About this Artist
Cuauhtémoc Peranda (Mescalero Apache, Mexika-Chichimeca/Cano; & cihuaiolo butch queen) is a fifth-year Critical Dance Studies Ph.D. student at the University of California, Riverside. 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, and the Max H. Gluck Arts Fellowship. Their research focuses on the history of the United States’ House Ballroom Scene, in particular the West Coast ball scene, and its involvement in how queer, trans- and two-spirit Black and blackened indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere have deployed the dance form of vogue (voguing/performance) as a praxis of decolonization, anti-colonialism, transformational resilience, and queering indigenous knowledge reclamation. They walk and raise children in the West Coast ball scenes as Overall Prince Don’Té Lauren 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.