RECENT NEWS
Technique Placement Class
Our next placement class for students interested in taking technique classes and who are not placed at a level will be on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 5pm in studio 322. Registration is not required.
Undergraduate Dance Audition:
Our next audition for prospective dance majors will be on April 3, 2010. Registration for the audition is required and interested students should submit a completed Audition Request Form to the Department. The registration deadline for the April 3, 2010 audition is Friday, March 26, 2010.
Department of Dance
UNCG Department of Dance Alumni Newsletter
Fall/Winter 2009/2010
Volume 7, Issue 7
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Editor and Designer:
Katie Fennell
Photos:
Steve Clarke
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UNCG's Plans to Integrate Departments of Dance, Theatre, and Music
UNCG has announced plans to integrate the Departments of Dance and Theatre with the School of Music to form a unit that will highlight the University's performing arts programs. Chancellor Linda P. Brady and Provost David H. Perrin announced their plans for this in December, 2008. According to Steve Gilliam, "the new organization will create a 'vibrant and thriving' performing arts unit at UNCG with School of Music, Theatre and Dance as its working title...Chancellor Brady and Provost Perrin have appointed a committee to identify and address the organizational and administrative issues related to the transition." Members of this transition committee include Dance Department faculty members Jan Van Dyke and Jill Green. Gilliam continues, "The initiative will rename UNCG’s School of Music, which was founded in 1921. The effective date for implementing the change is July 1, 2010. Based on fall 2008 figures, combining the three academic units will assemble a full-time faculty of 98, who will teach 800 undergraduates and 226 graduate students. The School of Music has 60 full-time faculty members, 411 undergraduates and 184 graduate students. The Department of Theatre has 26 full-time faculty, 267 undergraduate majors and 20 graduate students. The Department of Dance will add 12 full-time faculty, 22 graduate students and 122 undergraduate majors. Reconfiguration of UNCG’s performing arts programs has been discussed for several years, most recently in 2007-08 by the Campus Arts Committee which brought in two consultants. The committee and the consultants proposed strategies to raise the visibility of the university’s arts programs. Combining the performance resources of the School of Music and the Departments of Theatre and Dance will enhance the visibility of each."
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Distinguished Faculty
John Gamble
Professor
John Gamble's dance company, John Gamble Dance Theater, was recently awarded the 2009 Readers' Choice Award by Go Triad, Greensboro's "source for local arts and entertainment news, views, and what-to-do's."
Sue Stinson, Ed.D.
Professor
Dr. Sue Stinson has been awarded the 2009 NC Dance Alliance Annual Award. Sue was honored for her contributions to the education of dancers and dance educators in North Carolina for over 30 years. Her service to the field has been national as well as statewide, including membership on the committee that developed the National Standards for dance, chairing two committees to develop national guidelines for dance curriculum, and serving on a state committee to develop assessment items for the NAEP assessment in arts education. She is currently a teamleader in the effort to develop new K-12 Essential Standards in Dance for he NC Department of Public Instruction. Sue is the third member of the current UNCG faculty to receive this award. Jan Van Dyke was the recipient in 2001 and John Gamble in 2007.
Duane Cyrus, MFA
Assistant Professor
Duane Cyrus has been named the University Dance Educator of the Year by NCAAHPERD. According to a press release advertising the award, "Duane Cyrus will receive the University Dance Educator of the Year Award on Friday, November 13 at NCAAHPERD’s 62nd Annual Convention in Winston-Salem. Duane is the Artistic Director of Cyrus Art Production and an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He holds an MFA from the University of Illinois where he was a Dewson Fellow and a BFA from the Juilliard School. Cyrus has traveled around the world as a director, choreographer, performer, and teacher. He is also the author and editor of the book Vital Grace, a photographic essay on male dancers of color including interviews with Gregory Hines, Bill T. Jones, and Evander Holyfield published by Edition Stemmle. Upon graduation from the Juilliard School, Cyrus was personally invited by Alvin Ailey to join the Alvin AileyAmerican Dance Theater in 1989. In 1990, Cyrus joined the Martha Graham Dance Company. As with Ailey, he was one of the last dancers personally hired by the founding director. As a choreographer and teacher, Cyrus has consistently shared his knowledge and experience through his involvement in community outreach and arts-in-education programs. He has received commissions from the Greensboro Bicentennial Commission, Bricolage Arts Festival, Nannette Bearden, Noriko Hara Ballet, Masako Sakamura, and the Puffin Foundation. He is the recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation Award for Emerging Artists and the National Endowment for the Arts: American Masterpieces among others.
NCAAHPERD hosts its annual convention to provide professionals with the opportunity to learn and grow, collaborate with colleagues, make new friendships and renew old ones. This is the second year the convention will be held at the Winston-Salem Benton Convention Center where more than 1500 teachers will participate. There will be more than 140 presentations and the opportunity to earn Continuing Education Units from Wednesday, November 11 through Saturday, November 14. NCAAHPERD membership is required to attend.
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UNCG Begins New Academic Year with a New Calendar of Concerts
The Department of Dance will host seven concerts during UNCG's fall semester: Frank Vulpi Concert: An Evening of Music; Alumni Homecoming Dance Concert; Cyrus Art Production; Dances from 1920s Paris: Two Works by Cocteau; North Carolina Dance Festival; John Gamble Dance Theater; Departmental Concert. For details on these concerts, including day and time, please visit UNCG Department of Dance's online performance calendar.
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UNCG Department of Dance
1408 Walker Avenue
Greensboro, NC 27412
