Rebecca Barnstaple

 

Rebecca Barnstaple, Assistant Professor Theatre Studies & Creative Arts, Health and Wellness, School of English and Theatre Studies, College of Arts, University of Guelph, is an interdisciplinary scholar in arts and health. With a PhD in Dance Studies completed in tandem with the Graduate Program in Neuroscience from York University, Rebecca’s research investigates biological dimensions of culture and the impacts of participation in the arts. She has held fellowships at TU Berlin using mobile brain-body imaging to study dance-based learning and Wake Forest University contributing to Randomized Control Trials involving dance. Rebecca most recently held positions at Chigamik Community Health Centre in Midland, Ontario as the Manager of Community Initiatives, Research and Innovation and the architect of a Social Prescribing program, and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. A graduate of the National Centre for Dance Therapy at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (2015), she provides education and training in dance therapy and associated research globally. Rebecca has been involved in the development and delivery of improvisational arts and health initiatives in the United States (IMPROVment, Wake Forest University) and Canada (SingWell, Toronto Metropolitan University; Piece of Mind, McGill; Dance for Health, Nova Scotia) and has served in a leadership capacity for professional organizations including the Dance Movement Therapy Association of Canada (Accreditation and Certification Committee), the American Dance Therapy Association (Research and Practice Committee), the International Association of Dance Medicine Science (International Benchmarking Standards Task Force, Dance for Health SIG), and the International Association for Creative Arts in Education and Therapy.