SCHOLARLY ARCHIVE
WRITING LAB
Publications, editorial work, and podcast transmissions exploring dance confluences, embodied archives, and the intersection of movement, technology, and cultural memory.
BOOKS
DANCING IN THE WORLD: REVEALING CULTURAL CONFLUENCES
Develops a framework of dance confluences that critically examines spaces as both intellectual and physical concepts. Part of Routledge's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Theatre and Performance series.
VIEW ON ROUTLEDGE →GLOBAL MOVEMENT RESEARCH: FROM FROZEN ARCHIVES TO THINKING ARCHIVES
Proposes Motion Archive, Living Archive, and Thinking Archive models as alternatives to "frozen" archives. Implements AEI Activation Framework for ethical archival intelligence in embodied cultural data.
EDITED VOLUMES
SHAPING SOUTHERN SHIFTS: PROVOCATIONS IN/THROUGH LBMS
Edited collection examining Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies through Southern perspectives and decolonial frameworks.
ARTICLES & CHAPTERS
GLOBAL MOVEMENT RESEARCH: FROM FROZEN REPOSITORIES TO THINKING SYSTEMS OF DANCE
Introduces the transformation of the archive from static repository into a living, adaptive system of embodied intelligence. Proposes the Thinking Archive—a dynamic model where movement data, cultural context, and embodied memory interact through reciprocal processes of sensing, interpretation, and reactivation.
THE SENSORIUM PROJECT: AFFECTIVE COMPUTATION AND EMBODIED FEEDBACK IN PERFORMANCE
Investigates how soft pneumatic sensing, affective computation, and embodied feedback can expand choreographic practice. Advances the Affective-Computational Choreography System (ACCS) treating affect, tactility, and force transmission as primary compositional materials while preserving improvisation, cultural nuance, and Africanist movement logics.
THE THINKING ARCHIVE: AN IMMERSIVE SYSTEM FOR ETHICAL EXPLORATION OF EMBODIED HERITAGE
Presents an immersive system architecture for ethical engagement with embodied cultural heritage, implementing consent protocols, community governance, and responsive AI within dance archive contexts.
TOWARD A BODY-CENTERED ARCHITECTURE FOR THE THINKING ARCHIVE: THE DANCE CONFLUENCE
Proposes body as primary interface for archive navigation, positioning dancers in 3D space by QTC/SAM similarity rather than geographic origin, with geography surfacing as metadata when relevant.
ROOTED IN MOTION: KNOWING REALITIES AND THE SELF THROUGH DANCE, MEMORY, AND EMBODIMENT
Explores migration, queer survival, displacement, and assimilation through poetry and embodied practice, tracing how lived experience becomes transmissible movement and cinematic structure.
AUDIO TRANSMISSIONS
DANCING IN THE WORLD PODCAST
Companion podcast to the Routledge book, exploring cultural confluences in dance through conversations with scholars, practitioners, and community knowledge-keepers. Recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Creativity Grant (2022).
EP 01
Introductions
JUN 15, 2023
EP 02
Revealing Cultural Confluences
JUN 22, 2023
EP 03
Migrations in Dance
JUN 29, 2023
EP 04
Dance as Play
JUL 6, 2023
EP 05
Ainihi e Alteridade: Performing Otherness
JUL 13, 2023 · W/ PABLO DE OLIVEIRA
EP 06
Just Steps
JUL 20, 2023
EP 07
A Conversation with Professor Chris Ugolo
JUL 27, 2023 · UNIVERSITY OF BENIN
EP 08
Collaboration, Writing, and Dialogue in Confluent Spaces
AUG 3, 2023
GUEST APPEARANCE
CONVERSATIONS IN ATLANTIC THEORY
A podcast dedicated to books and ideas generated from and about the Atlantic world. In collaboration with the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, exploring cultural, political, and philosophical traditions ranging from European critical theory to the Black Atlantic.
Discussion with Dr. Kathleen Spanos presenting a framework for dance practitioners and researchers working in diverse dance cultures to navigate academia and the professional dance field, based on the idea of "cultural confluences."
LISTEN TO EPISODE → ATLANTIC THEORY →EDITORIAL POSITIONS
EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL TEAM
SHAPING SOUTHERN SHIFTS: PROVOCATIONS IN/THROUGH LBMS
ESI Press, South Africa · Forthcoming 2026
Contributing editor for collection examining Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies through Southern and decolonial frameworks.
CONCEPTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS
DANCE CONFLUENCE
FOUNDATIONAL FRAMEWORK · ORIGINAL
Framework discovered in the book writing process with co-author Dr. Kathleen Spanos. Conjures bodies of water meeting and flowing into and past one another—dance cultures migrating through mainstream and non-mainstream streams, fluid categories associated with power, privilege, and the ability to absorb other cultural forms.
ACF
ATOMIC CONFLUENCE FRAMEWORK · ORIGINAL
Geolocation model identifying singular dance origins and tracing their dispersal across geography and time. Each confluence represents a node where dances emerge, collide, or transform.
