Questions of Practice: Thomas DeFrantz, Choreographer and Dance Scholar
As a choreographer, performer, and scholar, Thomas DeFrantz is interested how artists can harness technological tools for creative ends. In 2013, we asked him how changes in technology are impacting the ways in which artists produce narrative.
Thomas DeFrantz founded and directs SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology, a multidisciplinary research collective that explores connections between performance and emergent technology in the service of theatrical storytelling. He co-convenes the working group Black Performance Theory as well as the international group Choreography and Corporeality of the International Federation for Theatre Research. He is currently president of the Society of Dance History Scholars. A prolific author, his books include Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance, winner of the CHOICE Award for Outstanding Academic Publication and the American Society for Theater Research Errol Hill Award; and Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture. DeFrantz teaches in dance and African and African-American Studies at Duke University.