Dr. Susan Leigh Foster
Biography
Dr. Susan Leigh Foster is a choreographer, dancer, and scholar. Her book Reading Dancing: Bodies and Subjects in Contemporary American Dance (1986) was the first to consider the relevance of poststructuralist theory to dance research, and received the DeLaTorre Bueno Prize for scholarship in dance. Her second book, Choreography and Narrative: Ballet’s Staging of Story and Desire (1996), is a study of gender and politics in French ballet of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Her third book, Dances that Describe Themselves: The Improvised Choreography of Richard Bull (2003), provides a study of improvisational practices in New York City during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Her most recent book, Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance (2011), examines the connection that viewers make to performers, focusing on the kinesthetic sense of action that is conveyed through dancing. She is also the editor of three anthologies: Choreographing History (1995), Corporealities (1996), and Worlding Dance (2009). With Sue-Ellen Case and Philip Brett, she edited Cruising the Performative: Interventions into the Representation of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Sexuality (1995) and Decomposition: Post-Disciplinary Performance (2000).
Foster began presenting concerts of her own work in 1977. From 1979–88 she choreographed and directed Discordancers, a California-based company, and produced several evening-length group works in collaboration with composer Ron Kuivila. Foster began dancing at the age of seven; has studied extensively in the traditions of Graham, Humphrey, and Cunningham; and currently prepares for dancing through the practice of Iyengar yoga. She received a BA in anthropology from Swarthmore College, an MA in dance from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in history of consciousness from UC/Santa Cruz. From 1981–90 she taught as a member of the faculty of the department of dance at Wesleyan University. In 1990 she accepted a position as chair of the dance department at UC/Riverside and built the first doctoral-level program in critical dance studies in the United States. From 1996–2000 Foster held a joint appointment between the UC campuses of Riverside and Davis in order to develop the dance emphasis within the department of theater and dance at Davis. She joined the faculty at UCLA in 2001. In each of these institutions, Foster has taught courses in choreography and also dance scholarship.
Her work as a choreographer has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with Choreographer’s Fellowships and by the Rockefeller and Jerome Foundations. Her work as a scholar has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is currently editor, with Ramsay Burt, of the journal Discourses in Dance, published by the Laban Centre in London, where she is also an honorary fellow. In 2007 she received an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University and the Award for Leadership in the Field from the Congress on Research in Dance.
Bibliography of Publications (newest to oldest)
- “Pichet Klunchun and Myself,” in Emerging Bodies: The Performance of Worldmaking in Dance and Choreography, ed. Gabriele Klein and Sandra Noeth. Piscataway: Transaction, 2012, pp. 73–83.
- “Dance and Narrative,” in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, ed. David Herman, Manfred Jahn, and Marie-Laure Ryan. New York: Routledge, forthcoming.
- “Acogny, Germaine,” in Dictionary of African Biography, ed. Henry Louis Gates and Emmanuel K. Akyeampong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
- “Choreographing Your Move,” in Move You, ed. Stephaie Rosethal. London: Hayward, Southbank Center, 2011, pp. 30–37.
- “Tensing and Relaxing Naturally: Early Twentieth Century Approaches to Training the Body,” in Dancing Naturally: Nature, Neo-Classicism and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Dance, ed. Rachel Fensham and Alexandra Carter. New York: Palgrave, 2011, pp. 110–123.
- “Textual Evidances,” in Representing the Past: Essays in Performance Historiography, ed. Charlotte Canning and Thomas Postlewaite. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2011, pp. 333–350. (Originally pub. in Bodies of the Text: Dance as Theory, Literature as Dance, ed. Jacqueline O’Shea Murphy and Ellen Goellner. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995, pp. 231–246.)
- Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance. New York: Routledge, 2010.
- “Chorography and Choreogoraphy,” in Denkfiguren: Performatives Zwischen Bewegen, Schreiben und Erfinden, ed. Nicole Haitzinger and Karin Fenbock. Munich: EPodium, 2010, pp. 68–75.
- “Muscle Memories: How Germaine Acogny and Diane McIntyre Put Their Feet Down,” in Rhythms of the Atlantic World, ed. Mamadou Diouf and Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010, pp. 121–135.
- “Watching Woman and Water,” in Theater Survey 51. 1, 2010, pp. 121–125
- Editor, Worlding Dance. London: Palgrave, 2009:
“Worlding Dance—an Introduction” (pp. 1–13);
“Choreographies and Choreographers” (pp. 98–118). - “Inventories and Taxonomies: Arbeau, Feuillet, and the Project of Dance Notation,” in Notationen von Bewegung. Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach Verlag, 2009.
- “Making a Dance/Researching Through Movement,” in Mapping Landscapes for Performance as Research: Scholarly Acts and Creative Cartographies, ed. Shannon Rose Riley and Lynette Hunter. New York: Palgrave 2009, pp. 91–98.
- “Throwing Like a Girl, Dancing Like a Feminist Philosopher,” in Dancing with Iris, ed. Ann Ferguson and Meike Nagel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 69–78.
