Coming in 2027

50 years of scholarship written through the dancing body.

Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild is an American cultural historian, performer, choreographer, and anti-racist cultural worker. She has used her background as a dance performer and as a professor of dance to create works that bring racism, gender, and societal questions to the forefront of discussions. Her 50-year career as a writer and cultural scholar surveys the presence and influence of the black dancing body in America, in what she calls “choreography for the page”—an “embodied, subjunctive approach to research writing.” This site archives her written and performance-based works, offering a retrospective of a lifetime spent reading culture through the bodies that move it.

Full Bio
An elderly woman with gray hair, dressed in a pink top and wrap, sitting on a couch by a glass door, smiling at the camera. The room has wooden floors, and there are chairs, books, and artwork on the walls. Sunlight is streaming in through the window.

Photo by Ryan Collerd.

“I trust the intelligence of the body, which may explain why I’ve focused my quest for social justice through the lens of the dancing body; why dance has been a driving force in my life.”

An elderly woman with gray curly hair, wearing a bright pink top, sitting on a colorful patterned couch in a living room with yellow walls, a large bouquet of green and purple flowers, and a window in the background.

Coming in 2027

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Coming in 2027 *

A woman with glasses and long gray hair smiling at a book signing event, sitting at a table with books and signing a copy.
Books
Black and white photograph of a large group of people forming a circle in an open urban area, surrounded by buildings and trees, with some people dancing or holding hands.
Academic Writings
A woman standing at a music stand gesturing while a man is crouched in front, holding his head with his hands, with empty chairs around them.
Choreography
A black and white photo of a male and female ballet dancers on stage, with the male standing shirtless and wearing loose pants, and the female kneeling in a dress, engaging in a dance pose.
Performance Reviews