Duane Cyrus Named N.C. University Dance Educator of the Year

By Dan Nonte, University Relations

Contact: (336) 334-4314
Posted 11-6-09

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Duane Cyrus, an assistant professor of dance at UNCG, has been named University Dance Educator of the Year by the North Carolina Alliance for Athletics, Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

As a choreographer and teacher, Cyrus has consistently shared his knowledge and experience through his involvement in community outreach and arts-in-education programs. Founder and artistic director of Cyrus Art Production, he has received commissions from the Greensboro Bicentennial Commission, Bricolage Arts Festival, Nannette Bearden, Noriko Hara Ballet, Masako Sakamura and the Puffin Foundation.

The Princess Grace Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts have also awarded him grants. The NEA grant is supporting his work studying and sharing Martha Graham’s 1936 composition “Steps in the Street” with a new generation of dancers. The project will culminate with performances at the end of the spring semester. Venues will include local high schools, where UNCG student dancers will perform and discuss the work.

He holds an MFA from the University of Illinois, where he was a Dewson Fellow, and a BFA from the Juilliard School. Alvin Ailey personally invited Cyrus to join the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1989, when Cyrus graduated from Julliard. 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.

He wrote and edited the book “Vital Grace,” a photographic essay on male dancers of color. Published by Edition Stemmle, the book includes interviews with Gregory Hines, Bill T. Jones and Evander Holyfield.

The North Carolina Alliance for Athletics, Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance will present the award Friday, Nov. 13, at its 62nd annual convention in Winston-Salem. The convention, Nov. 11-14 at Winston-Salem’s Benton Convention Center, will attract more than 1,500 teachers and include more than 140 presentations.