- “‘Throwing like a girl?’ Gender in a Transnational World,” in Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader, ed. Jo Butterworth and Lisbeth Wildschut. New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 52–64.
- “Dido’s Otherness: Choreographing Race and Gender in the ballet d’action,” in Dance Discourses: Keywords in Dance Research, ed. Susanne Franco and Marina Nordera. London: Routledge, 2008, pp. 121–130.
- “Empatia e memoria,” in Ricordanze: Memoria in Movimento e Choreographie della Storia, ed. Marina Nordera and Susanne Franco. Torino: UTeT Libreries, 2008, pp. 75–90.
- “Movement’s Contagion: The Kinesthetic Impact of Performance,” in The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies, ed. Tracy C. Davis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 46–59.
- “Where Are You Now?: Locating the Body in Contemporary Performance,” in Anatomy Live: Performance and the Operating Theater, ed. Maaike Bleeker. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, 2008, pp. 169–179.
- “The Cellphone as Stage / The City as Dance: Performance in the Transnational Metropole,” in Tanz, Metropole, Provinz, Special Issue on the Metropolis, ed. Yvonne Hardt and Kirsten Maar. Jahrbuch Tanzforschung Bd. 17, Gesellschaft fur Tansforschung. Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 2007, pp. 229–247.
- “The Earth Twice Shaken Wonderfully,” in Assaph, Studies in Theatre, Special Issue on Considering Calamity, ed. Tracy Davis and Linda Ben Zvi, 21, 2007, pp. 151–170.
- “Kinesthetic Empathies and the Politics of Compassion,” in Critical Theory and Performance, 2nd Edition, ed. Janelle Reinelt and Joseph Roach. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007, pp. 245–258.
- Editor and “Introduction,” with Philipa Rothfield and Colleen Dunugan, and “Choreographing Empathy,” in Topoi An International Review of Philosophy, Special Issue on Dance, 24.1, 2005, pp. 3–4; 81–91.
- “Dance Theory?,” in Teaching Dance Studies, ed. Judith Chazin-Bennahum. London: Taylor and Francis, 2005, pp. 19–34.
- “L’alterità di Didone: coreografare la razza e il genere nel balletto d’azione,” in I discorsi della danza, ed. Susanne Franco and Marina Nordera. Torino: UteT Libreries, 2005, pp. 169–182.
- “Rosemary Butcher’s Scan,” in Rosemary Butcher: Choreographies, Collisions and Collaborations, ed. Rosemary Butcher and Susan Melrose. Middlesex: Middlesex University Press, 2005. pp. 108–117.
- “Choreographien dem Schreibens,” in Kunst der Auffuhrung—Auffuhrung der Kunst, ed. Erika Fischer-Lichte, Clemens Risi, and Jens Roselt. Theater der Zeit, Recherchen 18, 2004, pp. 51–62.
- “Close to the Dancing,” in Movement Research Journal, 2004, pp. B16–B17.
- “The Ballerina’s Phallic Pointe,” in The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader, ed. Amelia Jones. New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 434–453. (Originally pub. In Corporealities: Dancing Knowledge, Culture, and Power, ed. Susan Leigh Foster. London: Routledge, 1995, pp. 1–24.)
- “Choréographier les Feminisms,” in Etre Ensemble: Figures de la communauté en danse depuis le 20eme siècle. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche on Danse, 2003, pp. 241–252.
- “Choreographies of Gender,” in Performance Studies, ed. Erin Striff. London: Palgrave, 2003, pp. 166–177. (Originally pub in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 24.1, 1998, pp. 1–21.)
- “Choreographies of Protest,” in Theater Journal 55.3, 2003, pp. 393–412.
- “Improvising/History,” in New Perspectives in Drama, ed. William B. Worthen. London: Palgrave, 2003, pp. 196–212.
- “Taken by Surprise: Improvisation in Dance and Mind,” in Choreography and Dance, ed. David Gere and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2003, pp. 1–14.
- Dances That Describe Themselves: The Improvised Choreography of Richard Bull. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.
- “Walking and other Choreographic Tactics: Danced Inventions of Theatricality and Performativity,” in SubStance, ed. Josette Féral, 31.2–3, 2002, pp. 125–146.
- “Closets Full of Dances: Masculinity and Sexuality in American Modern Dance,” in Dancing Desires: Choreographing Sexualities on and off the Stage, ed. Jane Desmond. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001, pp. 147–208.
- “Dance,” in The Oxford Companion to the Body, ed. Colin Blakemore. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 192–193.
- “Improviser l’autre: spontanéité et structure dans la danse expérimental contemporaine,” in Protée, 2001, pp. 25–37.
- “Kinesthetic Empathies and the Politics of Compassion,” in Hysteric: Body, Medicine, Text 4, 2001.
- “PastForward and rewind,” in Dance Theatre Journal 17.2, 2001, pp. 22–25.
