Doctors can dance

Between 2008–2010 the School of Medicine at Queen's University Belfast funded and supported two unique and intensive three week interdisciplinary performance projects in which medical and drama students worked together to create an experimental dance theatre piece. One of the unique aspects of this collaboration was that the medical students who participated in the project received the same credit as their peers taking a three-week clinical elective. This paper, which is not a conventional academic paper, is a reflection on that project, and is based on a keynote address given by Anna Newell, the director of project, at the 8th Annual Galway Symposium on Higher Education in June 2010. The Symposium title was 'Creative Thinking: Re-imagining the University'. The sections in boxes are direct quotes from Anna Newell's address.