School of Theatre and Dance

JOAN D. FROSCH is Professor of Dance, affiliate faculty of the Centers for African Studies and Latin American Studies 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, Professor Frosch is a dance ethnographer, Certified Laban Movement Analyst, fimmaker, choreographer and author. She is co-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) to be broadcast on PBS in 2010. www.movementrevolutionafrica.com/nora

Professor 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. www.movementrevolutionafrica.com
"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 (Cote d’Ivoire), and Kongo Ba Téria (Burkina Faso),Nora Chipaumire (Zimbabwe) among many others.   In collaboration with the Centers for African Studies and Latin American Studies, she has developed numerous other 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  TchéTché, of Cote d'Ivoire.

Professor Frosch trained at the School of Performing Arts, The Juiliard 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. Professor 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.  Professor Frosch is recipient of the University of Florida's Faculty Achievement Recognition (2007) and the President's Humanitarian Award (2003) and was named International Educator of the Year (2008).