Laura Karreman is an Associate Professor in Media and Performance Studies in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She teaches in the MA program Contemporary Theatre, Dance and Dramaturgy and the Research MA Media, Art and Performance Studies (MAPS). She is also the programme coordinator of the MAPS programme. She researches the role of embodied knowledge in dance transmission practices, the role of digitization in performance archives, and epistemological questions that relate to new notions of performance knowledge emerging from developments in the area of AI and Human-Robot interaction. Within the research group Transmission in Motion of the Department of Media and Culture Studies (UU), she relates to topics such as dramaturgy, somatechnics and mobilizing the archive. In her research she continues to investigate the rapid growth of motion capture as a tool for movement research and animation in order to critically evaluate the cultural and ethical implications of such practices, which now often remain invisible. Currently, she is involved as a researcher in the NWA project Dramaturgy for Devices (2024-2028), which investigates how the perfoming arts can contribute to innovative design tools and methods, and show the value of skills and knowledge of theater practice for technological innovation. In 2024, she was conference director of the 9th International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO) at Utrecht University. Since then, she is a member of the steering committee of MOCO. 

Together with Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink, she is a co-editor of the Open Access publication Performance Research Methods: Interdisciplinary Methods for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (Open Book Publishers 2025). She also is co-editor of the volume Performance and Posthumanism: Staging Prototypes of Composite Bodies (Palgrave Macmillan 2021). Other publications include the book chapters “Breathing Matters: Breath as Dance Knowledge” in Futures of Dance Studies (The University of Wisconsin Press, 2020) and “How does motion capture mediate dance?” in Contemporary Choreography: A critical reader (Routledge, 2017), and a chapter on “Cultural Dreams of Datafied Bodies” in the Routledge Companion on Performance and Technology (Routledge, forthcoming).

Laura was nominated for the UU Teacher Talent prize of 2021 by students of the Department of Media and Culture studies. You can view the short film (5:31) which she made on her teaching vision for the nomination trajectory by clicking here or on the image above.  

Background

Laura Karreman earned her doctoral degree in Art Studies at Ghent University (2017). She also holds a Research Master degree in Art Studies from the University of Amsterdam (2007) and a BA degree in Theatre, Film and Television studies from Utrecht University (2004). Previously she worked on various projects as a dramaturg and researcher in the Dutch cultural field of visual arts and performance. She worked several years as an advisor for the Theatre and Dance Advisory Board board for the Amsterdam Art Fund. She also taught at the honours programme Theory and Research in the Arts at ArtEZ Institute for the Arts in Arnhem.

PhD research 

Laura Karreman conducted her doctoral research (2012-2017) at the Department of Art, Music and Theatre Studies at Ghent University, Belgium. Her PhD dissertation is titled “The Motion Capture Imaginary: Digital renderings of dance knowledge”. This thesis is the result of a 4-year research project (2012-2016) funded by Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and advised by Christel Stalpaert (Ghent University). This dissertation project examined what implications motion capture technologies have for our understanding of dance and the dancing body.

Laura Karreman holding a Noh mask © Photography: Michiel Bles

Click here or on the image above for a brief introductory clip (00:54) of Laura Karreman's nomination for the UU Teacher Talent award 2021.