Researching Performance February 8, 2011

Guided by the premise that dance is a barometer of society, Professor Brenda Dixon Gottschild gauges the pulse of contemporary American performance. Based on three of her published books and using visual images and her own dancing body to demonstrate, she examines the pervasive Africanist presence in American culture and the sociopolitical implications of its invisibility. With dance as the focus and race the parameter, she reveals Africanisms in modern and postmodern dance and American ballet. A book-signing will follow the lecture.