Conference held within the Aesthetics Panel
Tuesday, April 21, 2026, Ileana Berlogea Hall, 1st floor, 3 – 5 PM
André Lepecki stands as one of the most influential voices in contemporary dance, whose intellectual rigor and creative insight have profoundly reshaped how we think about movement, performance, and embodiment. As a scholar, curator, and writer, Lepecki bridges the worlds of theory and practice, challenging conventional boundaries between performer and audience, art and politics, motion and stillness. His work invites us to reconsider the very ontology of dance—not merely as a series of aesthetic gestures, but as a powerful medium for questioning social norms, exploring resistance, and engaging with time, space, and the human body in deeply radical ways. Through his writings and curatorial projects, Lepecki has illuminated the philosophical, cultural, and political dimensions of movement, inspiring generations of dancers, choreographers, and thinkers to explore the transformative potential of performance. His profound commitment to the intellectual and ethical stakes of dance makes him not only a pivotal figure in the field but also a tireless advocate for the arts as a site of inquiry, reflection, and social engagement. André Lepecki’s contributions continue to reverberate, reminding us that dance is not only to be seen but to be thought, felt, and lived.
Biography
André Lepecki works and researches at the intersection of critical dance studies, performance theory, philosophy of art, political philosophy, and anti-colonial theory. He is Full Professor at the Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, where he also serves as Associate Dean of Tisch’s Center of Research & Study. He has published widely including his single authored books Exhausting Dance (2006, currently published in 14 languages), Singularities: Dance in the Age of Performance (2016) and Ídioritmia (2018) and he has edited several anthologies in dance and performance theory such as: Points of Convergence: alternative views on performance (2015 with Marta Dziewanska), Dance (2012), Planes of Composition: dance, theory and the global (with Jenn Joy), The Senses in Performance (2007, with Sally Banes), and Of the Presence of the Body (Wesleyan University Press, 2004). In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Lepecki worked as dramaturge for the choreographers Vera Mantero, Francisco Camacho, João Fiadeiro and Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods. He has also curated numerous festivals and exhibitions including the award-winning re-staging of Allan Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 Parts for Haus der Kunst (2006) and PERFORMA 07 and the international festival IN TRANSIT at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin in 2008 and 2009. He was the co-curator of the archive Dance and Visual Arts since 1960s for the exhibition MOVE: choreographing you, Hayward Gallery (2010), and curated the project “The Future of Disappearance” for the Sydney Biennial 2016. His most recent curatorial project was the exhibition “Soiled: Paul McCarthy’s Early Performance Works 1971-76” for Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Brussels (2024/25). Since 2003 Lepecki collaborates in the actions of Brazilian performance artist Eleonora Fabião. His most recent book, Co(reo)imaginar: ensaios com a dança e a performance, Lepecki’s first book in his mother tongue, was recently published by Edições do Saguão, Lisbon.
