Yael Flexer

Dr Yael Flexer serves as Reader in Dance (equivalent to Associate Professor) at the University of Chichester's Conservatoire and has been Artistic Director of mapdance, the University's touring postgraduate dance company, since 2006. As co-artistic director of Flexer & Sandiland, she has created 15 full-length productions touring internationally with commissions from Brighton Festival, Sadler's Wells, Barbican Centre, and South East Dance.

Her PhD research at the University of Chichester (2013) titled "In-Between dancing and the everyday: A Choreographic Investigation" established her focus on performance boundaries. She holds ongoing intergenerational dance classes at South East Dance and regularly presents at conferences worldwide.

Flexer's research centers on digital dance interfaces, intergenerational engagement, and dance for over-60s audiences. Her work generates intimacy through subtle movement vocabulary, wry humor, and informal audience dialogue, intentionally blurring lines between staged performance and everyday life. Current explorations examine visibility/invisibility in aging through digital installations.

Her scholarly output reveals consistent investigation into choreographic drivers of age and digital mediation, with recent works analyzing historical traces in contemporary dance and aging bodies in performance. The forthcoming Routledge chapter (2025) synthesizes her practice-led research on "Acting Our Age".

As mapdance director, Flexer mentors postgraduate students in professional choreographic development. Her projects receive substantial funding from Arts Council England, University of Chichester Research Funds, University of Stavanger, and international partners including Dance East and Motus Festival, enabling global touring of works like "Imagining Otherwise".

Flexer & Sandiland functions as her primary research laboratory, currently developing installations "An Elevated Platform" and "An Obscure Camera" alongside live works. The company maintains residencies at Towner Gallery and InSpace Gallery while collaborating with institutions like Kelim Choreographic Centre to advance intergenerational dance practice.