UCalgary Dance Research Conference 2026

Thomas Poulsen Symposium on Dance and Disability
Part of the 4th Annual UCalgary Dance Research Conference

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23
Location: Aux. Gym (KNA117) at the University of Calgary Campus
Morning Session — 10:00AM to 11:45AM
Ashley King - Audio Description and Dance
Bio: Ashley King is a Mexican-Canadian, legally blind actor and playwright based in Mohkinstsis. She is a graduate of Company of Rogues Actors’ Studio, having completed their Master Class actor training program. Throughout her artistic practice, she strives to advocate and to centre her work around equal representation, accessibility and inclusion. With a bachelor's degree in Journalism, she is passionate about exploring the many ways we can share authentic experiences. Her writing—both past and present—focuses on personal lived experiences, striving to bridge divides and foster understanding across diverse perspectives.Acting credits include Frankenstein (Jupiter Theatre), Argonautika (University of Calgary), Twelve Angry Jurors (Company of Rogues), Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors (Company of Rogues), and her role on the television show By Hook or By Cook (AMI).
Image Description: A close-up portrait of Ashley King with long, dark brown hair parted in the centre, brown eyes, and coral lipstick. She wears a dark green sleeveless top and faces the camera with a neutral expression against a softly blurred grey-green background.
Afternoon Session — 12:00PM to 01:45PM
Dr. Jose Miguel ‘Miggy’ Esteban - Intersections of Movement
Bio: Dr. Jose Miguel ‘Miggy’ Esteban is a dance/movement artist, educator, and scholar. Situated at the intersection of disability studies, mad studies, dance/performance studies, black studies, and queer studies, Miggy’s research, teaching, and artistic work explores disability/mad arts as abolitionist sites for reimagining artistic, scholarly, and pedagogical practice. They are currently the incoming co-director of Arts Assembly and the Tanis Doe Post-Doctoral Fellow in Gender, Disability and Social Justice at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Disability Studies where their current project examines crip/mad/queer/trans choreographic and improvisational practices of access and care. Miggy’s work has been published in Performance Matters, Canadian Theatre Review, Choreographic Practices, Disability Studies Quarterly, Feral Feminisms, Journal for Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, Theatre Journal, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, and in various edited volumes. Miggy’s most recent artistic project, pahinga ka muna, transforms audio descriptions into choreographic scores that invite audiences to join them in pursuing improvised rituals of navigating mad and queer routes to embody Filipinx (un)rest.
An iteration of this work was presented by DanceWorks in June 2026.https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9655-9439
Image Description: A side profile of Miggy, who crouches amidst bushes and white flowers that recede blurrily into the background. Miggy’s fingers gently crawl up from a long-sleeved maroon shirt, over chin and lips, and toward a small ocean of black, wavy hair. The brown skin of Miggy’s cheek is caressed by the palm of a hand, supporting closed eyes that look down in contemplation.