Academic Employment

2016–present
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Regular Faculty (Associate Professor equivalent; institution without tenure system; Provost letter provided upon request), Performance Studies and Critical Dance Studies, The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance.

2014–16
Skidmore College, Visiting Assistant Professor, Dance Department.

2011–14
Wayne State University, Assistant Professor, Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance.

2006–09
University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Student Instructor, Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.

Education

2006–11
University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. in Performance Studies.

  • Dissertation: “Body Impossible: Dynamics of Race, Sexuality, and Virtuosity in the Dance of Desmond Richardson”
  • Chair: Shannon Jackson, Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; Rhetoric
  • Readers:
    • Linda Williams, Film; Rhetoric
    • Brandi Wilkins Catanese, Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; African American Studies
    • Thomas DeFrantz, Dance Program; Department of African and African American Studies (Duke University)

2003–06
Columbia University, B.A. with Departmental Honors in Anthropology.

  • Thesis Advisors: Michael Taussig, M. Elaine Combs-Schilling
  • Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude

Publications

Books

  • Prophylactic Aesthetics: Latex, Spandex, and Sexual Anxieties Performed, monograph, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, Theater: Theory/Text/Performance Series, under contract.
  • Disavowing Virtuosity, Performing Aspiration: Dance and Performance Interviews, Abingdon: Routledge, under contract.
  • Body Impossible: Desmond Richardson and the Politics of Virtuosity, monograph, New York: Oxford University Press, Oxford Studies in Dance Theory Series, under contract, publication date: Feb. 2, 2024. Order here:           OUP

Essays in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • “Public Pubic: Narcissister’s Performance of Race, Disavowal, and Aspiration,” TDR/The Drama Review, TDR Consortium Special Issue, New Materialisms and Performance Studies, Ed. Rebecca Schneider, Winter 2015 (T228, 59.4), 101–116.
  • “The Muse of Virtuosity: Desmond Richardson, Race, and Choreographic Falsetto,” Dance Research Journal, Dec 2013 (45.3), 53–74.
  • “Dancing Social,” epistolary essay on Narcissister with Barbara Browning, Theatre Survey, Ed. Patrick Anderson, Fall 2012 (52), 269–277.
  • “Performing Acupuncture on a Necropolitical Body: Choreographer Faustin Linyekula’s Studios Kabako in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo,” Dance Research Journal, Winter 2010 (42.2), 12–27.

Editor/Contributor

  • CalArts, Website, Editor, Clubbing 2020, Archive of Literary, Performance, and Multi-Media work from 2020 Graduate Course (Clubbing), The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, April 2021.
  • CalArts, Book/Zine Series, Editor, Issue 2: Clubbing, The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, Summer 2019.
  • CalArts, Book/Zine Series, Editor/Contributor, Issue 1: Imagine a Dance Training, The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, Summer 2018.

Chapters in Edited Collections

  • “Virtuosity,” in Edges of Ailey Catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art, solicited by Adrienne Edwards, Curator, 2023.
  • “Disavowing Virtuosity, Performing Aspiration: Choreographies of Anticlimax in the Work of Yve Laris Cohen, Narcissister, and John Jasperse,” The Futures of Dance Studies, Eds. Susan Manning, Janice Ross, and Rebecca Schneider (University of Wisconsin Press), 2020.
  • “Geo-Choreography and Necropolitics: Faustin Linyekula’s Studios Kabako, Democratic Republic of Congo,” Choreographies of 21st Century Wars, Eds. Jens Giersdorf and Gay Morris (Oxford University Press), 2016.
  • “Disciplining Black Swan, Animalizing Ambition,” Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen, Ed. Melissa Blanco Borelli (Oxford University Press), 2014.

Book Reviews in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • Dance and the Nation: Performance, Ritual, and Politics in Sri Lanka, Susan Reed. Dance Research Journal, Winter 2011 (43.2) (solicited).

Performance Reviews in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • “The Off-Staging of William Forsythe’s Dance in the Museum,” Co-Authored by Paola Escobar, Yanting Li, Julia Meyer, Marissa Osato, caa.reviews: A Publication of the College Art Association (March 2018).
  • “Exquisite Distraction: David Roussève’s Saudade,” e-misférica (April 2009).
  • “Watering the Studio: Dance Company 5e Dimension Rehearses in Dakar, Senegal,” Women and Performance: a journal of feminist theory (Nov 2006).

