Aby Watson

ABY WATSON is a dance artist, maker and researcher based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her performance work marries movement, choreography, text, action and autobiography, with a vibrant neurodiverse energy, and deals with concepts of deskilling, failure, feminism and difference. Her work strives to challenge exclusive values in dance, and to celebrate the creative potential of neurodivergent authorship and visibility in performance.

Her solo work has been seen across the UK and internationally at venues The Southbank Centre (London), Sophiensaele (Berlin), Tramway (Glasgow) and Wales Millenium Centre (Cardiff) amongst others. She trained in Contemporary Performance Practice at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she received honours of the first class. She is currently in the fifth year of her part-time practice based PhD project, titled Disordering Dance at the RCS.

Disordering Dance: Affirmative Aesthetics of Dyspraxia through Dance Practice interrogates dance practice from an experience of dyspraxia; a neurodiverse condition that affects memory, coordination, cognitive processing and the execution of movements. This practice research applies a dyspraxic perspective to the field of dance – rather than adapt its nature to assimilate and conform to normative standards, and instead questions: How can a dyspraxic dancer utilise their positionality, external to the choreographic cannon, to create radical, affirmative and original dance? As a dyspraxic and dyslexic artist-researcher I am indigenous to this field, therefore this study adopts an autoethnographic methodology to offer a valuable utterance of empirical knowledge and dyspraxic-led authorship to the clinically dominated field of literature. This study is currently in its fourth year of a six-year research period, undergone on a part-time basis. It will result in a new body of performance work derived from and embodying original research alongside a short thesis.

• Supervisor, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, MA Musical Theatre, Approaches to Critical Artistry. Years: 2018, 2019
  
  
• Lecturer, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Level One, Learning to Collaborate. Years: 2018, 2019
  
  
• Lecturer, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice, Level One, Critical Contextual Studies: Performance Studies. Years: 2015, 2017
  
  
• Lecturer, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice, Level Two, Critical Contextual Studies: Choreography. Years: 2016
  
  
• Visiting Lecturer, BA (Hons) Drama and Theatre, York St John University, Performing the Self. Years: 2013

• Practice Research
• Neurodiversity
• Choreography, Dance and Physical Performance
• Disability Studies
• Contemporary Performance
• Autoethnography
• Feminism
• Failure