About Gillian Lipton
New York, New York
Gillian Lipton’s (CBA ’20) research interests include dance and social justice, postwar American concert dance and performance, ballet, as well as archival theory and practice. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from NYU and with Ford Foundation support, completed a multi-year research and performance initiative with Arthur Mitchell to develop his archive and related performance projects. As a performer, she recently collaborated on several exhibitions with the Museum of Modern Art, New York. A participant in the Mellon Postdoctoral Program in Dance Studies, her writing on dance and performance can be found in The Drama Review and Performance Research, and in the anthology, Futures of Dance Studies. Lipton has taught Dance and Performance Studies at Yale, Barnard, and Queens College, CUNY.
“I Was Dancing Civil Rights”: Arthur Mitchell, Racial Justice, and Ballet in America
Building on her multi-year research initiative to develop the Arthur Mitchell archive, Lipton’s project investigates how concerns for racial justice during civil rights era America of the late 1950s and 60s coalesced in Mitchell’s life and work and became manifest on the American stage. As a CBA fellow, her project analyzes key performances of Mitchell’s early career including select appearances in opera, musical theater, modern dance, and ballet.