Features in Dance, Performance, and Other Publications

  • “Narcissister: The Body is  House,”, Performa 17, Ed. Charles Aubin, 2021.
  • “Narcissister Breast Work,” Black One Shot, ASAP journal, Sept 2020.
  • “Interview with William Forsythe,” Numéro Magazine, Dec 2017.
  • “Museum Realness: Rashaad Newsome, Trajal Harrell, and Voguing in the White Cube,” Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (XL) / The Publication, Trajal Harrell, Tom Engels, and Thibault Lac, Eds, 2017.
  • “Winking at Jesus: The Dancing Masculinities of Campo and Trajal Harrell,” republished in Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (XL) / The Publication, Trajal Harrell, Tom Engels, and Thibault Lac, Eds, 2017.
  • “Trajal Harrell’s (Email) Journey from Judson to Harlem,” republished in Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (XL) / The Publication, Trajal Harrell, Tom Engels, and Thibault Lac, Eds, 2017.
  • “Winking at Jesus: The Dancing Masculinities of Campo and Trajal Harrell,” Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, TBA Festival Blog, Sept 2013.
  • “Trajal Harrell’s (Email) Journey from Judson to Harlem,” Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, TBA Festival Blog, Sept 2013.
  • “Apparitional Tools” (Interview with artist Karen Sherman), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, TBA Festival Blog, Sept 2013.
  • “Inside Spaces, Spaces Inside” (Interview with choreographer Nacera Belaza), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, TBA Festival Blog, Sept 2013.
  • Interview with Trajal Harrell, Studio: The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine (Winter/Spring 2010).
  • “Being Blurred, Ralph Lemon Interviewed,” In Dance, (Oct 2010).
  • “The Contemporary Ballet Master: A Portrait of Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s Jae Man Joo and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s Alexandra Damiani,” Dancer Magazine (Dec 2009).
  • “On the Record With Choreographer Edgar Zendejas,” Dancer Magazine (Dec 2009).
  • “Single Ladies Man” (JaQuel Knight, choreographer for Beyonce), Dancer Magazine (July 2009).
  • “‘That Unspeakable Somewhat’: Bill T. Jones, Abraham Lincoln, and the Question of Iconicity,” In Dance (May 2009).
  • “Longing: The Global Postmodern Poetics of David Rousseve’s Saudade,” In Dance (Feb 2009).
  • “Translating the Cipher: RUBBERBANDANCE GROUP Creates a Contemporary Hip-Hop Genre,” Dancer Magazine (Aug 2008).
  • “Robin Dunn Gives Hip-Hop a F.A.C.E.-Lift,” Dancer Magazine (Aug 2008).
  • “Dancing Dean: Ethan Stiefel Leaps Into a New Role at the North Carolina School of the Arts,” Dancer Magazine (July 2008).
  • “Faustin Linyekula’s Spaces of Possibility,” Dancer Magazine (June 2008).
  • “Jason Samuels Smith: Tapping Into History,” Dancer Magazine (April 2008).
  • Interview of Compagnie TchéTché artistic director Béatrice Kombé (Ivory Coast) for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts program, San Francisco, 2006.

Arts Administration

  • Performance Arts Los Angeles Body Shop (PALABS), Founder and Executive Director, institute dedicated to queer of color performance studies and practice, in development, Los Angeles, 2023-current.

Honors and Awards

  • CalArts Faculty Merit Award, 2022.
  • CalArts Faculty Merit Award, 2020.
  • CalArts Curriculum Diversity Initiative Award, 2021–22.
  • CalArts IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) Award, 2021.
  • CalArts Faculty Development Fund Award, annually, 2017-present.
  • CalArts Teaching and Curriculum Development Grant, annually, 2017-present.
  • Mellon Dance Studies, The Futures of Dance Studies publication workshop, Brown University, June 2016.
  • Mellon Dance Studies Summer Seminar, Brown University, June 2013.
  • Hickman Award (for Ph.D. completion in 5 years), University of California, Berkeley, 2011.
  • Pearl Hickman Memorial Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 2006–11.
  • Block Grant Award, University of California, Berkeley, 2006–11.
  • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation support, University of California, Berkeley, 2006–11.
  • Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 2009–10.
  • Departmental Honors, Anthropology, Columbia University, 2006.
  • Phi Beta Kappa, Columbia University, 2006.
  • Magna Cum Laude, Columbia University, 2006.
  • Dean’s List, Columbia University, 2004–06.
  • Full Merit Scholarship Recipient, Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, 1991–93.

