Trading Virtue for Virtuosity: The Artistry of Kinshasa's Concert Danseuses

Lesley Nicole Braun is a PhD candidate at Université de Montréal in the department of anthropology. Her research focuses on the ways in which dance in its embodied and symbolic forms participates in the constitution of an urban experience. Most recently, she explored the dance of popular concert dancers in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where she lived for a year. Braun is recipient of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier award, granted by the Canadian Humanities and Social Science Research Council. lesnbraun@gmail.com