Ohio State Dance and Neuroscience Alumna Kelsey Kempner (BFA and BS 2019) discovered a gap between the large amount of dance therapy work being done to successfully increase the brain activity of students with developmental disorders and the small amount of scientific research documenting the practice. With her passion for dance and neuroscience, Kempner chose Ohio State to ambitiously pursue degrees in both rigorous disciplines so she could close the investigative aperture between these two exciting fields. After consuming knowledge in the classrooms of the Nisonger Center and studios of the Department of Dance, Kempner began creating knowledge about the importance of this work with her senior project, Dance as a Physical Training for Autism and Other Developmental Disorders. Armed with approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and financial support from the Arts Undergraduate Research Scholarship at Ohio State, Kempner began her research into the effects of dance as a physical training for the motor abilities of children with developmental disorders. She was guided by her primary project advisor Ohio State Dance Alumna Dr. Lise Worthen-Chaudhari (PhD, MFA and CRC) a research scientist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center.
For her project, Kempner taught weekly dance classes emphasizing the increase of body awareness, motor coordination and social interaction to preschoolers with normal development and developmental disorders of varying abilities at the Nisonger Center Early Childhood Education Program. She also created a solo about her experience called Play!, which she performed at the Senior Concert in spring 2019. “I saw this project as only the beginning of a career engaging the possibilities of dance in neuroscience,” says Kempner. “[It] was significant in that it allowed me to explore an actual, feasible link between my two passions, proving that a career in dance and science is not only possible, but of great importance to the fields of art and science…. Overall, this pilot study suggests that dance as a physical training may improve body awareness in terms of balance in children with developmental disorders.”
Kempner currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is working as a dancer, performer and activist. She recently performed in Heidi Latsky’s ON DISPLAY in East Harlem at El Barrio Artspace and in pieces by Igal Perry and Zack Tang in Peridance’s BLUEPRINT Concert.
Kelsey Kempner performs Play! at the Senior Concert in spring 2019.