- “Simply(?) the Doing of It, Like Two Arms Going Round and Round,” in Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, ed. Ann Dils and Ann Cooper Albright. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001, pp. 427–438. (Originally pub. In Continuous Replay: the Photographs of Arnie Zane, ed. Jonathan Green. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999, pp. 108–117.)
- “Which Shoes to Wear to the Festival?,” in proceedings from the conference Danse: Langage propre et Métissage Culturel, Oct. 1–2, 1999, ed. Chantal Pontbriand. Montreal: Parachute, 2001, pp. 153–160.
- Editor, with Sue-Ellen Case and Philip Brett, and “Introducing Unnatural Acts, 1997,” in Decomposition: Post-Disciplinary Performance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000, pp. 3–9.
- Foreword, in My Body, the Buddhist, by Deborah Hay. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2000, pp. ix–xviii.
- “Dancing Gender,” in Suipge Sun Yosong Munhwa Yesul ui Ihae (Understanding Theories of Women’s Culture and Arts), ed. Jung Soon Shim. Seoul, Korea: Tongin, 1999, pp. 183–214.
- “Narrative with a Vengeance: Doris Humphrey’s With My Red Fires,” in Proceedings Society of Dance History Scholars Conference, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 1999, pp. 89–94.
- “Regarding Richard: Richard Niles Bull, July 3, 1931–July 4, 1998,” with Gill Wright Miller and June Vail, in Contact Quarterly 24.1, 1999, pp. 23–25.
- “Choreographing History,” in Routledge Dance Studies Reader, ed. Alexandra Carter. New York: Routledge, 1998, pp. 180–191. (Originally pub. in Choreographing History, ed. Susan Leigh Foster. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1995.)
- “Dancing the Body Politic: Manner and Mimesis in Eighteenth Century Ballet,” in From the Royal to the Republican Body: Incorporating the Political in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France, ed. Sara Melzer and Kate Norberg. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, pp. 162–181.
- “Danses de l’écriture, courses dansantes et anthropologie de la kinesthesia,” in Littérature 112, 1998, pp. 100–111.
- “New Methods of Inquiry,” in International Encyclopedia of Dance, ed. Selma Jeanne Cohen. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 376–379.
- “Confluences of Gender, Race, and Sexuality in American Modern Dance,” in Proceedings of the First South African Music and Dance Conference. University of Capetown, Capetown, South Africa, 1997, pp. 51–78.
- “Dancing Bodies,” in Meaning and Motion: New Cultural Studies of Dance, ed. Jane Desmond. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997, pp. 235–257. (Originally pub. in Incorporations (Zone 6), ed. Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter. Cambridge, MA: Zone/MIT Press, 1992. 480–495.)
- Choreography and Narrative: Ballet’s Staging of Story and Desire. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
- “Pygmalion’s No-Body and the Body of Dance,” in Performance and Cultural Politics, ed. Elin Diamond. New York: Routledge, 1996, pp. 133–154.
- Editor, Choreographing History. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1995.
- Editor and Introduction, Corporealities: Dancing Knowledge, Culture, and Power. London: Routledge Press, 1995.
- Editor, with Sue-Ellen Case and Philip Brett, Cruising the Performative: Interventions into the Representation of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Sexuality. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1995.
- “Harder, Faster, Longer, Higher—A Postmortem Inquiry into the Ballerina’s Making,” in Proceedings of the Fifth Study of Dance Conference. Guilford, England: University of Surrey, 1995, pp. 109–114.
- “Dancing the Techno-Aesthetics of Post-History,” in Zeit Raume, ed. Martin Bergelt. Munich, Germany: Verlag, 1993.
- “Dancing Culture,” in American Ethnologist 19.2, 1992, pp. 362–366.
- “Post-body, Multi-bodies?,” in TDR: The Drama Review 36.1, 1992, pp. 67–69.
- “Dance’s Newness,” in Forum de Danca 1.1, 1991, pp. 18–19.
- “Cruel Nocturnal Dancing,” in Nordic Theatre Studies, ed. Willmar Sauter, 1990, pp. 67–71.
- “Graphic Dancing,” in Dance 89, catalogue for the 2nd International Dance Festival, ed. Hortensia Volckers. Munich, Germany, 1989.
- Review of The Dancing Body in Renaissance Choreography by Mark Franko, in Theatre Journal 40.3, 1988, pp. 429–430.
- Reading Dancing: Bodies and Subjects in Contemporary American Dance. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
- “Correspondances.” New Observations 38, 1986, pp. 15–17.
- “The Signifying Body: Reaction and Resistance in Postmodern Dance,” in Theatre Journal 37.1, 1985, pp. 45–64.
- “On Dancing and the Dance: Two Visions of Dance’s Past.” Proceedings Society of Dance History Scholars Conference, Ohio State University, 1983, pp. 133–141.
- “The Gestures of Representation,” in Berkshire Review, 1982, pp. 136–152.
- “The Fine Arts and General Education: Are They Compatible?,” with Armand Burke. Liberal Education, 1978, pp. 55–62.