In terms of human rights organizations, there appears to be intimate connections between dance and human rights issues. Such connections appear most frequently in the context of dance being used as a tool for inciting people to violence, as a means of humiliation and as a means of uniting communities in times of hardship. Dance is often employed as a nationalistic propaganda tool, as a means of healing individuals and groups after traumatic events and as a powerful form of theatrical expression and education by artists/choreographers who have undergone or witnessed gross violations of human rights.

Dr. Naomi Jackson is a dance scholar and writer who has published and presented papers in Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States. She received her bachelor's degree in philosophy and art history from McGill University, her master's degree in dance studies from the University of Surrey in England and her doctoral degree in performance studies from New York University. Dr. Jackson has taught at the Juilliard School and Queen's College in New York, and her reviews and articles appear in such publications as Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle and Dance Research. She has served as a member of the board of the Society of Dance History Scholars, and has helped organize various conferences, including the 1999 International Dance and Technology Conference. She currently lives in Tempe, Arizona, where she is an associate professor in the Department of Dance at Arizona State University. Her recent book from Wesleyan University Press is entitled, Converging Movements: Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y (2000).

Naomi M. Jackson's profile page

"This collection of 11 scholarly analyses of the interplay between danceand human rights will appeal to human-rights advocates as well aspractitioners, cultural historians, teachers, managers, and fans of allkinds of dance, whether in its "vernacular, theatrical, sacred ortherapeutic form." " - M. Wayne Cunningham