Biography
JOAN D. FROSCH is Professor of Dance in the School of Theatre and Dance, University of Florida where she has taught since 1995. She is also director of UF’s Center for World Arts, a living laboratory exploring the interface of arts and society, which she co-founded with colleague Larry Crook in 1996. Dr. Frosch is affiliate faculty of the Centers for African Studies, Latin American Studies, and Digital Worlds. She is a consultant for the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, and Creative Capital, among others. Recently awarded the University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship (2012-2015), Dr. Frosch is a dance ethnographer, Laban Movement Analyst (CMA), filmmaker, choreographer, and author. Her research has attracted numerous honors and awards, such as the national Lilly Fellowship for innovative curriculum in Dance in World Cultures, the National Endowment for the Arts (Dance-Creativity), the Cologne Choreographers' Forum for her choreography, "China."
Dr. Frosch received the inaugural EMPAC (RPI) film commission for her film production NORA (2008) which premiered on PBS on January 17, 2011. Dr. Frosch is also the director and producer of the feature documentary on African experimental choreographers entitled Movement (R)Evolution Africa: a story of an art form in four acts (2009) currently broadcast by ZDF in Germany, Austria, and Italy.
Dr. Frosch trained at the School of Performing Arts, The Juilliard School, California Institute of the Arts, Columbia University, and the Laban Institute of Movement Studies. She has taught on the faculties of the University of Maryland, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Wesleyan University, Rotterdamse Dansacademie in the Netherlands, the International School of Beijing, and founded and directed a summer performing arts program based at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. She has also served as Advisor to the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife African Immigrant Project, President of the Florida Dance Association, and has served on the board of directors of the Congress on Research in Dance.
Dr. Frosch is the recipient of the University of Florida President's Humanitarian Award (2003), the inaugural Gwendolen M. Carter Fellowship in African Studies (2003-2004), Faculty Achievement Recognition (2007), the College of Fine Arts International Educator of the Year Award (2008), University of Florida International Educator of the Year Award (2008). She was selected for the HERS Leadership Institute (2010) and awarded the INPUT Producer’s Fellowship (2011). Dr. Frosch is co-founder of the Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium (TACAC), a bi-continental organization of artists and arts organizations dedicated to the vigorous exchange of contemporary art making and ideas. Dr. Frosch analyzed the TACAC model of global exchange in her recent publication Building Enduring Partnerships (2011).