I'm Kris, a dance scholar, performer, and dramaturg. I was born and raised outside of Washington, D.C. I am Black and Iranian American.

My work is broadly invested in the histories, impacts, and possibilities of Black, queer/trans, and feminist performance practices.

As an Assistant Professor of Dance at Chapman University, I primarily teach courses in dance history and theory.

My academic and creative writing appears in Dance Chronicle, Performance Matters, Culture Bot, and the Movement Research Performance Journal. My publications in progress include essays on choreographers Hope Clarke, Kyle Abraham, and Angie Pittman. In 2024, I was awarded the Dance Studies Association's Selma Jeanne Cohen Award and was invited to Buenos Aires, Argentina to present my research.

I completed my PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at University of Maryland, College Park and earned a Graduate Certificate from the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

My dissertation was a historical recovery project about Clark Center, a dance studio and school founded in 1959 for Alvin Ailey's modern dance company. Using archives and oral history interviews conducted with over 20 Clark Center alumni, the project foregrounds the Center's mission to resource African American dance artists. Through its cadre of brilliant Black dance teachers and choreographers, the Center catalyzed racial integration of the field, offering what I term a "Black-centric" model of racial integration. I also theorize how Clark Center's location in midtown Manhattan reveals much about the commercial redevelopment of the area in the 1970s-80s, which systematically displaced certain cultural institutions and body-based industries in favor of more respectable ones. Through the living legacies of Clark Center alumni who continue to effect change in the world today (including those working under the banner of Clark Center NYC), I ultimately argue that the histories of Clark Center reveal dance as a potent vehicle of Black self-making and world-making.

I also hold an MFA in Dance from Arizona State University. As a dancer and choreographer, I make solo performance projects dealing with (racial) ambiguity, (social) estrangement, and (sexual) otherness. My work has been supported by a number of institutions, including Movement Research, GIBNEY, and The Kitchen.

I have performed and worked for a slew of other choreographers as a performer, assistant, and/or dramaturg. Most recently I performed in Abigail Levine's six quiet dogs at Target Margin Theater (NYC).

I'm happy to chat about potential collaborations or guest lectures. Write me: hello@kristopherpourzal.com.