding awards UOE
a. Body Language project: McDowell M & Timmons W, £2500
b. Teacher resilience project: Mulholland R & Timmons W, £2500
6. 2016, open project funding award £30,000 Jan 2016, Creative Scotland. Margaret Morris Archive Alive project in collaboration with Margaret Morris Movement International

View all 22 publications on Research Explorer

Conference details

International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, 

 

 

Invited speaker

  1. Date TBC;  invited keynote speaker, dance and health,  IADMS regional Day Porto Portugal

Papers delivered

Wendy Timmons & Simon Blaschke, title: Dancing With Dementia, 10 min scientific presentation. International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, Helsinki , Finland 24th October 2018

 

Wendy Timmons, title: Interoceptive sensibility and proprioception in classical dancers with hypermobility10 min scientific presentation. International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, Helsinki, Finland 24th October 2018

 

Helen Gould, Wendy Timmons, Mark Pace title: Dancing with Parkinson’s 10 min scientific presentation. International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, Helsinki, Finland 24th October 2018

Sian Salmond Wendy Timmons, Dave Saunders title: Heart rate and perceived exertion differences between class and competition in freestyle-disco dance, 10 min scientific presentation. International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, Helsinki, Finland 24th October 2018

Wendy Timmons, Dancing with Hypermobility. International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, Montreal, Canada 24th October 2019 

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