FOCUS
This pillar examines African diasporic dance as a transnational cultural system shaped by African survival, adaptation, and creativity in response to colonial institutions across the New World. Rather than centering colonial power, this work centers African agency and continuity, attending to how distinct movement forms emerged across regions through ethnogenetic and creolization processes.
This research emphasizes that African diasporic cultures are not monolithic and that movement traditions carry region-specific histories shaped by social, legal, environmental, and cultural conditions.
APPROACH
Grounded in Ethnodanceology, a term I coined in 2007, my approach integrates cultural anthropology, comparative analysis, pedagogy, and choreographic research. Drawing from Katherine Dunham’s Form-and-Function theoretical framework (Katherine Dunham’s 1947 Master’s Thesis), I use marker-based analysis to situate dance within its cultural context.
My approach is implemented through studio-based research, comparative teaching practices, and choreographic inquiry.
This pillar is enacted through:
- Technosomatics as a creative process and Artistic inquiry that integrates choreography, installation, text and film
- Embodied Annotation
- Digital Translation
IMPACT
This pillar provides educators and artists with a rigorous framework for understanding and teaching African diasporic dance collectively and individually without flattening it into decontextualized technique. My framework strengthens dance pedagogy by treating movement as theory-in-motion and preserves cultural specificity while honoring diasporic continuity in translation.
Selected Works / Case Studies
- 1998 – Plaza de Americas, Madrid Spain (study)
- 2002 – Burgos, Spain (study)
- 2004 – Katherine Dunham Archivist
- 2005 – NDEO Conference
- 2005 – Bomba + Plena
- 2007 thru 2013 – Bomba + Plena Pedagogy (NYC Public Schools)
- Comparative diasporic research (Latin America)
- Archival and lineage-based studies
Related Language System Tools
- Ethnodanceology
- Annotated Embodiment
