Dance; Flamenco; Dance History; Roma Community; Cultural Heritage; Digital Technologies; Participatory Research, Sociology, Intersectionality, Gender, Human Rights, Migration, Hip Hop, grassroots, Dance Films, NHS, Inclusion, Equity, Ethics, Disability.

Rosamaria is a dancer and choreographer, Dance Historian and Critic, Roma Scholar, Sociologist, Flamenco Historian and Peace Activist who graduated from UW-Madison and went on to complete her Master’s in Dance History and Criticism from UNM-Albuquerque (USA). Her PhD is in Sociology with a focus on Roma women, intersectionality, dialogic feminism and communicative methodologies.

Rosamaria is a professional dancer, choreographer, curator and qualified teacher, who has lived and danced in various parts of the world and collaborated with many Flamenco greats and other leaders in the Dance field. She has taught throughout Europe and the US at places like UW-Madison, UIUC, Boston Conservatory, Brown University and at various other places in Germany, Spain and Turkey. She is a dance writer who makes regular contributions to Bachtrack Magazine and Flamenco News having also danced with Protein Dance Company in the UK.

Rosamaria is involved in various EU funded projects which aim to make education accessible to vulnerable groups and ethnic minorities and sits on various Boards: Roma Coventry Project (UK), Drom Kotar Mestipen Roma Women's Association (Spain) and the Early Dance Circle (UK). At the moment she is an artist-researcher at Coventry University’s Centre for Dance Research based in the UK. She is also an independent artist, dancer, curator and teacher who has organised various festivals and exhibitions.

Her dance films have screened in the UK, US, Colombia, Mexico, Greece, Cyprus and Germany and her latest documentary won best documentary from the UK in 2016. She has started her own production company, RosaSenCis Film Production Co., which worked on the Society for Dance Research Oral History Project. The company aims to create dance films and documentaries that capture stories and reflect embodied traditions that might otherwise be lost.

She has also managed major EU-Funded projects and local City of Culture Partnership projects and organised  the Hip Hop Talking Back: artists and researchers events. Rosamaria collaborates closely with the University of Barcelona’s Centre for Research on Theories and Practices for Overcoming Inequalities (CREA).She sits on academic Journals as an editor and those include the Journal for Embodied Practices, International Journal of Romani Studies and OneDance UK’s HOTFOOT Online magazine. 

Cisneros brings conceptual grounding in debates around decolonising dance, archives and practice research and through her consultancy work for the International Council on Archives, leading their ethical archives project, and chair of the Equality and Diversity Task Force for Europeana Foundation, Cisneros is well placed to discuss EDI-related tensions. She is also located in a network of practitioner and researchers working in ‘inclusive’ and ‘marginalised’ dance practices and supports services (e.g. NHS, Save the Children, EU-Commission) to explore the potential of arts and culture in their services. 

I am inspired by interdisciplinary work and collaborative projects and modes of working. The combination of the practical and the theoretical underpins all of my research interests and I am guided by bringing people together. Working with vulnerable groups and using the arts and education to engage communities and participate in projects that lead to a more inclusive society, is what I am hoping to achieve with my academic research. Feminism, Hip Hop studies, intersectionality, cultural heritage and digital technologies is also a key part of my current practice.