There is an existing ideology prevalent in our culture that radicalized, and gendered subjects are expected to endure copious amounts of pain when it pertains to their menstrual cycles. I call this into question and aim to explore alternative methods of alleviating dysmenorrhea beyond hormonal contraceptives and SSRIs. Focusing specifically on BIPOC menstruating populations, I have been the primary investigator of a study examining the effects of community dance and affinity spaces on menstrual pain management. Participants come into the dance studio weekly to engage in various open dance practices with others, in addition to journaling, guided massage, and discussion. The dance practices range from traditional Chinese practices like Qigong to local community dance practices like Dance Church. In addition to weekly sessions, I host quarterly BIPOC Jams open to the public, to share the knowledge with the wider community, cultivating a space for BIPOC to engage in freedom dreaming, community building, and collective healing. I will explore what a future of community healthcare would look like, moving away from Western models of healthcare that focuses solely on the individual. Drawing from practices like community acupuncture where the healing experience happens with others rather than in isolation, I am curious to investigate how having a shared dancing experience impacts and shifts the emotional and physical well-being of participants. I am exploring the care relationships that form in BIPOC affinity spaces and how dance as a language facilitates a different type of embodied healing. I will be presenting the structure that I have used for weekly sessions and the BIPOC Jams. I will also share excerpts of participant experiences and reflections from both spaces. I am drawing upon existing theories around care work, somatic abolition, and pain management to develop a practice of community care that builds upon existing discourse. 

While taking multiple general science courses and dance courses as a double-degree student, I have devised creative ways to balance my studying and dance training. One involved creating dance choreography to memorize organic chemistry reactions, which inspired me to choreograph a dance piece named after the motor cortex “Homunculus” for Aura Dance Company’s (RSO) annual spring show in 2023. This sparked my interest in organizing a project to teach this learning structure that may be useful to others. With help from Professor Hannah Wiley and MFA candidate Beth Twigs, I designed dance workshops for my peers to learn more about neuroscience and dance. NeuroDance is a multidimensional project to educate students about neuroscience through dance-making tools. The project involved organizing workshops where participants learned movements inspired by molecular neuroscience, neuroanatomy, and skeletal anatomy. Participants modeled ions, neurons, and planes of movement through facilitated movement phrases and seeds. To assess learning outcomes, quizzes were given before and after the workshops. Volunteers were recruited from on-campus social, dance, and neuroscience groups, and outreach will occur via social media and posters. The data from the learning aspect of these workshops house the scientific results, but the movement observed served as the foundation for a larger choreographic work presented in the Department of Dance’s Dance Majors Concert (2025). The physicality and repetition inherent in dance offer a unique and enriching platform for learning. I aim further to explore the potential of dance education in STEM with this pilot study.