Thomas Defrantz







ISEA Bio(s) Available:


  • ISEA2015

    Thomas F. DeFrantz is director of SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology. Born a Hoosier [from Indiana, USA], DeFrantz is Professor and Chair of African and African American Studies, Dance, and Theater Studies at Duke University, and Past President of the Society of Dance History Scholars. His books include the edited volume Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (2002, CHOICE Award, Errol Hill Award), Dancing Revelations Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture Oxford University Press (2004, de la Torre Bueno Prize), and Black Performance Theory, co edited with Anita Gonzalez (Duke University Press, 2014). He has taught at NYU, Stanford, Hampshire College, MIT, the University of Nice, and Yale; has presented his research by invitation in Australia, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, and Sweden. Current research imperatives include explorations of black social dance, and the development of live processing interfaces for performance.


Website:



Presentations:



Role(s) at the symposia over the years: