In queer spaces, we often use a list of letters to signal coalitional possibility. What does a list make possible? In this talk, I draw on the virtuosic listmaking deployed by dance critic and lesbian feminist activist Jill Johnston to consider what we can and cannot derive from understanding ourselves alongside one another. How does a list become a movement? An audience? A performance?

About the Speaker

Clare Croft is a dance historian and theorist, and sometimes dramaturg and curator. She is the author of Dancers as Diplomats: American Choreography in Cultural Exchange (Oxford UP), the editor of Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings (Oxford UP), the founder/curator of the EXPLODE queer dance festival, and a former critic for newspapers including The Washington Post and Austin American-Statesman.

Croft’s current work focuses on dance critic and lesbian feminist activist Jill Johnston, the central figure of her next book, Her Disruptions, which will be published by Duke University Press. Croft is also the editor of the book series, Studies in Dance: Theories and Practices; a frequent dramaturg for Andee Scott, Jennifer Harge, and Thomas DeFrantz; and the founder of the curatorial platform Daring Dances, which considers how dance can moves us into necessary, if difficult conversations.