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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Alumni News
1977
Suzanne E. Henneman , BS
Suzanne E. Henneman has received the William C. Burdick Award from the Maryland Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. According to Horizons, the alumni magazine of UNCG's School of Health and Human Performance, "Henneman is the dance resource teacher for Baltimore County Public Schools and is responsible for the fine arts dance programs in the county as well as in-service education for physical education teachers and their dance and rhythm units. She taught dance in the classroom for 21 years before pursuing her current leadership role. 'I am indebted to UNCG and the faculty within HHP for giving me a strong background in dance and education and the roots of a realization of a childhood dream,' she says."
1990
Doug Risner, MFA
Doug Risner, who received both his BA (1988) and MFA (1990) at UNCG, has written a book, Stigma and Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance, which is due out in December, 2009. According to the book's press release, it "investigates the competitive world of pre-professional Western concert dance training and education in the U.S. as experienced and lived by boys and young men, an under-represented population in the field. Dance, its training and social meanings, has a rich history and long-time associations with gender and gender roles in world culture. While dance in some cultures is seen as an appropriate activity and valid vocation for males, the dominant Western paradigm positions concert dance as a predominantly “female” activity and art form. Through theoretical and narrative approaches this book illuminates the highly gendered professional dance world as evidenced through the minds and bodies of 75 male adolescents and young adults. The study’s substantial social implications about gender, homophobia, sexual orientation, gendered bodies, and child culture will appeal to multiple readers in dance, arts education, and gender studies."
Some notes of praise for Stigma and Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance:
From the Foreword: There is a widespread but mistaken assumption, which Doug Risner very usefully
demolishes in this book, that in order to encourage more boys to take up dance, it is essential to emphasize
the heterosexual credentials of the dance profession. Risner’s book is particularly valuable because it places
questions about identities squarely on the agenda for dance teachers and instructors, and brings together
critical and pedagogical theories in ways that will greatly benefit those active in the field. Dance students and
teachers alike will all benefit from its findings and from the future work which it will hopefully encourage
others to pursue.
Ramsay Burt, Ph.D.
De Montfort University
Stigma and Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance is a book we have needed for some time, one that
could serve as a wake-up call to dance educators and administrators. Dr. Risner has discovered that boys who
study dance recognize that dance is fundamentally not like competitive sports, and that most boys—like most
girls—value the opportunities for self-expression and creativity that dance uniquely provides. After reading
this book, I am determined to become more pro-active in confronting homophobic attitudes and behaviors, to
bring them into thoughtful discussions in all the courses I teach and in my work as a choreographer and
director. I accept Dr. Risner’s call for action and thank him sincerely for investigating these profoundly
mportant and timely issues.
Bill Evans, MFA, CMA
The College at Brockport
State University of New York
Six stand-alone chapters will serve faculty at colleges and universities, conservatories, high school arts
magnets, K-12 public schools, and private-sector dance studios for years to come. Professor Risner sees the
proliferation of undergraduate dance programs in the United States as key to educating teachers who will
eventually improve the conditions of boys in dance and increase realistic recruitment strategies to attract
males to dance. Therefore, chapters of Stigma & Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance should be
required reading for undergraduate and graduate university dance majors intending to teach dance or to
understand the obvious social dynamics of their own studio, performance and classroom environments.
Administrators, charged to promote a safe haven for ethnic, social, and gender diversity in dance and the arts,
will reference Risner’s call to action to support the development of dance curricula as an art form of equal
value for males and females.
Myron Howard Nadel, MA
University of Texas at El Paso
1993
Patricia Ward, MA
According to The Isadora Duncan International Institute, Inc., "Patricia Ward, M.A., I.D.M.A. of South Boston, Virginia, acclaimed dance educator, performer and director of the not-for-profit arts organization, Moving Voices: The Isadora Duncan Cultural Exchange, will be awarded the prestigious Anita Zahn Award for the Education of the Child by Dr. Jeanne Bresciani, Artistic Director and Director of Education of the IDII. Ward will be presented with the Anita Zahn Award at the Prizery on Saturday, October 4 in celebration of the Art of the Solo, a legacy performance of Modern Dance Masterworks directed by Mino Nicolas, acclaimed Modern Dance virtuoso, regisseur and Founding Director of The Doris Humphrey Institute.
