Alice Hasters, 2023 Thomas Mann Fellow, and Kurt A. Douglas, Professor of Dance at Boston Conservatory, talk about diversity in dance.

Who dances and how, what we see as culturally and artistically relevant, is strongly influenced by racism – an assumption Alice Hasters is researching in her fellowship at the Thomas Mann House in LA. The notion that "Black people can dance, white people can't" is particularly strong in multi-ethnic societies. In Western societies, dance seems to be something that is incompatible with power. The rich, the white, the male, the heterosexual, the old - they don't dance - unless they have a stage or are not sober.

This conversation will explore some of the following questions:
To what extent does dance as a lived or as a non-lived practice shape black, white and other identities? Can dance be an instrument to dismantle and challenge positions of power? What does diversity in dance really mean? Is dance universal –can everybody dance? Or is dance an expression of your own specific identity?

Alice Hasters is a journalist, author and podcaster. She studied at the German School of Journalism in Munich and after graduating worked for the ''Tagesschau'' and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, among others. Since 2016, Hasters has been producing the podcast ''Feuer & Brot'' (tr: Fire & Bread) about politics and pop culture together with Maximiliane Häcke. In her publications, she deals with the topics of Afro-German identity, racism and intersectionality. Hasters was named culture journalist of the year in 2020 by medium magazine. She is the author of Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen, published by Hanser Verlag, and is currently a 2023 Fellow at the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles.

Kurt A. Douglas is Associate Professor of Dance at Boston Conservatory. Originally from Guyana, South America, Douglas earned a B.F.A. in dance from Boston Conservatory and an M.F.A. in dance from Hollins University. After graduating from the Conservatory, Kurt joined the Limón Dance Company, where he performed in many of Limón’s most influential works. Kurt Douglas joined the Boston Conservatory at Berklee faculty in 2015 where he is an instructor of technique, repertory, critical theory, and pedagogy for modern dance.

An event in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston.