Personal statement

Professor Vicky Hunter is a Practitioner-Researcher, Visiting Research Fellow in Site Dance and PhD supervisor in the School of Music and Performing Arts at Bath Spa. She is formerly head of the MA Choreography and Professional Practices programme at the University of Chichester. She joined Bath Spa in October 2023 and leads the AHRC ‘Dancing Otherwise: Exploring Pluriversal Practices’ and is a member of the Ecotones research project led by Professor Amanda Bayley.

Her research is transdisciplinary and includes site dance practice and theory, embodied research methods and post human feminism, eco-somatic awareness, environmental choreography, practice-research methods, dance and new materialisms.

Vicky convenes the ‘Creative Practice and Embodied Knowledge’ research group with Michelle Elliott at Bath Spa and the cross-institutional ‘Environment and Experience’ research group. She has previously led the BA Dance programme at the University of Leeds; taught on the MA Choreography programme at LIPA; contributed to the delivery of the MA Choreography programme at Fonty’s Academy in Tilburg, Holland; and the BA Dance and Culture programme at the University of Surrey.

Her writing on site dance has been published in Literary Geographies, New Theatre Quarterly, Performance Research, Choreographic Practices and Contemporary Theatre Review. Her edited volume Moving Sites: Investigating Site-Specific Dance Performance was published by Routledge in 2015, and she is co-author of (Re) Positioning Site-Dance (Intellect, 2019) with Melanie Kloetzel (Canada) and Karen Barbour (Aotearoa New Zealand).

Vicky's monograph Site, Dance and Body: Movement, Materials and Corporeal Engagement explores human-environment synergies through material intra-actions and was published by Palgrave in 2021. Her practice-based research includes Dance Site and Body (Barcelona, 2018) and A Holding Space (Kingley Vale Nature Reserve, West Sussex, 2021).

Qualifications

  • 2003-2009: University of Leeds, PhD site-specific choreography
  • 2000-2001: University of Leeds (Bretton Ha) MA Performance Studies
  • 1997-1998: University of Brighton, PGCE Dance, Secondary Education
  • 1991-1994: Middlesex University, London, BA (Hons) Performing Arts (Majoring in Dance)

Research outputs

book

Butterworth, J and Hunter, V, eds. (2026) Contemporary choreography: a critical reader. 3rd ed. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9781032645704

book

Hunter, V and Chubb, S, eds. (2025) Encountering environments through the arts: interdisciplinary embodiments, politics, and imaginaries. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9781032733791

book

Hunter, V and Turner, C, eds. (2024) The Routledge companion to site-specific performance. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9781032254104

book

Hunter, V (2021) Site, dance and body: movement, materials and corporeal engagement. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. ISBN 9783030648022

book

Barbour, K, Hunter, V and Kloetzel, M, eds. (2019) (Re)positioning site dance: local acts, global perspectives. Intellect, Bristol. ISBN 9781783209989

book

Hunter, V, ed. (2015) Moving sites: investigating site-specific dance performance. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9780415713252

book_section

Orlek, J, McAndrew, C, Cerulli, C, Ferreri, M, Hunter, V, Balzarini, E, Belfield, A, Stratford, H and Wegmann, R (2026) 'Sticking with the dance, diffractive readings of care over time.' In: Lieberman, O and Zambelli, A, eds. Situated ecologies of care. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 295-316. ISBN 9781041125488

book_section

Farman, V, Hunter, V and Mitchell, B (2026) 'Embodied architectures: moving and drawing with sensory and digital data.' In: Lieberman, O and Zambelli, A, eds. Situated ecologies of care. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 270-280. ISBN 9781041125488

book_section

Hunter, V (2026) 'Dances yet to come: the possibilities of performance that never was 鈥� or only ever lived in our imaginations.' In: Verger, N.B and Mattson, D, eds. Possibility studies and societal futures: imagination, change and preservation across disciplines. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 147-168. ISBN 9783032263780

book_section

Hunter, V (2026) 'Dancing places: sites, situations and taking place.' In: Butterworth, J and Hunter, V, eds. Contemporary choreography: a critical reader. 3rd ed. Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9781032645704

book_section

Hunter, V (2025) 'Researching site dance: entangled enmeshments.' In: Harman, G, ed. Practitioner perspectives on dance research. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 126-142. ISBN 9781032566795

book_section

Hunter, V (2024) '鈥楢 holding space鈥�: emergence and entanglement in tree spaces.' In: Hunter, V and Turner, C, eds. The Routledge companion to site-specific performance. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 361-374. ISBN 9781032254104

book_section

Hunter, V (2024) 'Danser la plage : entre terre, mer et ciel.' In: Clavel, J, Levain, A and Revelin, F, eds. Des vies avec des plages: exp茅riences, relations, devenirs. University of Rennes, Rennes, pp. 131-142. ISBN 9782753594739

book_section

Hunter, V (2022) 'Traversing terrain and staying put: performing endurance.' In: Salazar, N and Scheerder, J, eds. Contemporary meanings of endurance: an interdisciplinary approach. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 40-59. ISBN 9781032343853

