Art-based research as waves of embodied engagement: reflections on ‘Across the Tamar’

‘Across the Tamar’ began as a research project exploring the physical activity, health and lifestyle of women over 60 in Cornwall, UK. It evolved into a multidimensional, long-running art-based health research project incorporating songs, stories and poetry into live performances, an audio CD and series of YouTube films. In this article, we share some dialogical reflections on our journey through the project to suggest that an important contribution of art-based research is to facilitate – or expect – multiple waves of embodied engagement. We explore three waves of embodied engagement that occurred during our work on the ‘Across the Tamar’ project.