ÉQUIPE

Dr. Elizabeth Claire | CV

Dr. Elizabeth Claire is Senior Research Fellow in the History department of the CNRS (French Center for National Research) working at the Paris-based laboratory Center for Historical Research (CRH, UMR 8558 EHESS-CNRS). 

A founding member of the Cultural History of Dance Working Group at the EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences), she publishes on the cultural history of dance, the history of medicine, the body and the powers of imagination.

As a scientific editor she is collaborating with Eva Shalbroeck at Brepols to launch a new series on the history of Techniques, Imagination & the Body. Co-editors on that series are Béatrice Delaurenti, Roberto Poma, and Koen Vermeir.

Couverture Clio n.46She has also edited a special issue of the feminist history journal Clio. Women, Gender, History: Dancing 46/2017; and, with Alessandro Arcangeli, Ludica. Performance, Politics and Play, a special issue of the Italian cultural history journal. Forthcoming publications include an edited volume on the history of the powers of imagination with Béatrice Delaurenti, Roberto Poma and Koen Vermeir: Imagination & the Performing Body in the new TECHNE-Techniques, Imagination & The Body series chez Brepols; and a monographie on Dancing Imagination. Embodied Eloquence, Enthusiasm and Contagion (1754-1815).

Current research projects include: a monograph on the medical history of French dancing and the revolutionary imagination in late 18th-century northern Europe, Imagination Embodied. Dancing Eloquence, Enthusiasm, and Contagion (1754-1815); an interdisciplinary project DisOrienting Bodies in collaboration with Mariem Guellouz and Felicia McCarren; and a collective volume Writing Dance in the History of Africa with Mirelle Flore Chamba Nana, Zoe Groves and ‘Funmi Adewole (see DiHAN tab).

While pursuing her Ph.D. at NYU Performance Studies, prior to working in France, Liz Claire had the pleasure of performing with the following companies and artists in New York (1993-2004), PearsonWidrig DanceTheatre, David Dorfman Dance (Athlete’s Project), Richard Schechner East Coast Artists, KJ Holmes, Julie Carr, Sondra Loring (Improvisation Festival/NY), Kari Van Tine, Ray Chung, Nancy Stark Smith (Earthdance); Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater (Minnesota), Yvonne Rainer, Deb Margolin; and in Europe (2000-2014), Dogtröep object theater (Amsterdam), Yoshiko Chuma School of Hard Knocks (Ireland), Au Cul du Loup (Paris/Bourgogne), Howard Katz Budoflux (Berlin/New York). From 2008-2014, as Artistic Director of Association M.A.D.E. | Movement Arts & Design in Europe, Elizabeth Claire hosted an annual month-long university-accredited summer institute in Paris and at Les Champs Mélisey (Bourgogne, France) for university dance and design students in collaboration with the Performing Arts Department of Washington University in St. Louis and the Dance Department at Connecticut College (USA). Upcoming performance work includes co-artistic and scientific direction of the Festival de l’Écoute in Catania, Sicily (inaugural edition, November 2026) and performance collaborations with Emanuele Coco.

Working Group | Histoire culturelle de la danse (2018-présent)

L’Atelier d’histoire culturelle de la danse (2007-2018)