In all of my work, my goal is to harness dance and related art forms as tools for seeking racial and gender justice, by exposing hidden histories and by supporting those overlooked by mainstream sources of funding and critical reception.
I am currently an Assistant Professor of Dance Studies at the University of Florida’s School of Theatre + Dance, where I teach courses in dance history, cultural studies, and the Humanities. I also serve as the co-coordinator of the Dance program. As someone who is motivated and even comforted by the knowledge that the world is filled with infinite perspectives and cultures, I am a perpetual student. This mindset characterizes my classes, like “Global Dance Perspectives” and “Dance, Race, Gender,” where I am constantly learning more to share with my students, but also, where my students are my teachers.
I believe that art performs an essential function in the daily lives of all people. Accordingly, my scholarship focuses on the extraordinary things that happen when ordinary people dance together. My forthcoming book, Dancing the Politics of Pleasure at the New Orleans Second Line (University of Illinois Press, October 2024), highlights one way in which dance and related art forms are tools for seeking racial and gender justice. My book documents Second Lines, processions in which thousands Black New Orleanians dance through city streets, grooving to an ambulatory brass band for hours. I detail how dancers’ choices allow them to access the pleasure of reclaiming self and city through motion and rhythm while expanding a sense of the possible in the present and for the future. The book is motivated by my deep awe at the sheer power of human beings moving in the same direction. We’re usually passing each other by or getting in each other’s way, but Second Lines give a glimpse into the sheer force and power of humanity when we are united by something bigger than ourselves, be it a funky beat or a quest for liberation – or both simultaneously.
I am a serial collaborator, seeking out ways to work in conjunction with other like-minded thinkers, movers, and shakers. Some favorite examples include (in chronological order): co-founding Goat in the Road Productions in New Orleans, with whom I directed two international artist residencies and launched Play/Write, a youth playwriting festival; advising film and video productions (Buckumping, dir. Lily Keber and an episode for the Webby-award winning series, If This City Could Dance); co-hosting Smooth Flava Gainesville’s Seventh Annual “Teach Me to Dance” intensive; and producing written and video content for the Neighborhood Story Project’s NEH-funded open access resource on New Orleans cultural histories. But perhaps my favorite collaboration is staging an annual Second Line parade with the Ice Divas Social and Pleasure Club.
If you also believe it art’s essential function in daily life; if you are also insatiably curious about the vast cultures of the world; if you love to work in close connection with others; and if you too are committed manifesting dance and related art forms as tools for seeking racial and gender justice – please reach out to me for any potential collaborative research projects, co-authorship, conference panels, online symposia, teaching swaps, and anything else we might dream up!
If you are interested in scheduling a book talk, or interviewing me about the book for your podcast or other media outlet, please email me at [email protected].
I am currently an Assistant Professor of Dance Studies at the University of Florida’s School of Theatre + Dance, where I teach courses in dance history, cultural studies, and the Humanities. I also serve as the co-coordinator of the Dance program. As someone who is motivated and even comforted by the knowledge that the world is filled with infinite perspectives and cultures, I am a perpetual student. This mindset characterizes my classes, like “Global Dance Perspectives” and “Dance, Race, Gender,” where I am constantly learning more to share with my students, but also, where my students are my teachers.
I believe that art performs an essential function in the daily lives of all people. Accordingly, my scholarship focuses on the extraordinary things that happen when ordinary people dance together. My forthcoming book, Dancing the Politics of Pleasure at the New Orleans Second Line (University of Illinois Press, October 2024), highlights one way in which dance and related art forms are tools for seeking racial and gender justice. My book documents Second Lines, processions in which thousands Black New Orleanians dance through city streets, grooving to an ambulatory brass band for hours. I detail how dancers’ choices allow them to access the pleasure of reclaiming self and city through motion and rhythm while expanding a sense of the possible in the present and for the future. The book is motivated by my deep awe at the sheer power of human beings moving in the same direction. We’re usually passing each other by or getting in each other’s way, but Second Lines give a glimpse into the sheer force and power of humanity when we are united by something bigger than ourselves, be it a funky beat or a quest for liberation – or both simultaneously.
I am a serial collaborator, seeking out ways to work in conjunction with other like-minded thinkers, movers, and shakers. Some favorite examples include (in chronological order): co-founding Goat in the Road Productions in New Orleans, with whom I directed two international artist residencies and launched Play/Write, a youth playwriting festival; advising film and video productions (Buckumping, dir. Lily Keber and an episode for the Webby-award winning series, If This City Could Dance); co-hosting Smooth Flava Gainesville’s Seventh Annual “Teach Me to Dance” intensive; and producing written and video content for the Neighborhood Story Project’s NEH-funded open access resource on New Orleans cultural histories. But perhaps my favorite collaboration is staging an annual Second Line parade with the Ice Divas Social and Pleasure Club.
If you also believe it art’s essential function in daily life; if you are also insatiably curious about the vast cultures of the world; if you love to work in close connection with others; and if you too are committed manifesting dance and related art forms as tools for seeking racial and gender justice – please reach out to me for any potential collaborative research projects, co-authorship, conference panels, online symposia, teaching swaps, and anything else we might dream up!
If you are interested in scheduling a book talk, or interviewing me about the book for your podcast or other media outlet, please email me at [email protected].