Cynthia Oliver is a Bronx born, Virgin Island reared, award-winning choreographer,and performance artist. Her ongoing research is in the areas of intersection between contemporary dance, feminism, black popular culture,and the expressive performances of Africans in the diaspora, with an emphasis on the performance in the Anglophone Caribbean, particularly the U.S. Virgin Islands. She has danced with numerous companies, including the David Gordon Pick Up Co., the Bebe Miller Company, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, and Tere O’Connor Dance. As an actor, she has performed in works by Greg Tate, Ione, Laurie Carlos, and Ntozake Shange.She is professor of Dance, with affiliations in Gender and Women’s Studies, and African American Studies, and is currently serving as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation –Humanities, Arts, Related Fields at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.