About Jill Johnson’s Political Embodiments

Jill Johnston has often been described as a dance critic or a lesbian feminist activist. Rarely has Johnston’s work as the crucial writer on postmodern dance and a foundational voice of lesbian feminism been considered together. This talk examines how Johnston’s emphasis on the physical as a way of knowing and “speaking,” and on physical engagement as a way of re-imagining hierarchies knits together her work in dance and activism. Specifically, the talk will focus on two major events in Johnston’s career that both happened in 1971: the publication of Marmalade Me, the first book-length publication of her dance writing and her participation in the now infamous panel featuring Johnston and three other feminists, with Norman Mailer as moderator. The talk moves beyond biography toward imagining the larger implications of thinking about Johnston’s arts criticism and activism: how might the two modes, taken together, create what Croft calls a “queer lesbian” stance on the body?

About Clare Croft

Clare Croft is a dance historian, theorist, and sometimes dance dramaturg and curator. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan where she teaches in the MFA program in Dance, and the BFA programs in Dance and Interarts. She is the author of Dancers as Diplomats: American Choreography in Cultural Exchange (Oxford University Press, 2015), and the editor and curator of the hybrid print/Web/performance project, Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance (forthcoming Oxford University Press, 2017). Her writing as appeared in Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle, Theatre Journal, and Theatre Topics, and she has also been a regular contributor to The Washington Post, the Austin American-Statesman, and Dance Magazine. She is a past member of the Michigan Society of Fellows, where she was a postdoctoral fellow from 2010-2013, and this year Croft is the Norman and Jane Katz Fellow at the Institute for Humanities at the University of Michigan, where she is working on her next book, A Different Kind of Lady: Jill Johnston’s Political Embodiments in Art and Criticism.

About Dance Studies Colloquium

Temple University Dance Department announces the 2016-17 Dance Studies Colloquium. A list of speakers, topics, and dates follows. The Colloquium extends through the entire year and affords the opportunity for a sustained conversation on the state of dance and dance studies: speakers include both scholars and artists.

These events are free and open to the public. Unless otherwise specified, all presentations are on Tuesdays, 5:30 – 7pm at the Center for Humanities at Temple (CHAT) Lounge, Gladfelter Hall, 10th fl., Temple University. Live streaming available at www.temple.edu/boyer/dance/ RR.

Dance Studies Colloquium is a dynamic interactive speaker series designed to facilitate a dialogue about emerging topics and issues related to dance. It brings together artists and scholars to explore how we initiate and assimilate ideas and events and our resulting actions within the field of dance.