Invited Speaker/Participant

  • Linda Williams Porn Studies Colloquium, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Film & Media and Department of Rhetoric, “Gendering Money Shots,” Invited Speaker, Dec 2023.
  • San Francisco Ballet, Pointes of View Lecture Series: The Promised Land with Dwight Rhoden and Ariel Osterweis, Ph.D., Apr 2022.
  • San Francisco Ballet, “Exploring Nutcracker,” Panelist, Nov 2019.
  • Hammer Museum, “Conversation with Tacita Dean and Wayne McGregor,” Moderator, July 2019.
  • Stanford University, “Prophylactic Aesthetics,” Invited Lecture, and Performance Writing Workshop Facilitation, May 2019.
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Symposium, Isaac Julien: Playtime, Invited Lecture, Ten Thousand Waves, May 2019.
  • Temple University, Institute of Dance Scholarship, Dance Studies Colloquium, “Prophylactic Aesthetics,” Invited Lecture, Nov 2018.
  • San Francisco Ballet, BOUNDLESS: A Symposium on Ballet’s Future, Scholar/Panelist, April 2018.
  • Performa 17, New York, NY, “Narcissister: The Body is a House,” respondent in discussion with Narcissister, Participant Inc., Nov 2017.
  • Resident Scholar (presented scholarship, conducted workshop, conducted interviews, wrote reviews), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), TBA Festival, Sept 2016.
  • Resident Scholar (presented scholarship, conducted interviews, wrote reviews), Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), TBA Festival, Sept 2013.
  • Princeton University, Lewis Center for the Arts, Dance Program, “The Muse of Virtuosity: Desmond Richardson, Race, and Choreographic Falsetto,” Invited Lecture, April 2013.
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of English, Petra Kuppers Seminar, Invited Lecture on Dance, Race, and Virtuosity, Oct 2012.
  • Break/ing Ground: Critical Dialogues in Sound and Motion, University of California, Berkeley, invited as respondent/speaker for talks/performances by Fred Moten (NYU) and Thomas DeFrant (Duke), March 2012.
  • Disability/Culture: 2012 UMInDS Spring Conference and Practice-Based Research Symposium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, invited by Petra Kuppers as participant/speaker/organizer, Jan 2011.
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of Dance, Invited Lecture, “Desmond Richardson and Complexions Contemporary Ballet: Race, Gender, and Virtuosity,” Oct 2011.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS), University of Surrey, UK, Plenary Speaker, July 2010.
  • Teen Reviewers and Critics Program, High 5 Tickets to the Arts, Arts Connection, lecture/workshop on Desmond Richardson and dance writing, New York City, May, Dec 2010.
  • MAPP International Productions, Presentation for Screening of Bittersweet by David Rousseve; New York University, Department of Performance Studies, Oct 2009.
  • University of California, Berkeley, Department of English, Professor Charles Altieri seminar, Lecture on Choreographer William Forsythe, Feb 2007.

Conference Presentations (Invited and/or Internationally Refereed)

