Beth Genné

Beth Genné, Ph.D. is a historian of dance and of art. She holds a joint appointment as Professor of Dance History and Art History in the Arts and Ideas Concentration of the Residential College in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and The Department of Dance in the School of Music Theatre and Dance.

Beth focuses, in her interdisciplinary work on the synergy of music, art and dance and on how dance reflects and interacts with its historical and cultural context. In her research and teaching, Genné worked to establish the new discipline of dance history and to encourage the study of dance’s interaction with other art forms as part of the Humanities within the academy and has pioneered the creation and teaching of the history of dance courses within the College of Literature, Science and the Arts as part of the Arts and Ideas concentration.

She is a co-founder of UM’s Center for World Performance Studies.  Genné's first book is The Making of a Choreographer: Ninette de Valois about the founder of Britain’s Royal Ballet and of numerous chapters in books and articles as well as criticism for the United Kingdom’s dance journal, The Dancing Times. She recently published the book Dance Me a Song: Astaire, Balanchine, Kelly and the American Film Musical with Oxford University Press (June 2018), and you can find out more about this book here.