Thomas DeFrantz and Niv Acosta curate
Company:
Thomas DeFrantz and Niv Acosta
Performer, choreographer and scholar Thomas F. DeFrantz and dance artist niv Acosta curate a weekend of performance around Afro-futurism and utopian/dystopian visions of a Black tomorrow, with performances by Grisha Coleman, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Niall Noel Jones, Eto Otitigbe, Nia Love and the curators themselves.
THOMAS F. DEFRANTZ (Thomas DeFrantz and Niv Acosta curate) is Chair of African and African American Studies and Professor of Dance, and Theater Studies at Duke University. He is past-president of the Society of Dance History Scholars, an international organization that advances the field of dance studies through research, publication, performance, and outreach to audiences across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. He is also the director of SLIPPAGE: Performance, Culture, Technology, a research group that explores emerging technology in live performance applications. He convenes the working group Black Performance Theory and the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance. His books include the edited volume Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (2002) and Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture (2004) and Black Performance Theory co-edited with Anita Gonzalez. A director and writer, his creative works include CANE: A Responsive Environment Dancework that premiered at Duke in April 2013.
niv Acosta (Thomas DeFrantz and Niv Acosta curate) is a dance artist, educator, black Dominican, transexual, queer native New Yorker. He attended CalArts (Dance BFA) and has taught at N.Y.U Steinhardt, RISD, and Cooper Union. niv has shown his work at various events/spaces including Pieter Performance Space, Human Resources in Los Angeles, The Community Education Center, Studio 34, The Kimmel Center and Vox Populi in Philadelphia, New York Live Arts, The Kitchen, Studio Museum of Harlem, MOMA PS1, Abrons Art Center, The Tank, New Museum, Danspace Project, and at Brooklyn Arts Exchange. niv has collaborated with artists Malik Gaines, Alexandro Segade, Andrea Geyer, A.K. Burns, and Ralph Lemon. niv recently presented his current project, DISCOTROPIC (a culmination of research on science fiction, Astrophysics, disco ideology and the black american experience) as part of the 2015 New Museum Triennial ‘Surround Audience’.
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