Carolyn Roy is a freelance dancer, writer and teacher. A practitioner channelling the somatic processes and understandings we use as dancers through dance and other art forms, her body of presented/published work includes poetic and critical texts, sound narratives, film and photographic projects as well as live performances and political actions. Recent work has focused on examining philosophical concepts and social issues through the materiality of bodies. Interconnectivity is its underlying theme. Her PhD in dance examined the affect and compositional potential of resonance in the space between human (and non-human) bodies. Her primary interest now is in situated and relational practice and process, moving between public performance, small scale interventions and collective experiments in workshop and residency settings. Recent performance and text projects have explored what it is to be with others in this world, what it is to be-with as dancers, the politics (and pleasure) of dancing, with reference to Jean-Luc Nancy’s Being Singular Plural and Anne Dufourmantelle’s The Power of Gentleness. Currently supported by an ACE grant, she is developing a collective listening project, Receivers, working with open-wave radio receivers, VLF listening, live audio streams and attuned bodies. Working within the independent dance sector for 30+ years as an improviser, choreographer, collaborator, writer and teacher, she has shown her work in theatres and galleries in the UK, Japan and Europe. Alongside, she has collaborated with choreographers and artists including Gaby Agis, Anouk Llaurens, Sarah Dobai, Kiera Greene, Florence Peake, Tino Sehgal and Rajni Shah. Commissions and events in 2025/26 included, in The Power of Gentleness, Chisenhale Dance Space and Siobhan Davies Studios, Interval and Touching Words, Chisenhale Dance Space, Why speak of a Rose in Winter, the Wash Houses, Bête Noire cabaret, The Blue Posts, Towards; proximity and distance and Civil Twilight: Listening between day and night (part of Live Editions), in the South Downs National Park. Carolyn has been a member of Musarc choir, a part time lecturer at Trinity Laban, teaches regularly at Independent Dance and is on the Artists Committee of Chisenhale Dance Space.

Last updated September 2026