  • Pop Conference, Let’s Get It Together: Gatherings, Club Cultures, Parties, and Beyond, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, “Skipping the Line: A Korean American Club Kid in Paris” (paper) in “Making Space: Pop Music, Affect, and Reimagining the Club” with Marco F. Guarino and Dan DiPiero, Apr 2023.
  • Night Fever: A Reading Series, Navel, Los Angeles, “Skipping the Line” (paper), curated by madison moore, Mar 2023.
  • American Studies Association (ASA), New Orleans, “Skipping the Line” (paper) in “Party Favors: Speed. Intensity, and Queer Clubbing Sensations” (panel) with madison moore, Tavia Nyong’o, Eddie Francisco Alvarez Jr., and Brett LaBauve, Nov 2022.
  • American Studies Association (ASA), Atlanta, “Prophylactic Aesthetics” (paper) in “Virtuosity” (panel) with Jayna Brown, Aimee Cox, Malik Gaines, and Scott Heath, Nov 2018.
  • American Society of Theater Research (ASTR), Atlanta, Working Session Co-Chair, “Boring the Body/Boring Bodies: Perforating Hierarchies of Embodied Power in Dance,” Nov 2017.
  • Dance Studies Association (DSA), Ohio State University, Panelist, “Approaches to Teaching Dance Studies in MFA Programs,” Oct 2017.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS), Special Topics Conference, “Contemporary Ballet: Exchanges, Connections, and Directions,” Center for Ballet and the Arts, New York University, and the Department of Dance, Barnard College, Columbia University, Local Arrangements Chair, May 2016.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars/Congress on Research in Dance, University of Iowa, “Ethnographic Grumblings and Twerking’s Traces in John Jasperse’s Within between,” Nov 2014.
  • Sex, Media, Reception: New Approaches, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “Mask, Merkin, and Penetration in Narcissister is You: Performance, Screen, Pornography,” Feb 2014.
  • Dancing the African Diaspora: Theories of Black Performance, Duke University, “The Black Sexual Politics of Disavowing Virtuosity,” Feb 2014.
  • American Studies Association (ASA), Washington D.C., “Performing the Feminist Mask: Dissemination as Dissent in Narcissister is You” (paper) in “Queer Attachments: New Relational Economies in Experimental Art Practice” (panel) with Damon Young, Katie Brewer Ball, and Anna Fisher, Nov 2013.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars/Congress on Research in Dance, UC Riverside, “Performing the Feminist Mask: Dissemination as Dissent in Narcissister is You,” Nov 2013.
  • Performance Studies international (PSi), Stanford University, “The Trans- Temporality of Fouettés in Blood” (praxis session), Chair, with Jeanne Vaccaro, Ian Carter, Julie Tolentino, and Yve Laris Cohen, June 2013.
  • Congress on Research in Dance/Dance Under Construction, Special Topics: Tactical Bodies, “Narcissister, Self-Gratifier, and Penetration as the Displacement of Virtuosity,” UCLA, April 2013.
  • American Society of Theater Research (ASTR), Nashville, Working Session Participant, “Sense, Affect, and Being Singular Plural,” Conveners Tavia Nyong’O, Karen Shimakawa, and José Muñoz (Paper, “Feeling Fuzzy: Narcissister(s) and the Materiality of the Merkin”), Nov 2012.
  • Performance Studies international (PSi), Leeds, England, Panel Co-Chair (with Anna Fisher), “Self-Gratifiers: Feminist Appropriations in the Contemporary Performances of Narcissister and Ann Liv Young,” with Narcissister and Young, June 2012.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS), Philadelphia, “Destabilizing the Allure of Detroit’s ‘Ruin Porn’: Choreo-Ethnographic Alternatives” (panel), Chair/Moderator, June 2012.
  • Congress on Research in Dance (CORD) Special Topics (Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “Dragging the Museum: Pussy-Cunt Realness and Voguing in the White Box,” Feb 2012.
  • American Society of Theater Research (ASTR), Montreal, Canada, Working Session Co-Convener (with Jim Dennen, Brown U.), “Virtuosity,” Nov 2011.
  • UCLA Queer Studies Conference 2011, Los Angeles, CA, “Dragging the Museum: Pussy-Cunt Realness and Voguing in the White Box,” Oct 2011.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars, University of Toronto, Panel Chair, “Recovering Race in Choreographic Histories of Melodrama, Myth, and Plot,” Paper, “Otherwise in Blackface: Desmond Richardson in American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet’s Othello,” June 2011.
  • American Society of Theater Research (ASTR)/Congress on Research in Dance (CORD), Seattle, WA, Working Session Participant, “Racial Impersonation?: Blackface Minstrelsy, Many Times, Many Places,” Convener Tracy Davis (Paper, “Otherwise in Blackface: Desmond Richardson in American Ballet Theater and San Francisco Ballet’s Othello”), Nov 2010.
  • American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, “Choreographing Exile: Festival of Lies and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Nov 2010.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS), University of Surrey, UK, Panel Chair, “Racialized Spectacles: Afro-Asian Synergies in Contemporary American Dance” (Paper, “Visualizing the Afro-Asian Pas De Deux in Dance Posters of Desmond Richardson”), July 2010.
  • Performance Studies international (PSi) 2010, York University, Toronto, Panel Organizer, “Wasting Performance, Performing Waste: Economies of Excess, from Ephemera to Empathy” (Paper, “The Choreographic Body Amidst Urban Detritus”), June 2010.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS), Stanford University, CA, “Tube-Socking a Virtuoso: Legacies of Race in Desmond Richardson’s Collaboration with William Forsythe,” June 2009.
  • Congress on Research in Dance (CORD), Hollins University, VA, “Spatiality, Motility, Community: Choreographing Feminist Tactics in Urban Africa,” Nov 2008.
  • Conference on African and Afro-Caribbean Performance, University of California, Berkeley, “To Choreograph Fagaala: International Representation of Intra-African Genocide,” Sept 2008.
  • Performance Studies International (Psi), University of Copenhagen, “Saying soul as the body does…(a study of dancers’ rhetoric in phenomenology’s shadow),” Aug 2008.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS), Skidmore College, NY, “Whack That Leg: Aesthetics of Hyper-Virtuosity in the Choreographies of Dwight Rhoden and Mia Michaels,” June 2008.
  • Dance Under Construction (DUC), University of California, Berkeley, “Re-Membering Homer Avila: Amputation, Visibility, Choreography,” April 2008.
  • Performance Studies international (PSi), New York University, Panel Chair, “Processing Event: Stretching Interruption’s Limits Through Ethnographies of Art, Dance, and Theater” (Paper on choreographer Ralph Lemon), Nov 2007.
  • Congress on Research in Dance (CORD), Barnard College, Columbia University, Panel Chair, “Intercultural Sans Institution: The Role of Independent Touring, Immigration, and Ethnography in Refiguring Dance Traditions” (Paper, “Migrating to Métisse: An Ethnography of a Transnational Senegalese Dance Form”), Nov 2007.
  • American Theater in Higher Education (ATHE), New Orleans, Panel Chair, “Performance and Amputation” (Paper, “This is Not a Disability Study: Homer Avila Turns the Tables on Dance”), July 2007.
  • Midwest Interdisciplinary Conference, Performing (In)Visibility, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, “This is Not a Disability Study: Homer Avila Turns the Tables on Dance,” Feb 2007.
  • Dance Under Construction, University of California, Riverside, “Staging Street: Traversing Choreographies in Contexts,” April 2006.

