KELLEN HOXWORTH

"The Invented Choreographies of the Tomahawk Chop," in Dance in US Popular Culture, edited by Jen Atkins (London: Routledge, 2023), pp. 23-26.

• Written up by Professor Hannah Schwadron in Dance Research Journal: "Kellen Hoxworth’s 'The Invented Choreographies of the Tomahawk Chop,' the first case study
  of the book, is a prime example for all those looking to fuse historical analysis with social critique in a way that calls the reader 'in.' I gladly started my undergraduate Cultural Perspectives on Dance course this semester with the piece, a three-page explication of the college football war chant choreography and its evolution from a 1956 racist cartoon to a
  national sports fan tradition. Recalling the Red Power movement of the 1970s, which discontinued much of the mainstream use of indigenous names and iconography as sports team mascots across the country, Hoxworth highlights how the 'Tomahawk Chop' only gained popularity at our university football games in the following decade, a point of curiosity that hits home for students here. Indeed, Hoxworth’s skillful defense of the 'we' who 'just do it'—a fandom culture in which he took part growing up—allows a connection with readers who are potentially encountering the critique, and in class among peers and professor, for the first time. This is the kind of work that catalyzes an academic politicization through digestible bits of history and context that land with big impact. In our written midterm exam as in our discussion, my students saw themselves reflected in the text, identifying with the college mindset while metabolizing the insult of a form that claims tradition in the (red)face of appropriation."

• Written up by Professor Kate Mattingly in Dance Chronicle: "Suddenly tens of thousands of fans throughout the stadium add their voices to the cacophony, belting the 'war chant' of the Florida State University (FSU) Seminoles while performing a simple, repeated physical gesture of a chopping motion' (p. 23). This sentence by Kellen Hoxworth, describing the 'Tomahawk Chop,' starts a riveting analysis of how gesture and mass performance collude as 'fans refuse to allow ongoing practices of white supremacy to be interrupted in the present' (p. 25)."