“There is a ladder.”: Reckoning the Contemporary Black Woman Perspective in Post/Modern Dance
Date
2025
Authors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
Black choreography is integral and vital yet underrepresented undercurrent in the history of American modern dance. This essay provides the historical foundation of modern dance and Black people's positionality within the lineage by analyzing dance historian contributions. The essay then shifts to analyzing traditional archival research and shifts to de-center colonial and racist archival practices. The archival methodologies I describe offer a continuation of community and liberatory archival practices to preserve, innovate, and integrate into existing Black choreographic archiving. In response to my observations in the archive and North Carolinian presentations of Black women choreograph, I have created a choreographic and curated installation. I curated text, video, photography, and edited images with Solomon Thuo to apply the curatorial and archival methods I have researched. Through There is a ladder. and my archival instigation, I embody and demonstrate a choreographic liberatory practice that explores Black women perspective beyond archival limitations. This essay provides the introduction, positionality, historical contexts, and my thesis offerings to Black feminist choreography and archive practices in dance studies.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Subjects
Citation
Permalink
Citation
Wilson, Chania Faith (2025). “There is a ladder.”: Reckoning the Contemporary Black Woman Perspective in Post/Modern Dance. Master's thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/32958.
Collections
Except where otherwise noted, student scholarship that was shared on DukeSpace after 2009 is made available to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial / No derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license. All rights in student work shared on DukeSpace before 2009 remain with the author and/or their designee, whose permission may be required for reuse.