Biography 

• PhD, University of Surrey, UK
• MA, dance studies, University of Surrey, UK
• BA, creative arts, Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr. Dodds joined the Boyer College in 2011 as Chair of Dance and, on completing this term of office in 2016, became the Director of the Institute of Dance Scholarship from 2016-19. In fall 2019, she took on the position of Graduate Programs Coordinator. Prior to joining the Temple faculty, Dr. Dodds served as Senior Lecturer in Dance Studies, Head of the Department of Dance, Film and Theatre, and Director of Postgraduate Research at the University of Surrey. She served on the Executive Committee of the Society for Dance Research (SDR) from 1998-2001, the Board of Directors for the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) from 2004-2010, and the Executive Board of the Congress of Research in Dance (CORD) from 2012-15. She is currently Vice-President of Publications & Research for the Dance Studies Association.

She is a founder member of the UK PoPMOVES research group and initiated the SDHS Popular, Social and Vernacular Dance Working Group. In 2008 and 2009, she was an Erasmus Visiting Lecturer at Trondheim University in Norway, in 2010 she was a Visiting Academic at the Centre for Cultural Research at Griffith University in Australia, in 2014 she was a Distinguished Faculty member of the Mellon Summer Seminar: Dance Studies in/and the Humanities at Stanford University, and in 2017 she was a visiting scholar for the Choreomundus program at Blaise-Pascal University in France.

Her research expertise centers on dance on screen, popular dance, and cultural theory approaches to dance. She is also an active b-girl in the Philadelphia breaking scene.

Works and Publications 

Books

2019        The Bloomsbury Companion to Dance Studies (Bloomsbury Methuen)  
    
2019        The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition (Oxford University Press)

2013        Bodies of Sound: Studies Across Popular Music and Dance (co-edited with Susan Cook) (Ashgate)

2011        Dancing on the Canon: Embodiments of Value in Popular Dance (Palgrave)

2001        Dance on Screen: Genres and Media from Hollywood to Experimental Art (Palgrave)

Book Chapters

Crashing Creatively: Trial and Error in the Hip Hop Battle Error, Ambiguity, Creativity: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Sarah Whatley and Sita Popat (eds) Palgrave (in press)

2019    Popular Dance The Bloomsbury Companion to Dance Studies Sherril Dodds (ed) Bloomsbury Methuen (in press)

2019    Loss of Face: Intimidation, Derision, and Failure in the Hip Hop Battle The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition Sherril Dodds (ed) Oxford University Press

2015    Dancing the Popular: The Expressive Interface of Bodies, Sound and Motion The Sage Handbook of Popular Music Andrew Bennett and Steve Waksman (eds) Sage

2014    Values in Motion: Reflections on Popular Screen Dance The Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen (ed) Oxford University Press

2013     Bellowhead: Re-entering Folk through a Pop Movement Aesthetic. Bodies of Sound Sherril Dodds and Susan Cook (eds) Ashgate

2009    Slamming with the Boundaries of Theory and Practice: The Legitimization of Popular Dance Routledge Dance Studies Reader  Alexandra Carter and Janet O’Shea (eds) Routledge

2008    From Busby Berkely to Madonna: Music Video and Popular Dance Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy, Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader Julie Malnig (ed) University of Illinois Press

2008    Mad Hot Ballroom and The Politics of Transformation Decentring Texts Janet Lansdale (ed) Palgrave

2005    Screen Divas: An Expression of the Grotesque Aesthetic Anarchic Dance Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie (eds) Routledge

2003    Revolution in Video Dance: The Construction of a Fluid Body in IndeterminateBodies Naomi Segal, Roger Cook and Lib Taylor (eds) MacMillan     

2002    Music Video/Video Dance Music, Sensation and Sensuality Linda Austern (ed) Garland

1999    A “streetwise urban chic”: Popular Culture and Intertextuality in the Work of Lea Anderson Dancing Texts Janet Adshead-Lansdale (ed)  Dance Books     

1997    Dance and Erotica: The Construction of the Female Stripper Dance in the City Helen Thomas (ed) Macmillan

Referee Journals

2019    On Watching Dance International Journal of Screendance

2018    The Brutal Encounters of a Novice B-Girl Choreographic Practices

2016    Hip Hop Battles and Facial Intertexts Dance Research

2014    Krumping, Choreography and Close-ups: A Deleuzian Critique of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ International Journal of Screendance (co-authored with Colleen Hooper)

2014    Guest editor ‘Body Parts: Pelvis, Feet, Face, Hips, Legs, Lips and Teeth’ Dance Research Journal

2014    Facial Choreographies and the Choreographic Interface Dance Research Journal*

*Winner of the 2015 Gertrude Lippincott Award. Named in honor of its donor, a devoted teacher of modern dance in the Midwest and mentor to many students, Gertrude Lippincott Award was established to recognize excellence in the field of dance scholarship.

2014    Embodied Transformations in Neo Burlesque Striptease Dance Research Journal

2011    Re-inventing the Past at Sunday Serenade: the Residual Cultures of a British Caribbean Dancehall Anthropological Notebooks

2009    Guest editor ‘Dancing Across Film, Television and the Digital Screen’ International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media

1997    Gesture, Pop Culture, and Intertextuality in the Work of Lea Anderson New Theatre Quarterly  

Media 

TUTV Community Forum