Teaching and Research Interests

Performance Studies; Critical Dance Studies; Critical Race Studies; Black Studies; African American Studies; Queer Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Feminist/Queer/Trans Performance Art; Postdramatic Theatre; Postcolonial Studies and African Performance; Disability Studies; “Difficult” Body Genres (Pornography, Freak Show, Minstrelsy); Performance Ethnography and Anthropology; Dance and Performance Dramaturgy; Queer Nightlife Studies; Dance Technique (Ballet, Horton, Modern, Contemporary); Improvisation; Choreography; Radical and Experimental Performance Practice.

Program Development and Courses Taught

  • Jérôme Bel Project, Director, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and CalArts; Professor/Director, designed new course culminating in performance, Spring 2024.
  • CalArts; Developing and Proposing MFA Program in Performance Studies and Practice, in process.
  • CalArts; School of Dance, Developed and Established New BFA and MFA Interdisciplinary Curricula in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2016.
  • CalArts; Graduate Topics in Performance Studies: Talent Show, Co-Taught with Sharon Lockhart (School of Art), proposed/co-designed new course as part of four-course graduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2019, 2021, 2023.
  • CalArts; Graduate Topics in Performance Studies: Clubbing, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course graduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2018, 2020, 2022.
  • CalArts; The Extreme Body in Performance: Sexuality, Race, Labor, Professor, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course graduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2018.
  • CalArts; Choreography and Textuality: Bodies on the Page, Words on the Stage, Professor, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course graduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2024.
  • CalArts; Performance Studies, Professor, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course graduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2017, 2020.
  • CalArts; Critical Dance Studies: Corporealities and Cultures, Professor, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course graduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2016.
  • CalArts; The Body in Performance: Liveness, Activism, Feminisms, Professor, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course undergraduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020.
  • CalArts; The Anthropology of Dance: Diaspora, Identity, Culture, Professor, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course undergraduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2017, 2018, 2019.
  • CalArts; Dance After 1960: Virtuosity, Reskilling, and the Postdramatic, Professor, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course undergraduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2016, 2017, 2019.
  • CalArts; Critical Dance Studies: Corporeality, Race, Gender, Class, Professor, proposed/designed new course as part of four-course undergraduate curriculum in Critical Dance Studies and Performance Studies, open to the entire Institute, 2016, 2017, 2018.
  • Skidmore College; Feminist Performance Art (Special Studies), Professor, proposed/designed new course and Honors Forum course, 2015, 2016. In Dance, cross-listed with Art History, Gender Studies, and Theater.
  • Skidmore College; Senior Dance Capstone I, Professor, redesigned course, 2014, 2015.
  • Skidmore College; Dance and Society: 1960–present, Professor, redesigned course, 2014, 2015.
  • Skidmore College; Dance and Society: 1700–1960, Professor, redesigned course and designed Honors Forum course, 2015, 2016.
  • Skidmore College; Improvisation I, Professor, redesigned course, 2015.
  • Skidmore College; Modern Dance I, Professor, 2015.
  • Skidmore College; Modern Dance II, Professor, 2015.
  • Skidmore College; Modern Dance IV, Professor, 2014.
  • Wayne State University; Performance Studies; designed new course for graduate and undergraduate students for 2013–14.
  • Wayne State University; Dance History to 1800, Professor, redesigned course as a history of movement theory and philosophy, 2013.
  • Wayne State University; Dance History after 1800, Professor; redesigned course to engage with dance history through critical and ethnographic dance studies, 2012, 2013.
  • Wayne State University; Choreography II, Professor; redesigned course for dance majors to include dance theater, postdramatic theater, social art practice, non-Western, site-specific, and experimental techniques, 2012, 2013.
  • Wayne State University; Introduction to World Dance, Professor; redesigned general education course to include critical dance studies, socio-cultural, postcolonial, gender, and critical theory, and live performance; brought in guest artists/speakers from Kolkata, India and Bahia, Brazil for in-studio workshops, 2011–12, 2012–13.
  • Wayne State University; Modern Dance II; Professor, Horton-based technique class for dance majors, 2011, 2012, 2012–13; brought in guest artists Petra Kuppers and Neil Marcus (disability culture), Hope Boykin (Alvin Ailey).
  • University of California, Berkeley; College Writing, “Choreographing the Page,” Instructor; designed new course on choreography and textuality, 2008.
  • University of California, Berkeley; Modern Dance Technique, Instructor; designed courses that included both ballet and contemporary dance techniques for beginning through advanced dancers, 2007–09.

