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Cuauhtemoc Peranda

Cuauhtemoc Peranda

they/them/she/her/he/him/ella/Father Mescalero Apache, Mexika-Chichimeca/Cano; & cihuaiolo butch queen

Peranda's research focuses on a critical review of the United States’ House Ballroom Scene, in particular the West Coast Ballscene, and how Queer, Trans* and Two-Spirit Black, and Blackened Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere have deployed vogue as political resistance. Currently they are a Critical Dance Studies Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), and their academic studies have been supported by the U.S. Department of Education Native American Studies Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (G.A.A.N.N.) Fellowship, the Dean’s Distinguished Doctoral Student Fellowship, the Max H. Gluck Arts Fellowship, the San Manuel Band of Cahuilla Indians Native Pathways Fellowship, and the UCR Dance Department Research Fellowship.

They have presented their research at the 2016 Congress on Research in Dance & Society of Dance History Scholars Joint Conference, the 2017 & 2021 Dance Studies Association Conference, the Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium, the 2017 UC Santa Cruz Queer and Trans People of Color Conference, the 2019 American Academy of Religion Conference, the 2020 Transgender Studies in Religion Conference, and they were awarded the 2016 & 2021 Lambda Graduate Student Service Award for their commitment to the success of the 2016 BlaqOUT Conference and the LGBT community at UC Riverside, along with the 2019 Estudiante de Corazón Award by the UCR Chicano Student Programs office. They are a founder of the Graduate American Indian Alliance (GAIA) at UC Riverside, and were an organizing member of the UC Riverside 2018 ¡Presente! Summit, the 2019 World AIDS Day Ball and Community Panel in Oakland, CA, and the 2021 virtual San Franscisco Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit Pow-Wow.

As a dancer, they have performed throughout California, and has presented dance work in New York, Seattle, London, Honolulu, Berlin, Cambridge, Mexico City and Tijuana, and have had the honor to teach and lecture at UCR, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, De Anza College, Pomona College, and California State University, Sacramento and San Marcos. They walk and raise children in the West Coast Ballscenes, and they're known as "Don'Té 007," formerly of The Legendary House of Lauren, International. They hold an M.F.A. in Dance from Mills College, and a B.A. in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from Stanford University. This is their first year as a lecturer for the Dance Studies Department at CSU San Marcos.

Research Interest

  • contemporary issues in choreography
  • Critical Indigenous Studies
  • otherwise practices of Black Study 
  • Queer and Transgender Radical Performance Practices
  • transnational social dancing 

Affiliations

  • The Illustrious Kiki House of Peaches
  • West Coast Ballroom Scene Alliance
  • Dance Studies Association (DSA)
  • World Performance Congress (WPC)
  • American Studies Association (ASA)
  • Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAIT-S)
  • National Performance Network (NPN)