Dance Studies Association Conference

The Dance Studies Association Conference, titled Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies: Bodies, Economies, and Movement in a World in Flux, will be held at California State University, Los Angeles. The conference features a significant editorial contribution by guest editors Emilie Jabouin and Karla Etienne, who focus on the Caribbean as a pivotal point of the African Diaspora, particularly highlighting Ayiti (Haiti) as a vital space for re-examining the intertwined genealogies of African and Caribbean rhythms, dances, spiritualities, and identities. This volume emphasizes dance as an embodied archive of belonging, resistance, and interconnection throughout the Black Atlantic, fostering a dialogue between the Caribbean and Africa that transcends a unidirectional narrative of influence. Instead, it presents an interactive and reciprocal exchange of cultural expressions encompassing rhythm, ritual, and philosophy.The conference will showcase contributions from a diverse collective of artists, scholars, and practitioners. Their works will illuminate how African aesthetics and embodied practices have evolved, persisted, and transformed through various Caribbean dance forms, including yanvalou, limbo, kokobalé, kumina, and carnival. These dance forms are not merely performances; they resonate with histories of displacement and liberation, situating the drum, the body, and spirituality at the core of life, memory, and revolutionary acts. Additionally, the Dance Studies Association (DSA) will be accepting nominations for its annual awards cycle, which recognizes exceptional publications, leadership, and graduate student efforts in dance scholarship. These awards aim to enhance the visibility of distinguished individuals and works while promoting excellence in dance research. Awardees will be celebrated at the upcoming DSA Annual Conference, Speculative Choreographies. Furthermore, the conference will include various working group events, such as a workshop titled Call and Response: A Workshop on Poetic Dance Scores for Crip Bodyminds led by Cynthia Ling Lee and Krista Miranda, and a presentation titled Freedom Time PAR in/and the Academy by Rosemary Candelario. This gathering is a significant opportunity for networking and advancing knowledge in dance history, theory, and cultural studies.