Performance, Dramaturgy, Theory, Choreography (selected)

  • Director, Jérôme Bel Project, CalArts Course and Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) Performance, Spring 2024.
  • The Feminist Art Program (1970-1975): Cycles of Collectivity, syllabi featured in exhibit, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) Gallery, Fall 2023.
  • Artistic Director, Talent Show, with Sharon Lockhart, Performance of CalArts Graduate Seminar (Talent Show) with Christina Catherine Martinez and guest artists, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), Los Angeles, CA, Apr 2023.
  • Artistic Director, Talent Show: The Film, with Sharon Lockhart, Film of CalArts Graduate Seminar (Talent Show), Apr 2021.
  • Performer in Julie Tolentino, Slipping Into Darkness and bury.me.fiercely, Performance Space New York, NY, Dec 2019.
  • Performer in Julie Tolentino, REPEATER 2019, Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA, Oct 2019.
  • Artistic Director/Producer, Talent Show, with Sharon Lockhart, Performance of CalArts Graduate Seminar (Talent Show) with Edgar Arceneaux, Miguel Gutierrez, Tara Jepsen, Overdrive (youth rock band), Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), Los Angeles, CA, April 2019.
  • Choreographer for artist Hayv Kahraman, US and THEM, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, gallery performance with dancers, Los Angeles, CA, Oct 2018.
  • Dramaturg for choreographer John Jasperse (Within between, won 2014 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production), New York, NY, 2013–14.
  • Dramaturg for performance artist Narcissister (numerous productions), New York, NY, 2010–present.
  • Performer in Narcissister is You (video installation), Envoy Enterprises, New York, NY, Jan-Feb 2013.
  • Dramaturg for performance artist Julie Tolentino, Los Angeles, CA, 2012–13.
  • Ouroboros, Berkeley Dance Project, University of California, Berkeley, choreographer, piece for twelve dancers, in collaboration with poet Robert Grenier (“Drawing Poems”), Berkeley, CA, April 2008.
  • Re-Hump, LabRun, University of California, Berkeley, choreographer, duet for two pregnant women, Berkeley, CA, April 2007.
  • Highdive, co-choreographer, collaborative duet with Alexandra Damiani, New York, NY (multiple venues), 2005–06.
  • Choreography performed/produced in New York City at/by Joyce Soho Presents, St. Mark’s Church, Danspace Project, Destination Groove, Dancers Responding to AIDS, Cool Dance NY, DUMBO Dance Festival, Dancenow NYC, 2003–06.

Academic Programming

  • Curator/Programmer of weekly ChoreoLab, CalArts, Lund Theater, invited speakers/performers/master class and workshop leaders include Miguel Gutierrez, Stephen Galloway, Ligia Lewis, Louis McMiller (Wayne McGregor methods), Danielle Agami, Todd McQuade, Will Rawls, Stephanie Boxerbaum, jumutatu poe, Dwight Rhoden, Desmond Richardson, John Jasperse, Phil Chan, and student works, 2019–2022.
  • Anne Garréta (writer, scholar), Ron Athey (artist), Julie Tolentino (artist), madison moore (DJ, scholar), and Kareem Khubchandani (performer, scholar), guest speakers in CalArts course, Graduate Topics in Performance Studies: Clubbing, Fall 2020, 2022.
  • Wayne McGregor, choreographer, secured repertoire piece for CalArts Dance Winter Concert, 2019.
  • Julie Tolentino, performance artist, guest speaker, CalArts, convener, Nov 2018, 2020, 2022.
  • Salia Sanou, choreographer, guest speaker and workshop, CalArts, convener, Oct 2018.
  • jumutatu poe, choreographer, guest speaker and workshop, CalArts, convener, Oct 2018.
  • Bradford Nordeen, guest speaker, CalArts, convener, Sept 2018.
  • Miguel Gutierrez, choreographer, residency, CalArts, convener, Feb 2018.
  • Faustin Linyekula, choreographer, guest workshop, CalArts, convener, Oct 2017.
  • Julie Tolentino, performance artist, guest workshop, CalArts, convener, Feb 2017.
  • Ishmael Houston-Jones, dance artist, class visits, CalArts, Feb 2017.
  • Yve Laris Cohen, artist/dancer/choreographer, guest workshop, Skidmore College, convener, March 2016.
  • Narcissister, performance artist, guest speaker, Skidmore College, convener, March 2015.
  • Ann Liv Young, performance artist, guest speaker, Skidmore College, convener, March 2015.
  • Burr Johnson, dancer/choreographer (Shen Wei, John Jasperse), guest choreographers, Skidmore College, March 2015.
  • Miguel Gutierrez, choreographer, guest speaker, Skidmore College, convener, Oct 2014.
  • Ralph Lemon, artist panel, Detroit Institute of Arts, convener and panelist, March 2013.
  • Ralph Lemon, choreographic/teaching residency, Wayne State University, proposed and directed, April 2013.
  • Jennifer Newman, Wayne State University, guest artist in dance, arranged, Nov 2012.
  • Petra Kuppers and Neil Marcus, Wayne State University, healing dances and disability culture workshop, arranged, Oct 2012.
  • Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Wayne State University, Hope Boykin, guest artist in dance, arranged, March 2012.
  • Biba Bell, Wayne State University, guest artist in choreography, arranged, Jan 2011.
  • Tanusree Shankar Dance Company (Kolkata, India), Wayne State University, guest artists in dance, arranged, Oct 2011.
  • Mestre Caboquino (Bahia, Brazil), Wayne State University, guest artist in capoeira, arranged, Nov 2011.

