"Performing Witchcraft: Feminist Art Practice and Embodied Research Processes"

Laura Katz Rizzo presents her interdisciplinary, multi-modal, creative, feminist praxis of dance research. She examines how the concepts of performing witchcraft and spellcasting in their correspondent interconnections with dance and choreography have enabled her to utilize the choreographic craft as a recursive form of inquiry for understanding the world.

"In this talk, I speak from a personal, poststructuralist, and feminist stance to describe how this holistic approach has challenged my ways of thinking, being, seeing, and dancing, and helped me recognize, question, and transgress overarching ideological paradigms within the field of dance, in myself, and in society at large."

Laura Katz Rizzo is a dancer, choreographer, performer and scholar. She holds a BA in history and English from the University of New Mexico and an EdM in dance and PhD in dance and women's studies from Temple University. She has performed with several ballet and contemporary dance companies, and as an independent performer and choreographer. Her screen dances Takako Vs. Nine Lives and Ionic Resonance have been selected and screened at film festivals across the world. In addition to her choreographic works, Laura is also an experienced dance writer. She is author of Dancing the Fairy Tale: Producing and Performing “The Sleeping Beauty” (Temple University Press, 2015), and many other publications, and has published work in both popular and academic dance periodicals. She has delivered master classes at dance institutions worldwide and is currently an associate professor at Temple University in Philadelphia.