Assistant Professor, Dance/UTeach Dance
Bio
Sinclair Ogaga Emoghene is an Assistant Professor of Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. His research investigates how African and African diaspora dance traditions are documented, analyzed, and preserved through computational methods, geospatial analysis, and embodied sensing technologies.
His primary research program, Global Movement Research (2022-present), integrates motion capture with artificial intelligence to build new infrastructure for embodied cultural heritage across 34 countries and 58 documented traditions.
The project has produced a computational research instrument, The Movement Journal (thetriadic.studio), a first-of-its-kind peer-reviewed publication making movement permanently citable through Digital Object Identifiers, and a forthcoming monograph currently under consideration at a leading university press. His research engages archival materials at the U.S. Library of Congress and the Association for Cultural Equity, and foregrounds the ethical responsibilities of documenting African and diaspora movement knowledge.
He is co-author of Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences (Routledge, 2023) and serves on the editorial team for Shaping Southern Shifts: Provocations in/through Laban Bartenieff Movement Studies (ESI Press, 2026). He curates for the international dance film platform DanceFilmmaking.com.
His creative work includes the award-winning dance film project The Ten Poem Project (2024-present), a multimedia installation integrating film, poetry, and performance. As a choreographer and performer, his works have been presented at the Kennedy Center, the Clarice Performing Arts Center, the Anderson Gallery, and for audiences in Nigeria. His portfolio spans live performance, film, installation, and digital performance.
He holds an M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Areas of Expertise
African Dance and Contemporary African Dance (Nigeria)
Dance Replication and methodologies of embodied knowledge transmission
Technology and Archiving of dance
Dance Film curation, criticism, and creative ideation
Dance History with an emphasis on Global Dances
Social and popular dancing across Africa and the Americas
Classes
Choreography and Composition
Dance History & Global Dance Studies
West African Dance
Social Dance (Latin, Ballroom, Country)
Publications
Emoghene, Sinclair and Kathleen Spanos, Ph.D. Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences. Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2023.
Forthcoming:
Editorial Team. Shaping Southern Shifts: Provocations in/through Laban Bartenieff Movement Studies. ESI Press, South Africa, 2026.
Recent Work
Ongoing Research and Creative Projects
Global Movement Research (2022–present): Explores how dance circulates across human societies through processes of replication, dispersal, and cultural pollination.
The Ten Poem Project (2024–present): A multimedia dance installation that integrates film, poetry, and performance to explore migration, identity, and embodied memory.
Performances
I’ll Take My Chances - The Royal Arts Academy, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria (2011)
Nyam Chiem (Nightmare) - The Clarice Performing Arts Center, Maryland (2015)
Rooted on a Moving Spot (ROAMS) - The Arts and Sociology Metal Shop, University of Maryland, College Park (2016)
Kaleidoscope of Tuts - The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. (2020)
Therapy - Short Film, Online Premiere (2021)
Facets of Esoteric: Part 1 - The REACH, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. (2019). Part 2 - The Anderson Gallery, Richmond, Virginia (2021)
Sinclair Ogaga Emoghene is an Assistant Professor of Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. His research investigates how African and African diaspora dance traditions are documented, analyzed, and preserved through computational methods, geospatial analysis, and embodied sensing technologies.
His primary research program, Global Movement Research (2022-present), integrates motion capture with artificial intelligence to build new infrastructure for embodied cultural heritage across 34 countries and 58 documented traditions.
The project has produced a computational research instrument, The Movement Journal (thetriadic.studio), a first-of-its-kind peer-reviewed publication making movement permanently citable through Digital Object Identifiers, and a forthcoming monograph currently under consideration at a leading university press. His research engages archival materials at the U.S. Library of Congress and the Association for Cultural Equity, and foregrounds the ethical responsibilities of documenting African and diaspora movement knowledge.
He is co-author of Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences (Routledge, 2023) and serves on the editorial team for Shaping Southern Shifts: Provocations in/through Laban Bartenieff Movement Studies (ESI Press, 2026). He curates for the international dance film platform DanceFilmmaking.com.
His creative work includes the award-winning dance film project The Ten Poem Project (2024-present), a multimedia installation integrating film, poetry, and performance. As a choreographer and performer, his works have been presented at the Kennedy Center, the Clarice Performing Arts Center, the Anderson Gallery, and for audiences in Nigeria. His portfolio spans live performance, film, installation, and digital performance.
He holds an M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park.
African Dance and Contemporary African Dance (Nigeria)
Dance Replication and methodologies of embodied knowledge transmission
Technology and Archiving of dance
Dance Film curation, criticism, and creative ideation
Dance History with an emphasis on Global Dances
Social and popular dancing across Africa and the Americas
Choreography and Composition
Dance History & Global Dance Studies
West African Dance
Social Dance (Latin, Ballroom, Country)
Emoghene, Sinclair and Kathleen Spanos, Ph.D. Dancing in the World: Revealing Cultural Confluences. Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2023.
Forthcoming:
Editorial Team. Shaping Southern Shifts: Provocations in/through Laban Bartenieff Movement Studies. ESI Press, South Africa, 2026.
Ongoing Research and Creative Projects
Global Movement Research (2022–present): Explores how dance circulates across human societies through processes of replication, dispersal, and cultural pollination.
The Ten Poem Project (2024–present): A multimedia dance installation that integrates film, poetry, and performance to explore migration, identity, and embodied memory.
Performances
I’ll Take My Chances - The Royal Arts Academy, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria (2011)
Nyam Chiem (Nightmare) - The Clarice Performing Arts Center, Maryland (2015)
Rooted on a Moving Spot (ROAMS) - The Arts and Sociology Metal Shop, University of Maryland, College Park (2016)
Kaleidoscope of Tuts - The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. (2020)
Therapy - Short Film, Online Premiere (2021)
Facets of Esoteric: Part 1 - The REACH, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. (2019). Part 2 - The Anderson Gallery, Richmond, Virginia (2021)