book_section

Hunter, V (2020) 'Dancing-walking with trees.' In: Billinghurst, H, Hind, C and Smith, P, eds. Walking bodies: papers, provocations, actions from Walking鈥檚 New Movements, the conference. Triarchy Press, Charmouth. ISBN 9781913743093

book_section

Hunter, V (2019) 'Performing parks and squares.' In: Barbour, K, Hunter, V and Kloetzel, M, eds. (Re)positioning site dance: local acts, global perspectives. Intellect, Bristol, pp. 187-216. ISBN 9781783209989

book_section

Hunter, V (2019) 'Material touchstones: weaving histories through site-specific dance performance.' In: Barbour, K, Hunter, V and Kloetzel, M, eds. (Re)positioning site dance: local acts, global perspectives. Intellect, Bristol, pp. 133-156. ISBN 9781783209989

book_section

Hunter, V (2019) 'Sited English folk dance as a form of site dance: heritage, tradition and resistance.' In: Barbour, K, Hunter, V and Kloetzel, M, eds. (Re)positioning site dance: local acts, global perspectives. Intellect, Bristol, pp. 77-102. ISBN 9781783209989

book_section

Barbour, K, Hunter, V and Kloetzel, M (2019) 'Introduction: (re)positioning site dance: local acts, global perspectives.' In: Barbour, K, Hunter, V and Kloetzel, M, eds. (Re)positioning site dance: local acts, global perspectives. Intellect, Bristol, pp. 1-20. ISBN 9781783209989

book_section

Hunter, V (2019) 'Scoring and siting: improvisatory approaches to site-specific dance-making.' In: Midgelow, V.L, ed. The Oxford handbook of improvisation in dance. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 634-652. ISBN 9780199396986

book_section

Hunter, V (2016) 'Radicalizing institutional space: revealing the site through phenomenological movement inquiry.' In: Shaw, D.B and Humm, M, eds. Radical space: exploring politics and practice. Rowman & Littlefield, London, pp. 65-84. ISBN 9781783481521

book_section

Hunter, V (2015) 'Introduction.' In: Hunter, V, ed. Moving sites: investigating site-specific dance performance. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 1-22. ISBN 9780415713252

book_section

Hunter, V (2015) 'Moving sites: transformation and re-location in site-specific dance performance.' In: Hunter, V, ed. Moving sites: investigating site-specific dance performance. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 459-476. ISBN 9780415713252

book_section

Hunter, V (2015) 'Spatial translation, embodiment and the site-specific event.' In: Hunter, V, ed. Moving sites: investigating site-specific dance performance. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 178-198. ISBN 9780415713252

book_section

Hunter, V (2015) 'Embodying the site: the here and now in site-specific dance performance.' In: Hunter, V, ed. Moving sites: investigating site-specific dance performance. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 95-114. ISBN 9780415713252

book_section

Hunter, V (2015) 'Experiencing space: the implications for site-specific dance performance.' In: Hunter, V, ed. Moving sites: investigating site-specific dance performance. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 25-39. ISBN 9780415713252

article

Hunter, V, Perazzo, D and Elliott, M (2025) 'Dancing otherwise: new assemblages for pluriversal practices.' Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 5 (2). pp. 59-80. ISSN 2767-6013

article

Thornhill, I, Bayley, A, Collins, T.M, Goto, R, Hinde, K, Hunter, V, Kang, J, Kim, H, Kim, J, Kim, J.G, Lawfull, S, Lee, T, O'Brien, L, Rabiey, M, Shin, W.S, Sochacka, A, Walton, S, Wishart, S and Yu, J (2025) 'Natural soundscapes as a disciplinary bridge in pursuit of sustainability: research themes and priorities.' Ecosystems and People, 21 (1). e2571450. ISSN 2639-5916

article

Hunter, V (2022) 'A holding space.' Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities, 3 (1). pp. 93-96. ISSN 2717-8943

article

Moya Pellitero, A.M and Hunter, V (2020) 'Somatic landscapes and urban identities: mapping emotional engagements through site, dance and body connections in Raval, Barcelona, a case study.' Athens Journal of Architecture, 6 (3). pp. 249-272. ISSN 2407-9472

article

Hunter, V, Kloetzel, M and Barbour, K (2019) 'Editorial - Dancing urbanisms.' Choreographic Practices, 10 (1). pp. 3-6. ISSN 2040-5669

article

Hunter, V (2019) 'Vernacular mapping: site dance and embodied urban cartographies.' Choreographic Practices, 10 (1). pp. 127-144. ISSN 2040-5669

article

Palmer, H, Hunter, V, Foley, J and Kucia, K (2018) 'Situated knowledge, transmissions of practice and parasitic endeavors.' RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research (9).

article

Hunter, V (2017) 'Perecquian perspectives: dialogues with site-dance (or, 鈥榦n being here and there鈥�).' Literary Geographies, 3 (1). pp. 27-49. ISSN 2397-1797