Claudia Brazzale

Claudia Brazzale is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Performance Practices and Dance at the University of East London (UEL), where she co-directs the Centre for Performance and Creative Industries (CPAD). With a PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU, her work bridges dance, ethnography, and digital media. She is certified in Iyengar Yoga and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

• PhD in Culture and Performance (UCLA)
• MA in Performance Studies (NYU)
• FHEA, ORCID: 0000-0002-8781-1994

Her research interrogates the politics of mobility, globalization, and cosmopolitanism through the moving body, spanning dance training, domestic spaces, and consumer culture. She has explored Afropean choreographies, West African dance in Italy, and the intersection of space, migration, and somatic practices. Her creative outputs include video-dance works, documentaries, and exhibitions such as Hand Addressed, Digital Postcards Series 1 (2024).

Notable projects include collaborations with Alan Lomax’s Choreometrics system, consultancy for Riva Freifeld’s documentary America’s West-Europe's Myth, and co-authorship of works on digital activism and urban mobility. Her publications focus on cultural studies, performance theory, and transnational identity formation.

Scientific Awards

• International Postdoctoral Grant, American Association University of Women (AAUW)
• Chancellor's Fellowship, UCLA

She has taught at institutions including Princeton, UCLA, and Trinity Laban, and served as a Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University and London South Bank University. Her pedagogy integrates somatic practices, choreographic experimentation, and critical theory across modules like Rethinking Choreography: Bodies, Sites and Digital Spaces.