• email: cdunagan@csulb.edu
• office phone: 562.985.7040
• office: DC-F206
  
  

Colleen Dunagan is an Assistant Professor of Dance at California State University, Long Beach. She holds a Ph.D. in Dance History and Theory from the University of California, Riverside and B.A. in Dance and English Literature from Hamilton College, Clinton, New York.  At CSULB Dr. Dunagan regularly teaches Viewing Dance, Introduction to Modern Dance, Movement Analysis, and two graduate courses, Criticism and Analysis of Dance and Dance History.  She serves as the second and third year B.A. advisor and directs/mentors M.F.A. candidates through the writing of their Thesis documents. 

Professor Dunagan’s main research interests are dance philosophy/aesthetics and dance in film/television.  Her dissertation examines the tradition of 20th Century Western dance aesthetics from the perspective of post-structuralist critical theories in order to reveal how dance challenges Romantic and Enlightenment notions of art and author. Her article, “Dance, Knowledge, and Power” appeared in a special issue of Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy.  In the article, she recuperates Susanne Langer’s philosophy of dance through a merging of Langer's ideas with elements of phenomenology and pragmatism.  Dr. Dunagan's current research project looks at the proliferation of dance in commercial formats, specifically the presence of dance in commercials. Investigating links between Western theatrical dance practices, film musicals, vernacular dance forms, and dance-based commercials, she examines how dance contributes to popular culture and serves the advertising format as a meaning-maker. Her writing on dance in commercials appears in The International Journal of Arts in Society, and a second article is forthcoming in Dance Research Journal. Her research has been presented nationally at conferences, including SDHS, CORD, and the Popular Culture Association.

In 2005 she co-founded ThreeWay, a dance collective operating between Seattle/New York/Los Angeles, with Sue Hogan and Erin Mitchell.  Her choreography has been performed at Highways (Santa Monica, CA), The Chamber Theatre (Seattle, WA), University Settlement (NYC), Santa Ana College, Mt. San Jacinto College, CSU Long Beach, and the University of California, Riverside. She is a practitioner of contact improvisation, which she practices locally in Los Angeles in addition to traveling to festivals/workshops in Seattle and San Francisco.  Her other movement practices include Bartenieff Fundamentals and release-based modern technique. 

In addition to teaching dance history and criticism, Dunagan has taught classes in Modern, Jazz, and Ballet technique at local colleges in Southern California.