Professional Dance Employment (selected)

  • Mia Michaels R.A.W., Artistic Director Mia Michaels, New York City (with international touring), soloist, original company member, Assistant to Choreographer, 1998–02.
  • Heidi Latsky Dance, Artistic Director Heidi Latsky, New York City (with national touring), soloist, original company member, 2000–02.
  • Who’s the Top? (2005), Film by Jennie Livingston, featured dancer, Choreography by John Carrafa.
  • Where Was We, “Without Words,” improvisational performances with Homer Avila, New York City, 2002.
  • Journey Beyond the West: The New Adventures of Monkey, Brooklyn Academy of Music, featured dancer, Composed by Fred Ho, Choreography by John Carrafa, 1997.
  • Bad-Ass Ballerina Ensemble (B.A.B.E.), Artistic Director Claire Missingham, London, soloist, co-choreographer, 1996–97.
  • Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Artistic Directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, New York, dancer, original company member, 1995–97.

Dance Training

  • Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, New York City, Full Merit Scholarship Recipient, 1991–93.
  • Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, New York City, Training Program, 1989–90.
  • San Francisco Ballet School, Professional Training Program, 1982–89.

Academic and Community Service

  • Dance Studies Association (DSA), Editorial Board, 2017-2019, 2023-present.
  • CalArts, Search Committee, Dean of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, 2022-2023.
  • CalArts School of Dance, Chair, Search Committee, Hip-Hop Dance Faculty, 2021-2022.
  • CalArts School of Dance, Chair, Two Search Committees, Contemporary Dance Faculty, 2021-2022.
  • CalArts School of Dance Anti-Racism Task Force, Co-Founder, 2020–present.
  • CalArts, Assembly Executive Committee, Faculty Representative, 2020–2022.
  • CalArts, Academic Council, Representative of the School of Dance, 2018–2022.
  • CalArts, Merit Committee, 2016–17, 2020–21.
  • Dirty Looks Inc, Board of Directors, 2019–present.
  • CalArts, Search Committee, Provost, 2017–18.
  • CalArts, Search Committee, Faculty in Sound for the Moving Image Arts, School of Film/Video, 2018.
  • CalArts, Search Committee, Dean of The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, 2016–17.
  • Book Reviews Editor, Dance Research Journal, 2015–19.
  • Conference Committee, American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), Chairs Joshua Abrams and Jennifer Parker-Starbuck (University of Roehampton), Minneapolis, 2016.
  • Local Arrangements Chair, SDHS Special Topics Conference on Contemporary Ballet, NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, Barnard College, Columbia University, May 2016.
  • Dance/NYC, Advisory Board, solicited, Dec 2014–19.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars, Board of Directors, elected, Nov 2013–16.
  • Wayne State University, College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, Faculty Council, 2012–13.
  • Wayne State University, College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, Faculty Council, alternate, 2011–12.
  • Wayne State University, Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance, Dance Focus Area, Ph.D. Program Focus Area, Theatre and Dance Studies Focus Area, Guest Artist Subcommittee (bringing in Ralph Lemon for 2013 residency), 2012–14.
  • Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS), Graduate Student Award Committee, 2012.
  • Women and Performance: a journal of feminist theory, reader, 2012.
  • Dance Research Journal, reader, 2011, 2013, present.
  • Dance Studies Working Group, University of California, Berkeley, Townsend Center for the Humanities, Co-Convener, 2008–09.
  • Conference on African and Afro-Caribbean Performance, University of California, Berkeley, Organizing Committee, 2008.
  • Dance Under Construction Conference, University of California, Berkeley, “Willing and Able: Re-Figuring Dance, Performance, and Disability,” Organizing Committee, 2008.
  • Theater Survey, reader, 2008.
  • Dept. of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Student Coordinator for Prospective Ph.D. students, 2008.
  • Columbia University, School of General Studies, Peer Mentor, 2005–06.
  • nicholas leichter dance, New York, Advisory Board, 2004–06, and 2011.