DRP PROTOCOL
ACCOUNTABILITY RECORD · ORIGINAL
Nine-field accountability record traveling with every capture: Provenance → Intent → Context → Authority → Apparatus → Consent → Capture → Uncertainty → Interpretive Seed. Ensures the archive receives articulated terms of the relationship between depositor, material, and intended circulation.
DRP PROCESS
REPLICATION PIPELINE · ORIGINAL
Nine-stage replication pipeline: Discovery → Dispersal → Analysis → Replication → Data → Interpretation → Contextualization → Visualization → Dissemination. Describes movement workflow from initial encounter through public circulation.
ACCS
AFFECTIVE-COMPUTATIONAL CHOREOGRAPHY SYSTEM · ORIGINAL
Design model treating affect, tactility, and force transmission as primary compositional materials through soft robotic sensing and real-time environmental response.
AEI / AAF
ARTIFICIAL EMBODIED INTELLIGENCE / ACTIVATION FRAMEWORK · ORIGINAL
Framework for transforming static archives into responsive, ethically-governed systems capable of reasoning with embodied data while maintaining cultural integrity and consent.
THINKING ARCHIVE
THREE-STAGE ARCHIVE MODEL · ORIGINAL
Progression from Frozen Archive (static preservation) → Living Archive (active maintenance) → Thinking Archive (adaptive intelligence that generates, responds, and evolves).
QTC / SAM
IN CONVERSATION WITH
Qualitative Trajectory Calculus and Sequence Alignment Methods—computational frameworks for converting mocap trajectories into qualitative symbol sequences, enabling cross-dance comparison, pattern discovery, and similarity clustering.
PPC
IN CONVERSATION WITH
Provenience / Provenance / Context—archaeological framework adapted for dance: where was it found (provenience), where did it come from (provenance), what surrounded it (context).
GMR INFRASTRUCTURE
LAB & PROCESS ECOSYSTEM
DATA ASSETS
- ● 33 Motion Capture Replications
- ● 28 Dance Forms Documented
- ● 30+ Atomic Confluences Mapped
- ● Historical Maps (Library of Congress)
- ● QTC/SAM Encoded Sequences
- ● GeoJSON/CSV Data Structures
INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS
- ● GMR Atlas (MapLibre Geo-Visualization)
- ● Dance Confluence (3D Similarity Space)
- ● Single-Dance AEI Viewer
- ● Side-by-Side Comparison Viewer
- ● AEI Lab Console (In Development)
- ● Atomic Confluences StoryMaps
LAB PHASE I
2023 · VCUMOVELLA MARKER MOTION CAPTURE
Initial lab captures using Movella marker-based motion capture system. Data simulation pipeline routed via Blender for rendering into video format visualization. Lab formats included BVH and MBX with low latency and precision. Blender renderings proved ineffective for analysis, but discoveries set the stage for developing the DRP Protocol—a systematic and ethical framework for assembling critical workflow and embodied captures.
LAB PHASE II
2024 · UT AUSTIN AET DOTY LIBRARYCAPTURY MARKERLESS MOTION CAPTURE
Transition from Movella to Captury advanced markerless mocap system at UT Austin's AET Doty Library Media Lab. Generates immediately available visualization via FBX and humanoid renderings through Unity, Unreal Engine, and other visualization software. Major discoveries include establishment and implementation of ACF, DRP Protocol & Process, and direct lab collaboration implementing QTC/SAM and PPC frameworks. This generative lab created practical and technological resources now translated into the Dance Confluence platform—a full-fledged archival system enhanced by AI through AEI and AAF theoretical frameworks developed in late 2025/early 2026.
KEY OUTCOMES: International collaborators · Senior mentor support · ACF/DRP implementation · Dance Confluence platform
PEDAGOGY
TEACHING
Selected examples from my teaching portfolio. My pedagogical practice spans the full curriculum—from embodied technique and studio practice to critical theory, dance history, and research methodologies.
WEST AFRICAN DANCE
TECHNIQUE & THEORY
Contemporary African dance practices centered in hybridizations rooted in deep cultural performances of West African peoples—from an insider's perspective. Activating mythologies, rituals, spiritism, socio-political nuances, and migration patterns while using geospatial cross-cultural diffusions to understand historical pollination of dance practices across Africa and within global context.
DANCE-MAKING
CHOREOGRAPHY
Crosses fields of concert dance, dance on camera, and unconventional site-specific performance. Integrates dance technology and applications, exploring the intersection of embodied practice and digital tools.
DANCE HISTORY
HISTORICAL SURVEY
Examines the histories of dance in human society from ancient times across world civilizations, presenting dance as human practices that reveal the ways societies know themselves and have carried culture and traditions across time.
PRODUCTION
FACILITATION & MANAGEMENT
Facilitates dance productions and serves as producer for dance concerts and company management, bridging creative vision with operational execution.