2026 Biennial CADD Conference

The Collegium for African Diaspora Dance (CADD) is an egalitarian community of scholars and artists committed to exploring, promoting, and engaging African diaspora dance as a resource and method of aesthetic identity. Through conferences, roundtables, publications and public events, we facilitate interdisciplinary inquiry that captures the variety of topics, approaches, and methods that might constitute Black Dance Studies. ​

Our 2026 Biennial Conference marks 12 years of CADD’s existence. This year, CADD seeks scholarship that speaks to permanence and subversiveness in Black Dance traditions for its 2026 Conference, “Black Phoenixing: Dancing Through the Ruins.” We ask: how do the dances of our ancestors move through our descendants and how do our legacies inform the way we embody creative gesture? How do we recognize the “Phoenixing” of Africa in our current dance practices? How do we rise to the future? What remains today, and what sustains us? How does our connection to our ancestors transform the way we conjure dance?

Registration begins December 1, 2025. For more information visit https://www.cadd-online.org/2026-conference.html