Carolyn Roy UK

Carolyn Roy has been a member of Musarc since 2023, participating as a vocal performer and writer in most of their projects since joining. She lives with unilateral hearing loss, which, as well as prompting explorations of mis-spoken words, (bad) singing and soundings, has produced a particular sensitivity to resonance – specifically the way that our bodies are touched and moved by sound and the more subtle resonance generated by bodies in shared space.

Carolyn is a London-based, freelance dancer and writer with a PhD in dance, who works in the independent dance sector. As a practitioner channelling the somatic processes and understanding we use as dancers through other art forms, her body of presented/published work includes poetic and critical texts, sound narratives, film and photographic projects as well as live performances and political actions. In recent years her practice has focused on examining philosophical concepts through the materiality of bodies. Performance and text projects (2018–2022) explored what it is to be with others in this world, what it is to be-with as dancers, the politics (and pleasure) of dancing, with reference to Jean-Luc Nancy’s Être Singulier Pluriel. She is currently working in collaboration with dance-maker Amy Voris using scores derived from Experiential Anatomy as a way of encountering propositions made by Anne Dufourmantelle in Puissance de la douceur.

Carolyn has performed in work by Gaby Agis, Marina Collard, Keira Greene, Derek Jarman, Graeme Miller, Florence Peake, Pacitti Company, Tino Sehgal, and Margarita Zaffrilla Olayo. She has been a visiting lecturer at the Architectural Association, Bartlett School of Architecture, East London University, Cambridge University, Lincoln University and teaches regularly at Trinity Laban, LCDS and Independent Dance, as well as leading workshops for non-dancers in community and healthcare settings. Carolyn is an activist member of artist-led collective, Chisenhale Dance Space.