Researching Performance : The (Black) Dancing Body as A Measure of Culture

Prof. Dixon Gottschild uses dance as a mechanism to sound out contemporary American cultural practice. By means of a power point presentation cum lecture, augmented with demonstrations on her own dancing body, 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.