Book Talk: On Movement Across Architecture and Dance
Book Talk: On Movement Across Architecture and Dance
Come join a dynamic book talk and conversation on movement across architecture and dance, featuring Michael C. Abrams and Crystal U. Davis in dialogue, moderated by Ronya-Lee Anderson. Bringing together Abram's Metaphoric Architecture and Davis's Dance and Belonging, this event explores how movement shapes both built environments and embodied practice -- from the sequencing of space to the lived experience of the moving body. Through conversation and audience engagement, the speakers will reflect on how design, choreography, and cultural context intersect to produce meaning, offering new ways to think about how we move through and are moved by the worlds we inhabit. A free books raffle will occur at the close of the conversation.
Michael C. Abrams is a Puerto Rican architect and Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park whose work bridges design, pedagogy, and visual thinking. He is the author of The Art of City Sketching: A Field Manual (2nd ed., 2021) and Metaphoric Architecture: Transforming Ideas into 3D Form (2025), both of which explore how ideas take shape through drawing and spatial design. Abrams has taught across a wide range of architectural subjects at institutions in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Chicago, and brings international professional experience from the United States, Spain, and Italy. His teaching and mentorship have been recognized with the Outstanding Teaching Award (2024) and the Faculty Mentor Award (2021), reflecting his commitment to student learning and interdisciplinary collaboration. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a bachelor’s degree in environmental design from the University of Puerto Rico.
Crystal U. Davis is a dancer, movement analyst, and educator whose work bridges performance, research, and pedagogy across global and interdisciplinary contexts. She has performed widely—from modern and postmodern dance to classical and folk forms of India—with companies such as Notes in Motion and Nayikas Dance Theater, as well as in her own choreographic work. Her scholarship explores how belief systems, social dynamics, and everyday behaviors manifest through movement, drawing on ethnographic research in Rajasthan and critical theory approaches to embodiment. She is the author of Dance and Belonging (2022) and has contributed to major publications in dance education. Davis has served in leadership roles across arts and education organizations, founded the Movement Artistry Project (M.A.P.), and received numerous awards for her contributions to the field. She holds degrees from Emory University, Texas Woman’s University, and New York University Tisch School of the Arts, along with certification in Laban-Bartenieff Movement Analysis.
Ronya-Lee Anderson is a facilitator, dancer-choreographer, and educator-scholar from Washington, DC. Born to Jamaican immigrants, her work draws on formative experiences across church, performance, and diasporic cultural spaces. She holds a Master of Divinity from Duke University, an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a PhD in Theater and Performance Studies. Anderson’s interdisciplinary practice blends original music, dance, and theater, with performances at venues including the Atlas Theater, Dance Place, and the Lyric Opera House. A former member of the Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble and DanceExchange, she has received numerous awards and residencies, including the Pola Nirenska Award and Kennedy Center REACH Office Hours. Her scholarship appears in journals such as the Journal of Dance Education and in the textbook Dance in US Popular Culture, reflecting her commitment to connecting performance, pedagogy, and community.