The Haunted: That Thing and Night Terrors

A dance performance by Lucy Clark and live reading by Alice Vernon followed by an in-conversation between the artists, THE HAUNTED creator Joanna Holland, moderated by Peter Bonnell.

FREE, online, booking required​​​​​​​
When: Wednesday 10 December 2025
Time: 7- 8:30pm

Event Schedule

• 7.00pm – Settling in and Housekeeping (5 mins)
• 7.05pm – Welcome from DASH and introductions (5 mins)
• 7.10pm – Joanna Holland introduces her practice & The Haunted Project (5 mins)
• 7.15pm – Presentation of That Thing (25 mins)
• 7.40pm – BREAK (10 mins)
• 7.50pm – Alice Vernon reads from Night Terrors (20 mins)
• 8.10pm – In-conversation with Joanna Holland, Lucy Clark & Alice Vernon with audience Q&A (20 mins)
• 8.30pm – Final thank you + Close

Online, booking required​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​BOOK HERE

Strange occurrences at nighttime, listening houses, dancing illness and otherworldly portals… welcome to THE HAUNTED.

Join DASH online for Joanna Holland’s THE HAUNTED – a showcase of works by dance artist Lucy Clark and writer Alice Vernon:

That Thing – dance artist Lucy Clark’s candid and interdisciplinary performance which exposes the reality of hidden disability.

Night Terrors – writer Alice Vernon will share her lived experience of parasomnias by reading extracts from her debut book.

After the performances, DASH’s Executive Director Peter Bonnell will chair an in- conversation with Joanna Holland, Lucy Clark and Alice Vernon discussing their work, wider themes, and inviting audience questions.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​THE HAUNTED is a year-long programme, devised by Joanna, which offers insights into what it feels like emotionally to be haunted. Haunted by bodies, haunted by sickness, haunted by dreams, it shares how people with chronic illness and encountering parasomnia undergo a change in their experience of space and time.

Female-led narratives by Disabled and non-Disabled artists share what it’s like to exist in an ever-shifting, ‘in between’ space. Performances invite you into the eerie, surreal and uncanny space of the liminal.

That Thing and Night Terrors is presented by DASH and funded by Arts Council England.

Code of Conduct

Please read DASH's digital code of conduct which will inform you about guidelines for the Zoom. Please read our code of conduct for participating in any public or closed online activity hosted by DASH. The Digital Code of Conduct for online events was a template provided by Primary.

By attending the event: That Thing and Night Terrors, you have agreed to adhere to what is outlined in ‘DASH’s Digital Code of Conduct’.​​​​​​​
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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Access Information ​​​​​​​

• This session will take place online, via Zoom.
• Closed captions and a session transcript will be available during the event.

• There will be BSL interpretation during the event ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Please contact info@dasharts.org with any queries or access requirements.

Content Warning

THE HAUNTED is 14+. It shares a stark and emotional view of chronic illness with themes of horror, pain, nightmares, death and visions. That Thing by Lucy Clark also has a visual which *may* induce motion sickness. This lasts for a few minutes.

Production credits

That Thing ​​​​​​​
Visuals by DANI&TING with sound design by Philip Kinshuck

Image credit: Lucy Clark performs That Thing © DANI&TING

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Biographies

Lucy Clark

Hello, I'm Lucy. I am a disabled dance artist and choreographer based in West Sussex. I produce highly rhythmical contemporary dance theatre pieces which effortlessly interweave science, social issues and movement. My work combines human experiences with elements of neuropsychology, producing meaningful performances that encourage connection by initiating conversations that usually remain unspoken. ​

Since graduating from Trinity Laban in 2022, I have toured my work across the UK in leading theatres and art venues such as Brighton Dome, The Place, South East Dance, and Cambridge Junction and was commissioned by Dancin' Oxford and Pegasus Theatre to create 'That thing' (2023) which received a 5 star review on its premier in Oxford. www.lucyclarkdance.com


​​​Alice Vernon

Alice's research primarily involves the intersection between storytelling and the history of medicine, with a particular interest in sleep disorders, hallucinations and parapsychology. Her debut narrative non-fiction book, Night Terrors: Troubled Sleep and the Stories We Tell About It, was published by Icon Books in 2022 and was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. She has given talks at Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival and Wellcome Collection, has appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales and Times Radio, and she has written articles for The Wall Street Journal, The Conversation, The Author, The i Newspaper and Canada's Globe and Mail. Her latest book, Ghosted: A History of Ghost-Hunting and Why We Keep Looking, was published by Bloomsbury Sigma in September 2025. Alice is represented by Donald Winchester at Watson, Little literary agency.

Watch Alice's TEDxAberystwyth talk here: https://youtu.be/ZuPvkoDiSr0?si=T_TgpMeU6zeXIHbQ

She welcomes PhD applications exploring aspects of horror in fiction.