Elsie Ivancich Dunin is Professor Emerita, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and external dance research advisor with the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, Croatia. At UCLA, she taught courses with a dance ethnology focus 1966 to 1994. Publications and research presentations treat social dance changes in relation to socio-cultural transformations.

From a dance ethnologist's perspective, she has published bilingual (Croatian/English) book in Croatia, 2013, comparing continuities and changes of wedding customs of two generations in one family (1977–2009): Past into the present: weddings of the Dubrovačko Primorje with 58 photographs.

Local organizer for 28th symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology, held in Croatia (Korčula island) 2014. Hosted by the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research and supported by the UNESCO Commission in Croatia.