Choreographing the Folk represents a groundbreaking attempt to resituate [Zora Neale Hurston] as an influential dance artist, and also to reveal the cultural struggles for control over black folk dance in the 1930s. Kraut. . . reveals impressive knowledge of both African American and performance studies, and her decision to divide her book into differently themes sections has resulted in a multifaceted analysis of Hurston’s dance stagings. Also impressive is her navigation of the challenges of interpreting an unrecorded theatrical production. Choreographing the Folk thus represents a long-overdue assessment of Hurston’s relationship to dance studies and to embodied representations of African American expression, and is an invaluable resource for both Hurston and dance scholars.