Emory Friends of Dance Lecture: “Researching Performance – The (Black) Dancing Body as a Measure of Culture”

Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Professor Emerita, Temple University

Tues., Feb. 8, 2011, 7:30 p.m. Dance Studio, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, 1700 N. Decatur Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-727-5050, kristen.gwock@emory.edu, www.arts.emory.edu, free.

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. Co-sponsored by the Department of African American Studies.