The Anita Zahn Award for the Education of the Child recognizes leaders in contemporary Isadora Duncan dance pedagogy whose efforts embody the principles of lifelong education through dance and a commitment to community-based teaching. Isadora Duncan's goal for the 'highest intelligence in the freest body' - that every living child might have available to them the birthright of beauty, strength and freedom - was practiced by Anita Zahn for more than six decades as the principle exponent of the Elizabeth Duncan School in America. Ward is the fourth Honoree to merit this revered acknowledgment: 'I am thrilled and proud to receive this award. To be recognized by one's peers in the name of a great Modern Dance Education beacon of inspiration such as Anita Zahn is truly an honor,' said Ward.
Ward has dedicated her career to dance and dance instruction, with an emphasis on educating the whole child through dance. 'Isadora Duncan dance is about learning the best ways to live your life, with positive nurturing values instilled through dance. It's about helping the child appreciate the creative process not just the product. And that's hard to do in today's world,' Ward commented.
Ward has been a dance instructor in the K-12 school systems in Virginia and North Carolina, as well as on the community college level. Ward is an adjunct instructor in Modern Dance, Improvisation, Dance History, Dance Composition/Choreography, Humanities, and Pilates Yoga. In addition, she is a frequent dance festival performer and conference presenter on Isadora Duncan Dance. 'The depth and breadth of the Duncan body of work, the philosophy,attracted me many years ago,' said Ward. 'It is a foundation for art and for life.'
Ward received a post-baccalaureate degree in dance from Randolph-Macon Woman's College (now Randolph College),and a Master of Arts in dance from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Currently, Ward is the Program Coordinator for the Arts at The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center and continues to operate a local dance studio specializing in Isadora Duncan Dance for children and adults."
2008
Jen Guy, MFA
Jen Guy will show her film "Atelier" at the Dance for Camera Festival in NYC in January, 2009. She was invited by Ellen Bromberg and Grace Salez, directors of the Dance for the Camera Intensive Summer Program in Vancouver, B.C., to present work as example of a film made at the workshop. Jen attended the summer program in 2007.
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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.
Larry Lavender, Ph.D.
Professor
Dr. Larry Lavender presented three workshops on "creativity in choreography" as part of the 2008 Montreal Danse Choreographic Workshop.
Larry also served as one of three choreographic facilitators at the Workshop. Larry's book chapter "Transformative Systems for Teaching and Learning Choreography" (written in collaboration with B.J. Sullivan) was published in December, 2008 in a new book, Legacy in Dance Education, edited by Thomas Hagood.
Larry's essay, "Facilitating Choreographic Process," will be published by Routledge Press in Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader in 2009.
Larry's movement work, "The Practice of Existence," will be performed in the Faculty Dance Concert in February, and at the Wake Forest University Creativity Symposium in March. The work, which features UNCG alum Jennifer Guy and current UNCG students Blair Chamberlain, Emily Hatfield, and Caitlin Spencer, premiered at the Halle Cultural Arts Center in Apex, NC, in November, 2008.
Jan Van Dyke, Ed.D.
Professor, Department Head
Dr. Jan Van Dyke received the 2008 Dance Teacher Award for Higher Education. Dance Teacher magazine presented the award at the Javits Center in New York, NY. According to Horizons, the alumni magazine of the UNCG School of Health and Human Performance, "Van Dyke was honored for her 20 years of teaching at UNCG, helping students to discover their own artistic identities in part through her example as a dance professional. In addition to her work at the university, she directs and choreographs her own company, the Jan Van Dyke Dance Group, and works with the Dance Project at City Arts, which offers more than 25 weekly classes to children and adults in downtown Greensboro."
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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
