Professor Emma Redding

Biography

Emma is a contemporary dance and performance science practitioner, educator and researcher. Originally trained as a dancer, Emma joined the Hungarian dance company Tranz Danz in Budapest before performing for Choreographers such as Rosalind Newman, Athina Vahla and Tony Thatcher and furthering her interest in site-specific and cross-disciplinary performance practice.
Having co-authored the first ever Master's degree in Dance Science, Emma has since played a major role in developing dance science as a recognized field of study in Higher Education through her research, and through her international teaching. She is a founding partner of the UK's National Institute for Dance Medicine and Science https://www.nidms.co.uk/ and a Past President of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science https://iadms.org/.

Emma retains her lecturing and studio practice in areas such as dance technique, improvisation, exercise physiology and research methods alongside her leadership and research work. She has supervised over 90 masters project dissertations and several PhD students through to completion in areas such as dancer health & wellbeing, physiology, talent development, creativity and dance pedagogy as well as dance for health among other populations. Emma has published over 60+ papers in peer reviewed academic journals and 5 book chapters.
Emma serves on the editorial boards and review committees of national and international research journals and funding councils and is currently Associate Editor for two international academic journals. She offers consultancy to other higher education institutions in Europe, Asia and the United States on curricula development.

Emma is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE), is a Research Fellow of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science and was awarded an MBE in the 2024 for her services to Dance.