TDPS Speaker Series

The TDPS Speaker Series presents a diverse range of lectures and conversations with artists and scholars from across the fields of theater, dance, and performance studies. All events are free and open to the public.

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Event sponsorship is provided by the Patrick Finelli Keynote Speaker Series, Berkeley Arts+Design, and many other campus partners.

Event Recordings

A Conversation with Robert Moses

Choreographer, writer, and composer Robert Moses discusses issues related to working as an African American, and screens his recent works, Short Stories, a selection of solos and duets that focus on Black lives, social justice, and the transformative power of art in our lives.

Second Nature: Embodying Our Technological Systems

Bay Area dance companies Kinetech Arts and Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts discuss their years of experience working at the intersection of dance and technology. Kinetech Arts share their experience making experimental, community-based works that bring engineers into the same rooms as creative makers and dancers. Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts discuss their ongoing interest in artificial intelligence and improvisation.

Sovereignty in the Courts, and Sovereignty on Stage

Mary Kathryn Nagle (attorney, playwright, and citizen of the Cherokee Nation) discusses the connection between addressing the systemic erasure of Native voices in the arts, the fight to restore tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction in the courts, and safety for Native women.

Experiments in Joy: A Black Feminist Trajectory

In this dynamic artist talk, Gabrielle Civil discusses her own trajectory as a Black feminist performance artist, highlighting key collaborations and inspirations, and promoting Black feminist joy as a creative practice.

Against Isolation: Pandemic Connections through the Arts

The 2020 pandemic scattered us into disconnected spaces, interrupting our physical interactions along with our art-making. Responding to these times, performance makers Erika Chong Shuch and Amara Tabor-Smith have each created intimate connections within their communities of artistic practice, among isolated elders and individuals.

Racialized Embodiment & Political Life Beyond Resistance

Anne Anlin Cheng is Professor of English and American Studies at Princeton University and affiliated with the Program in Gender and Sexuality and the Committee on Film Studies. Kevin Quashie is a professor in the Department of English at Brown University who teaches Black cultural and literary studies.

Dancing with Robots: Expressivity in Natural and Artificial Systems

Movement seems to encode information. How does this work? We know that animals, including humans, use the motion of counterparts to produce coordinated, social behaviors. But how do we resolve the discrete measures of communication and information theory with the continuous laws of motion and mechanics?

The House of the Spirits: Isabel Allende in conversation with Caridad Svich

Author Isabel Allende and Caridad Svich, theater-maker and playwright, discuss The House of the Spirits in its may iterations: novel, play, and the staged performance by the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, directed by Michael Moran at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Playhouse. Michael Moran moderates.