Bio

Rainy Demerson is a contemporary dance artist and scholar invested in intersectional feminism and global decolonial embodiments. In addition to extensive studies in New York City, she trained at L’ecole des Sables in Senegal, Teatro Nacional de Cuba, Escola de Dança da FUNCEB in Brazil, and in collaboration with The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in Germany. She has produced concerts in New York and Senegal and her work has been presented in festivals across the United States.

For seven years Dr. Demerson taught Dance and Yoga to youth in underserved public schools before developing an intercultural dance program at MS 267 in Brooklyn. She then went on to teach at Lindenwood University, El Paso Community College, Crafton Hills College, Scripps College, California Polytechnic University Pomona, and California State University San Marcos before joining the University of the West Indies Cave Hill.

Qualifications

PhD Critical Dance Studies, University of California Riverside, 2020
MFA Dance, Hollins University, 2016
MA Dance Education, New York University, 2012
BA World Arts and Cultures/Dance, University of California Los Angeles, 2002

Research Areas

Current embodied research engages reproductive rights and the social mores which enshroud them, asking “what kinds of communal rituals can be created to support women’s freedom?”

Teaching Areas

Africana Dances 2, Improvisation, Global Dance Histories, Dance Education, Critical Dance Studies, Africana Performance Theory, Dance Composition.

Select Publications

Demerson, Rainy. “Dada Masilo’s Giselle: A Decolonial Love Story.” Dance Research Journal 54,3 (2022): 8-25.

Demerson, Rainy. “¡Viva El Juego! Play in Latin American Performance Art.” In Play & Democracy: Philosophical Perspectives, edited by Alice Koubová, Petr Urban, Wendy Russell, and Malcolm MacLean, 162–75. New York: Routledge, 2021.

Demerson, Rainy. “Black Privilege in the Black Box: Mamela Nyamza’s Choreographic Resistance.” Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques June 2021, no. 23. https://www.critical-stages.org/23/black-privilege-in-the-black-box-mamela-nyamzas-choreographic-resistance/.

Demerson, Rainy. “Sensing the Stage: Decolonial Readings of African Contemporary Dance.” In African Somaesthetics: Cultures, Feminisms, Politics, edited by Catherine Botha, Vol. 3. Studies in Somaesthetics. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2020.

Demerson, Rainy. “Awareness Through Movement® as Critical Pedagogy in Ballet.” Research in Dance and Physical Education 4, no. 3 (December 2020): 19–31. https://doi.org/10.26584/RDPE.2020.12.4.3.19.

Additional Info

Dr. Demerson currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Dance Chronicle, a scholarly journal focused on historical and humanities-based research.

Keywords

Contemporary dance, de/anti/post-colonial theory, improvisation, African diaspora dance.