Communication in Dance: The Autistic Perspective / Esme Rose Morton-Fallows (2024)

This research embraced an explorative and enriched process that examined the practice of stimming as a choreographic tool. The neurodivergent community have made recent shifts and progress in achieving awareness, acceptance, and understanding within society and its current impact within academia. However, there is still further progress to be made to achieve full accessibility for all. Under this premise, this project was conducted to add to the under-researched field of stimming as a choreographic tool as well as contribute to the literature on the greater fields of autism, neurodiversity, nonverbal communication, and stimming. To achieve a comprehensive study the themes of representation, communication, and exploration were researched, specifically, stimming and its presence as a nonverbal communication method present within neurodivergents. Through informed praxis, a choreographic performance was achieved by using a stimming movement language. The outcome informed audiences of the nonverbal language of stimming and provided sensory exploration for participants.