"Duo Piece": Dance, Down syndrome and Social Change

Co-creating dance research with and for dancers with Down syndrome

Dancekin RMIT “Duo Piece” is a powerful collaboration between dancers, artists and researchers exploring how dance with people with Down syndrome can spark connection, creativity, and social change.

Featuring: Dr Belinda Johnson, Dr Tamara Borovica, Mx Tristan Sinclair, and the Dancekin ensemble

Around the world, dancers with Down syndrome are transforming stages—and stories. Dance doesn’t just move bodies. It moves ideas, disrupting tired assumptions and celebrating embodied knowledge.

This Social Sciences Week event spotlights a bold RMIT collaboration between researchers, artists, and dancers with and without Down syndrome. Together, they asked: What happens when we centre the lived experience of dancers with Down syndrome—not as an add-on, but as the heart of dance-making and research?

You’ll hear from the team behind Dancekin, a new Melbourne-based collective shaped by this research. The panel will share their unique “duo piece” approach to collaborative dance and social change—and the new model of integrated dance it inspired.

✨ Live performance from Dancekin
✨ Panel conversation with dancers and researchers
✨ Interactive movement invitation for attendees

Join us as we explore:

• What kind of voice does a dancing body hold?

• How can collective movement challenge hierarchy and celebrate difference?

• Where does knowledge live—if not only in the mind, but also in the body?

This is dance research in motion—where practice meets theory, and inclusion leads the way.

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This event is a part of Social Sciences Week 2025,
Hosted by the Social Equity Research Centre, RMIT University.

RMIT University is a proud sponsor of the Social Sciences Week.