She publishes literary works and giving lectures in which she uses her own dancing body as a crucial part of her presentations.
From 1968 to 1971, she was a member of the Open Theater (directed by Joseph Chaikin) and the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop.
[2] Gottschild's first solo book, Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts, was the culmination of a circuitous journey in interdisciplinary research that began with the question, “What makes George Balanchine’s ballets different from European ballet?” She originated and continue to investigate a line of thought that had been ignored in previous socio-cultural and performance studies—namely, the Africanist presence in Europeanist concert dance culture.
The chapters are named for body parts or expressive attributes: feet, buttocks, skin, hair/face, and soul/spirit.
An introduction preceding these sections wrestles with the question, “What is black dance?”[5] Her book Joan Myers Brown & The Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina: A Biohistory of American Performance is about Joan Myers Brown and her legacy.