A Guide to the Joan D. Frosch Dance Collection
Finding aid created by Jim Liversidge
University of Florida Smathers Libraries - Special and Area Studies Collections
July 2011
Descriptive Summary |
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| Creator: | Frosch, Joan D. | |
| Title: | Joan D. Frosch Dance Collection | |
| Dates: | 2004-2007 | |
| Abstract: | Research material collected and compiled by Joan D. Frosch for her 2009 documentary film: Movement (R)Evolution Africa: A Story of an Art Form in Four Acts. | |
| Extent: | 123 hours of digital film footage. | |
| Identification: | MS Group 287 | |
| Language(s): | English | |
| Access: | Researchers should consult with Special Collections staff before using the collection because there are access restrictions. See the Access note for more information. | |
Biographical/Historical Note
Joan D. Frosch is Professor of Dance and affiliate faculty of the Centers for African Studies, Latin American Studies, and Digital Worlds at the University of Florida. She is a consultant for such agencies as the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Creative Capital, among others. The 2003-2004 Gwendolen M. Carter Fellow in African Studies at the University of Florida, Dr. Frosch is a dance ethnographer, Certified Laban Movement Analyst, filmmaker, choreographer, and author. She is director and co-founder of UF's Center for World Arts (1996), a living laboratory exploring the interface of arts and culture. Her research has attracted national and international funding, and numerous honors and awards, such as the national Lilly Fellowship for innovative curriculum in Dance in World Cultures, the National Endowment for the Arts (Dance-Creativity), the Cologne Choreographers' Forum for her choreography, "China," and the EMPAC (RPI) film commission for her latest production "Nora" (2008) which premiered on PBS on January 17, 2011.
Dr. Frosch is director and producer of a feature documentary on African experimental choreographers entitled Movement (R)evolution Africa: A Story of an Art Form in Four Acts broadcast in Germany, Austria, and Italy (movementrevolutionafrica.com). The film was distributed by Documentary Educational Resources (Watertown, Massachusetts). Alla Kovgan co-directed and edited, and Jeff Silva was Director of Photography.
Movement (R)evolution Africa features such artists and companies as Sello Pesa (South Africa), Jant-Bi (Senegal), Raiz de Polon (Cape Verde), Rary (Madagascar), Béatrice Kombé and Nadia Beugre (Cote d'Ivoire), and Lacina Coulibaly and Souleymane Badolo of Kongo Ba Téria (Burkina Faso), and Nora Chipaumire (Zimbabwe/USA) among many others. In collaboration with the Centers for African Studies and Latin American Studies, she has developed numerous collaborations with international artists moving from "cultural traditions" to contemporary expression, including conferences on the subject, such as the recent "Movement (R)evolution Dialogues: Contemporary Performance In and Of Africa," and programming including such artists as: Los Pregones, Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor, African-American Dance Ensemble, DanceBrazil, Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, Pepatian, Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, ODC San Francisco, Urban Bush Women, and Company TchéTché of Cote d'Ivoire.
Dr. Frosch trained at the School of Performing Arts, The Juilliard School, California Institute of the Arts, Columbia University, and the Laban Institute of Movement Studies. She has taught on the faculties of the University of Maryland, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Wesleyan University, Rotterdamse Dansacademie in the Netherlands, the International School of Beijing, and founded and directed a summer performing arts program based at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. She has also served as Advisor to the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife African Immigrant Project, President of the Florida Dance Association, and has served on the board of directors of the Congress on Research in Dance. Dr. Frosch is a founding member of The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium (TACAC), a national organization of curators, presenters, and scholars dedicated to the vigorous artistic exchange of contemporary African performance. Dr. Frosch is recipient of the President's Humanitarian Award (2003), the University of Florida's Faculty Achievement Recognition (2007), the College of Fine Arts International Educator of the Year Award (2008), University of Florida's International Educator of the Year Award (2008), and was selected for the HERS Leadership Institute (2010).
Scope and Content
123 hours of footage shot during 2004-2007 for Movement (R)Evolution Africa (2009). Locations include University of Florida, Gainesville Florida; Time Based Arts Festival, Portland, Oregon; Columbia College in Chicago; the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, Maine; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Footage includes interviews, informal interactions, workshops, rehearsals, and performances of choreographic works. It features the thinking and work of artists and arts leaders as: Germaine Acogny, Helmut Vogt, Kota Yamazaki; Babacar Ba, Ciré Beye, Abdoulaye Kane, Pape Ibrahima N'Diaye (aka Kaolack), Ousmane Bane N'Diaye, Tchebe Saky, Abib Sow. Lacina Coulibaly, Souleymane Badolo; Winsei Timbiri, Oumaru Kienou; Roch Wendploumdé Ouédraogo; Lacina Coulibaly, Souleymane Badolo, Bienvenue Fernand Bazie; Ariry Andriamoratsiresy; Zoë J. Randrianjanaka Dinampitia; Ariry Andriamoratsiresy, Harimalala Angela Rakotoarisoa, Lovatiana Erica Rakotobe, Rijamalala Harivony Rakotoarimanana, Zoë J. Randrianjanaka Dinampitia, Alain Michel Randriamiasa; Linda Angelica Volahasiniaina. Sello Pesa; Mandla Bebeza, Jean Renat Anamah; Béatrice Kombé; Nadia Beugre, Béatrice Kombé; Abdel Marc Salifou Camara; Faustin Linyekula; Joachim Montessuis, Papy Ebotani, Daddy Kamono, Virgine DuPray; Nora Chipaumire; Elisabete Fernandes, Rosy Timas: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Maria Bauman, Christal Brown, Nia Eubanks, Chanon Judson, Rhea Patterson, Amara Tabor-Smi, Zab Maboungou, 'Funmi Adewole Kruczkowska, Robert Farris Thompson, Gacirah Diagne, Ayoko Mensah, Robert Farris Thompson, Alicia Adams, Everlea Bryant, and others.
Access or Use Restrictions
Access
The materials in the Joan D. Frosch Dance Collection are to remain in the Belknap Collection for the Performing Arts and may not be removed from the Collection, except upon written permission of Dr. Frosch. Dr. Frosch will review and consider requests for use of materials, which may be used upon written permission of Dr. Frosch.
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Joan D. Frosch Dance Collection, Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
Processing Notes
A detailed description of the contents is forthcoming. The research material was donated by Dr. Frosch to the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections on an external hard drive and is currently being digitally transferred to disk by the Digital Library Center. The recordings (123 hours of footage) will be available online for research purposes. More dance-related material will be added to the collection.
For further information, please contact: Special Collections Access Services.
