Carolien Hermans

Carolien Hermans graduated cum laude in orthopedagogy from Radboud University Nijmegen and took the master's degree in DAS Choreography in Amsterdam. For several years, she worked as a performer and choreographer, before she joined the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht as a teacher.

At the CvA, Carolien teaches at the Music in Education Department. Together with Adri Schreuder she developed the Master Musical Leadership, a master programme that takes inclusion and participation as a starting point for collaborative music making (also called musicking (Christopher Small, 1998)).

In 2022, Carolien obtained her PhD at the Academy for Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University with artistic research into embodied processes of giving meaning in improvisation and play. Her research was theoretically founded on enactivism, phenomenology and post-structuralism.

Carolien Herman writes and publishes regularly in a variety of forms, inclusing books, essays and academic publications.

Carolien's research focuses on the theme of Musical Learning Cultures. Read more about this theme here.

Former Publications

Hermans, C. (2018). ‘Let’s dance: participatory sense-making in an 8-year-old boy with autism.’ Journal of Dance Education, 00, 1-11. DOI: 10.1080/15290824.2018.1422254

Hermans, C. (2018). ‘Joint action and joint attention: dance improvisation and children’s physical play as participatory sense- making activities.’ Choreographic Practices, 9(2), 311-332. DOI: 10.1386/chor.9.2.187_2.

Lamers, V., Hermans, C., & Bremmer, M. (2018). De Multi-Modale Muziekbubbel: Muzieklessen in het Speciaal Onderwijs aan Kinderen met een Ernstige Beperking. Amsterdam: AHK, Lectoraat Kunsteducatie.

Hermans, C. (2019). ‘Becoming Animal: Childrens’ Physical play and Dance improvisation as Transformative Activities that Generate Novel Meanings.’ Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 11(2), 157-175. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/jdsp_00003_1

Hermans, C. (2020). ‘Of the animal body: transforming the notion of disability through different readings of touch, prosthetic devices, and contact improvisation.’ In: M. Sarco-Thomas (Ed.), Thinking Touch in Partnering and Contact Improvisation: Philosophy, Pedagogy, Practice, (pp. 221-240). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Bremmer, M., Hermans, C., & Lamers, V. (2020). ‘The charmed dyad: Multimodal music lessons for pupils with severe or multiple disabilities.’ Research Studies in Music Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X20974802

Hermans, C. (2021). ‘A Sense of Balancing: Moving In-Between the Vertical and Horizontal Plane.’ Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts, 15(1), 144-153.

Hermans, C. (2021). ‘To Touch and to Be Touched: Interconnectedness and Participatory Sense-making in Play and Dance Improvisation.’ Journal of Dance Education. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2020.1836647

Hermans, C. (2022). ‘Oceanic Feeling: Towards a Fluid Philosophy of Moving Bodies.’ Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 13(1-2), 133-143. https://doi.org/10.1386/jdsp_00042_1

Hermans, C. (2022). ‘Between Scribbling and Writing: The Line that is on its way.’ Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice, 7(1), 39-58. https://doi.org/10.1386/drtp_00078_1

Hermans, C. (2022). Participatory Sense-making in Physical Play and Dance Improvisation: Drawing Meaningful Connections Between Self, Others and World. Doctoral thesis. ACPA, Leiden University

Hermans, C. (2023). ‘Let’s play: re-enactment of affective traces through dance improvisation’. Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry, 3(1), https://doi.org/10.22387/CAP2022.73

Hermans, C. (2023). Pedagogiek van het onderweg zijn: een verzameling essays over het pedagogisch milieu, het dialogisch proces en het onderwijs als tussenruimte. Antwerpen: Garant Uitgeverij.

Hermans, C. (2023). ‘Gadeslaan, ter plaatse trappelen en aandachtige betrokkenheid: pedagogische vertrekpunten voor de beginnende docent.’ School- en Klaspraktijk, 63(4), 34-39.

Hermans, C. (2024). ‘The storyline approach as a didactic tool to promote efficacy beliefs of (student) teachers in creative music activities with young children.’ Research Studies in Music Education. Currently under review.

Hermans, C. (2024). ‘Tussenstrook: geen land en nog geen zee.’ To be published in Cultuur+Educatie, editors Thomas De Baets (BE) & Peter De Graeve (BE).