Mark Franko is an American dance historian, choreographer, and academic. He is an International Fellow of the British Academy and serves as the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Dance at Temple University, where he directs the Institute of Dance Scholarship. Known for bridging politics, psychoanalysis, and performance theory, his scholarship examines Baroque dance and modern/postmodern dance in relation to critical theory and cultural history, and is widely cited in dance studies. He has authored nine books published by academic presses such as Cambridge, Indiana, Wesleyan, Oxford, and Bloomsbury, and has edited or founded key journals and book series in the field.[1]
Franko was born and raised in New York City, where exposure to the arts shaped his interdisciplinary approach to dance. He attended the High School of Performing Arts, majoring in acting, which sparked his interest in performance and movement. He earned a BA in French (minor in German) from the City College of New York and an MA, MPhil, and PhD in French and Romance philology from Columbia University. During his doctoral research on Renaissance dance treatises, he spent a year as a pensionnaire at the École Normale Supérieure (Ulm) in Paris. While in Paris, he studied ballet under Lucienne Lamballe and Hélène Sadovska, whose technical training informed his later choreography.[2]
He is currently the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Dance at Temple University and director of the Institute of Dance Scholarship. From 2009 to 2017, he edited the Dance Research Journal, strengthening its reputation as a leading publication. He founded the Oxford Studies in Dance Theory series, published by Oxford University Press.[3]
Franko has been frequently invited to deliver keynote lectures and guest talks internationally, including the 9th International NOFOD Conference “Dance – Movement – Mobility” at the University of Tampere (Finland, 2008),[4] the “Les Discours de la Danse” conference at the Centre National de la Danse in Cannes (2003),[5] and the Philadelphia Symposium in History at Bryn Mawr College (2017).[6] He also gives regular public lectures, including Temple University’s Dance Studies Colloquium Series.[7]
Franko performed with the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company and Movement Research before founding NovAntiqua Dance Company in 1985, which combined historical dance forms with contemporary techniques.[8] His choreography explores politics, identity, and cultural memory, often reinterpreting historical materials. The New York Times critic Jack Anderson described NovAntiqua works as “modern works inspired by the past.”[9]
Notable works include:
Harmony of the Spheres – Described by Anderson as a meditation on cosmic order and spiritual geometry.[9]
Le Marbre Tremble – Commissioned by the Toulon Arts Museum for the 1989 “Le corps/la galère: noir et blanc” exhibition, featuring projected images of Pierre Puget’s caryatids to explore themes of suffering and stillness.[10]
Pasolini – A dance-theater piece created with Alessandro Rumié, performed at the Akademie der Künste in 2008 as part of the Valeska Gert Visiting Professorship.[11]
Sea Chant Over Long Island – A lyrical work evoking coastal landscapes and human connection.[8]
Operratics – Commissioned by the Getty Center, this piece has been described as an exploration of operatic themes through fragmented, obsessive movement.[12]
Franko’s works have been performed at venues such as the Getty Center, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, and international festivals. In 2016, he curated a five-day film and dance program on Donya Feuer at the MoMA, which presented a selection of Feuer’s film and dance works.[13]
Publications
Franko’s scholarship, combining history, politics, and psychoanalysis, is widely cited in dance studies. His major works include:
Franko, Mark (1989). “Repeatability, Reconstruction and Beyond.” Theatre Journal. 41 (1): 56–74. doi:10.2307/3207924.[26]
Critical reception
Franko’s choreography has been described as “evocative and complex,” blending historical inspiration with contemporary experimentation.[9] The Los Angeles Times called Operratics “unusual” and “obsessive,” emphasizing its experimental nature.[12]
His books have been praised in scholarly reviews and are considered foundational to dance studies. Dance as Text has been described as a “pillar of dance studies thinking” by tanz magazine and is frequently assigned in graduate-level dance scholarship courses.[27]Stephen Orgel called it a work that “rewrites dance history.”[28]Theresa Buckland described it as “an ambitious and startling synthesis of dance and literary theory.”[29]
Susan Leigh Foster wrote that Dancing Modernism / Performing Politics placed modern dance within broader discourses of embodiment.[30]
↑ Franko, Mark (2012). Martha Graham: In Love and War – The Life in the Work. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-977766-2.
↑ Franko, Mark (2022). The Dancing Body in Renaissance Choreography: Kinetic Theatricality and Social Interaction. Anthem Press. ISBN9781785278013. OCLC1335921820.
↑ Marion Kant (2019). "Review: Choreographing Discourses: A Mark Franko Reader". Dance Research Journal. JSTOR27127235. Retrieved September 26, 2025. "This Reader curates Franko's most influential essays across a modular approach, illuminating intersections of critique, performativity, and historiography in his work."
↑ "Text as Dance". Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved September 11, 2025.
↑ Franko, Mark; Richards, Annette, eds. (2000). Acting on the Past: Historical Performance Across the Disciplines. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN9780819563941. OCLC43784377.
↑ Franko, Mark, ed. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Reenactment. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-931420-1.
↑ Orgel, Stephen (February 4, 1994). "Review of Dance as Text: Ideologies of the Baroque Body". Times Literary Supplement. No.4740. p.24. Retrieved September 26, 2025. A remarkable overview of the ideology of period dance ... which rewrites the history of dance.
↑ Buckland, Theresa (1994). "Review of Dance as Text: Ideologies of the Baroque Body". Dance Research. 14 (1). doi:10.2307/1290830. JSTOR1290830.
↑ Foster, Susan Leigh (1996). "Review of Dancing Modernism / Performing Politics". Signs. 22 (1): 252–255. doi:10.1086/495154. JSTOR3175159.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
