Elroy Josephs and the Hidden History of Black British Dance

This chapter gives a brief overview of the career of the black British dance artist and teacher Elroy Josephs between his arrival in Britain in 1950 and his death in 1997 and reflects on the reasons for his relative obscurity. Researching Josephs’s career raises issues not just about the inclusion in dance historical accounts of once forgotten or marginalized artists but also the need to rethink the basis of selection that led to their being forgotten or marginalized in the first place.