Jacqui Malone is a dance historian, an associate professor in the Queens College Department of Drama, Theatre, and Dance, and a former member of the Eleo Pomare Dance Company. In 1987, she began extensive research on African American vernacular dance with particular emphasis on black vocal groups, historically black college marching bands, and black sorority and fraternity song and dance rituals

Her book, Steppin' on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance (Univeristy of Illinois Press, 1996) is a culmination of that study. She has published articles in The Black Perspective in Music, Dance Research Journal, the International Tap Association Journal, and the Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History. Ms. Malone is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1997), the Preservation of our Heritage - American Dance Award (Oklahoma City University, 2000), a Ford Foundation Individual Grant, a Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture), three PSC-CUNY Research Awards (The Research Foundation, The City University of New York), and a Presidential Research Award (Queens College). She is a member of the Performing Arts Advisory Committee, Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.