Multidisciplinary perspectives on co-creating a graphic novel about Parkinson’s dance experiences in a Danish participatory research project

This presentation focuses on transdisciplinary and community collaboration as a co-creative research process culminating in a 2021 graphic novel about Parkinson’s dance experience, Mens vi bevæges. The Danish original will be published internationally in English as Moving along.

The graphic novel emanated from “Dancing with Parkinson’s,” a research project based at Roskilde University, Denmark (funded by the VELUX Foundations, 2019-2022). Partners included the Tivoli Ballet School (who cooperate with David Leventhal, and the Dance for PD® program globally) and the Danish Parkinson’s Association.

From the project’s inception, the intention has been to publish a graphic novel which would communicate research results through personal stories emerging from collaborative research activities. The stories and characters in As We Move Along represent experiences of illness, caregiving, and rehabilitation via composites that developed through an iterative arts-based research process led by 3 transdisciplinary researchers and a project coordinator from Roskilde University, involving 28 co-researchers (persons with Parkinson’s and relatives), 8 dance instructors, 3 graphic artists, a manuscript consultant.

The presentation concerns the processes and ethics of representation and collaboration, and is structured around the following questions:

- What was your role in the collaboration for this book? How were your perspectives and experiences—both professional and personal—utilized?

- What are the advantages and disadvantages of creating a graphic novel using this process?

- How does this book give voice to various experiences of Parkinson’s? How does using character and event “composites” impact whose story gets told, by whom it gets told, and how it gets told?

- How do you resonate with the representation of Parkinson’s and dance in the book? Which aspects mirror your own experience, as exemplified in one of the composite characters and/or scenes?

- What has it meant for you to get the book published?

Sample images from the original Danish book (2021) will be analyzed and discussed.