Adesola Akinleye, PhD, is a choreographer artist-scholar. Trained at Ballet Rambert, her career began at Dance Theatre of Harlem, later working with UK Companies such as Carol Straker Dance Company and Green Candle. She is a Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University Research Fellow with Theatrum Mundi, visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martins, and Research Affiliate and visiting artist at MIT. Akinleye is co-artistic director of DancingStrong Movement Lab. She creates works from live performance (often site-specific involving a cross-section of the community) to films, & text. Her work is characterized by an interest in voicing peoples lived-experiences through moving portraiture. She teaches ballet, contemporary dance and other practical dance classes as well as dance education, theory and history. She has won awards internationally for her choreography, as well as published in the areas of dance and cultural studies.
'[This book] examine[s] the white, cis, heteropatriarchal history of ballet, and how many dancers and choreographers are grappling with this history. It has started some very important conversations about the role of ballet today and how this art can thrive within the beauty of difference.' -- New Books Network (New Books in Performing Arts)