Professor Mark Franko FBA

History and theory of court ballet from the Renaissance to the Baroque; dance modernism in transnational perspective; dance and literature, comparative literature (French, Spanish, German, Italian); critical theory of performance
Headshot of Professor Mark Franko FBA
Fellow type
International Fellow
Year elected
2025
Subjects
Media, performance and communications

Summary

Mark Franko is a scholar of dance and literature specializing in the history and theory of French court ballet from the Renaissance to the Baroque and dance modernism in transnational perspective. He received his PhD in French and romance philology from Columbia University. He is founding editor of the Oxford Studies in Dance Theory book series and served as editor of Dance Research Journal (2009-2017). He also edited The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Reenactment (2017) and Ritual and Event: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2007), and co-edited Acting on the Past: Historical Performance Across the Disciplines (2000). Franko's research has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, American Philosophical Foundation, Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, France/Berkeley Fund; UC Fellows Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities; National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship; and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. He danced professionally for the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company and Movement Research (the Oskar Schlemmer Bauhaus Dances) forming his own company, NovAntiqua, in 1985. His choreography has been produced at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, Berlin Werkstatt Festival, Getty Center, Montpellier Opera, Toulon Art Museum, Akademie der Künste (Berlin), Mozarteum (Salzburg), Grove Theater (London), Stuk Festival (Leuven), Centro Cultural San Martin (Buenos Aires), among other New York and the Bay Area venues.

Current post

Boyer College of Music and Dance Temple University Laura H. Carnell Professor of Dance

Past appointments

Middlesex University Professor in Performance and Visual Studies

2013 - 2015

Bard College Visiting Professor of Humanities and Performing Arts

2008 - 2009

Freie Universität Berlin Valeska Gert Visiting Professor of Dance and Performance Institut für Theaterwissenschaft

2008 -

Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis Département Danse Visiting Professor

2005 -

Columbia University Visiting Professor School of the Arts

2004 -

Université Paris 8-Vincennes Département Danse Visiting Professor

2001 -

New York University Visiting Professor, Tisch School of the Arts Performance Studies

1993 - 1994

University of California, Santa Cruz, Emeritus Professor of Dance, Theater Arts Department

1991 - 2012

Purdue University French Department Associate Professor

1990 - 1991

Princeton University French Department Assistant Professor

1983 -

Université Paul Valéry (Faculté de Montpellier 3), Lettres françaises Maître Assistant Associé

1981 - 1982

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