Fonds F0544 - Selma Odom fonds

Selma Landen Odom is a dance historian and writer. Formally educated in English Literature, Theatre History, and Dance Studies, Odom earned her BA from Wellesley College, MA from Tufts University(1967), and PhD from the University of Surrey(1991). She was recruited to teach in the Department of Dance at York University in 1972 and became the founding director of the University’s MA and PhD programs in Dance and Dance Studies—the first programs of their kind in Canada. Her research interests include dance, music, education and gender studies. She has maintained a long-term research focus on Dalcroze Eurythmics, a kinaesthetic practice that takes the body as the source of musical understanding. The topic forms the basis of Odom's Master’s and PhD dissertations, numerous articles in publications such as American Dalcroze Journal, and an anticipated monograph. In addition to this work, she has published articles and encyclopedia entries on the lives of Mary Wood Hinman, Madeleine Boss Lasserre, and Saida Gerrard, and other subjects. She is co-editor of Canadian Dance: Visions and Stories(Dance Collection Danse, 2004) and technical editor of Adventures of a Ballet Historian: An Unfinished Memoir, by Ivor Guest(Dance Horizons, 2011). Odom is a member of the board of Dance Collection Danse and a regular contributor to The Dance Current. In 1998, she was awarded the Faculty of Graduate Studies Teaching Award at York University. Odom retired to Emeritus status in the early 2000s. She continues to teach graduate seminars and to fulfill a post as an Adjunct Associate of the Centre of Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. In 2010, the Selma Odom Lecture Series was inaugurated at York University to honour her contribution to Dance scholarship and teaching.