PROGRAMME
Born a Hoosier, Thomas F. DeFrantz is Professor of Dance at Duke University, and the director of SLIPPAGE: Performance, Culture, Technology, a research group that explores emerging technology in live performance applications. His books include the edited volume "Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance" (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002, winner of the CHOICE Award for Outstanding Academic Publication and the Errol Hill Award presented by the American Society for Theater Research) and "Dancing Revelations Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American" Culture (Oxford University Press, 2004, winner of the de la Torre Bueno Prize for Outstanding Publication in Dance). His most recent publication is an anthology, "Black Performance Theory", co-edited with Anita Gonzalez (Duke University Press, 2014). A director and writer, his creative works include "Queer Theory! An Academic Travesty" commissioned by the Theater Offensive of Boston and the Flynn Center for the Arts, and "Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk". He has taught at NYU, Stanford, Hampshire College, MIT, and Yale; has presented his research by invitation in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden; and performed in Botswana, France, India, Ireland, and South Africa. In 2012 he established the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, which hosted the conference "Dancing the African Diaspora: Theories of Black Performance" in February, 2014 at Duke University. Current research imperatives include explorations of black social dance, and the development of live-processing interfaces for performance. He worked with Donna Faye Burchfield to establish the curriculum of the Hollins University/ADF MFA program, and taught there from 2005-2013. From 2011-2014, he served as President of the Society of Dance History Scholars, an international organisation that advances the field of dance studies through research, publication, performance, and outreach to audiences across the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
13.04.2015