Advising, Mentoring (selected)

  • Shoji Yamasaki, MFA in Choreography, Thesis Chair, Mentor, CalArts, School of Dance, 2021-2023.
  • Brandon Cooper, MFA in Writing, Thesis Committee, CalArts, School of Critical Studies, 2021-2023.
  • Ava Kough, BFA Mentor, CalArts Dance, 2019-2023.
  • Jules Mara, BFA Mentor, CalArts Dance, 2019-2023.
  • Allison Smith, MA in Aesthetics and Politics, Thesis Reader, CalArts, School of Critical Studies, 2020–21.
  • Clara Lee, MA in Aesthetics and Politics, Thesis Reader, CalArts, School of Critical Studies, 2019–20.
  • Jobel Medina, MFA in Choreography, Thesis Committee, CalArts, School of Dance, 2020–21.
  • Madison Hicks, MFA in Choreography, Thesis Chair, Mentor, CalArts, School of Dance, 2019–21.
  • Gwenmarie White, MFA in Art, Thesis Committee, CalArts, School of Art, 2017–18.
  • Marissa Osato (Associate Professor, Santa Monica College), MFA in Choreography, Thesis Chair, Mentor, CalArts, School of Dance, 2016–18.
  • Julia Meyer, MA in Aesthetics and Politics, Thesis Reader, CalArts, School of Critical Studies, 2017–18.
  • Maya Stovall (Assistant Professor, CalPoly Pomona), Ph.D. Committee, Wayne State University, Anthropology, 2012–18.
  • Kayla Aguila, BFA Mentor, CalArts Dance, 2016–18.
  • Shannon Hafez, BFA Mentor, CalArts Dance, 2017–19.
  • Chenhui Mao, BFA Mentor, CalArts Dance, 2017–19.
  • Nadia Muhammad, BFA Mentor, CalArts Dance, 2016–18.
  • Paige O’Mara, BFA Mentor, CalArts Dance, 2017–19.
  • Mira Spremich, BFA Mentor, CalArts Dance, 2016–20.
  • Emma Lanier, Thesis/Capstone Advisor, Skidmore College, 2015–16.
  • Rachel Sammett, Thesis/Capstone Advisor, Skidmore College, 2015–16.
  • Anastasia Eckerson, Thesis/Capstone Advisor, Skidmore College, 2014–15.
  • Kimberly Sauers, Thesis/Capstone Advisor, Skidmore College, 2014–15.
  • John Li, Thesis/Capstone Advisor, Skidmore College, 2014–15.
  • Jacqueline Corchene, Theater Project Advisor, Skidmore College, 2015.
  • Samantha Villanueva, Advisor, Skidmore College, 2015–16.

Related Employment and Training

  • AICAD BIPOC Academic Leadership Institute, 2023-24.
  • The Art of Memoir with Rebecca Walker, Writing Intensive, Maui, HI, July 2017.
  • Lester Horton Pedagogy Workshop, The Ailey School, Ana Marie Forsythe, July 2012.
  • Teen Reviewers and Critics Program, High 5 Tickets to the Arts, Arts Connection, New York, NY, Instructor, Spring 2011.
  • Archival Research on dance, law, and copyright for Professor Anthea Kraut, University of California, Riverside, New York, NY, 2010.
  • “Haunted Visuality: The Sight and Senses of Race,” Columbia University seminar with Professors Saidiya Hartman (Columbia University) and Tina Campt (Duke University), 2009.
  • Exchange Scholar, Columbia University, English and Comparative Literature, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Advisor: Saidiya Hartman, 2009.
  • Graduate Student Instructor, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 2006–09, Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.
  • Performing Arts Programming, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Angela Mattox and Kenneth Foster, Internship, 2006.
  • “Studies in Dance: Movement Theory,” New York University seminar with Professor André Lepecki, Performance Studies, 2005.
  • Certificate in Arts Administration, New York University, 2001.

Membership in Organizations

  • American Anthropological Association (AAA)
  • American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR)
  • American Studies Association (ASA)
  • Dance Studies Association (DSA)
  • Performance Studies International (PSi)