Artist Biographies

Thomas F. DeFrantz

Thomas DeFrantz earned degrees at Yale, City University of New York, and NYU, and has taught at NYU, Stanford, and MIT, where he is Associate Professor. An accomplished tap dancer, he has performed the Morton Gould Tap Concerto with the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart, as well as the Duke Ellington Tap Concerto (ADavid Danced@) with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra led by Mark Harvey. His books include the edited volume Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002, winner of the CHOICE Award for Outstanding Academic Publication and the Errol Hill Award presented by the American Society for Theater Research) and Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture (Oxford University Press, 2004, winner of the de la Torre Bueno Prize for Outstanding Publication in Dance). He is the creator of Monk's Mood: A Performance on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk, a solo piece that combines tap, technology, and jazz. The recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency and a Ford Foundation Scholarship, DeFrantz acted as dramaturg and librettist for Donald Byrd/Spectrum Dance Theater production of the Sleeping Beauty Notebook, noted by the New York Times as one of the best dance events of 2005.

For information or media contacts, contact defrantz@mit.edu or (518) 369-3458