24 minute read
Alumni Updates
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
DIANE CAHILL BEDFORD
“The FSU SOD shaped me into the artist and scholar that I am today. Without the wonderful training I received, the opportunities to teach in both movement and lecture genres, and the ability to develop my interests and abilities in a wide variety of skills, I would not be as prepared as I am today to teach in a university. I am forever thankful and grateful for the individual mentorship I received during my time at FSU.”
Diane Cahill Bedford serves as Clinical Associate Professor in the Dance Science Program at Texas A&M University (TAMU). She holds an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography (2010) and a BFA in Dance and English Literature, Magna Cum Laude (2003) from Florida State University. Her choreography has been accepted for performance by the WestFest Dance Festival in NYC, Southern Vermont Dance Festival, Austin Dance Festival, Brazos Contemporary Dance Festival, CORPS de Ballet International, as well as Fieldworks and The Dance Gathering in Houston, TX. Diane has also presented her choreography at the American College Dance Festival, San Jacinto College, Fort Wayne Ballet, The Tallahassee Ballet, and the FSU Opera.
In addition to her creative work, Diane has presented on various aspects of dance pedagogy at conferences for the National Dance Educators Organization (NDEO), The International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS), CORPS de Ballet International, National Dance Society, The Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, The Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (TAHPERD), The Transformational Teaching and Learning Conference at Texas A&M University and San Jacinto College. Diane has served in a number of service leadership positions within these various organizations including Performance Chair for the TAHPERD Conference. Currently, Diane serves as the Membership and Outreach Committee Co-Chair for CORPS de Ballet International.
In 2016, Diane published a preliminary textbook titled Dance in Many Forms with Kendall Hunt. Her journal articles covering dance photography and textbook review have also been published in the National Dance Society Journal. She has been awarded over $25,000 in grant funding from the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts at TAMU for various artistic projects, and she received the Global Education Grant to engage students in learning excursions outside of Texas. Diane received the Richard Stadelmann Faculty Senate Service Award from Texas A&M University in 2017 for her work in developing the cultural discourse undergraduate requirement at TAMU.
Diane has performed with Jana Hicks Repertory in NYC, Dance Repertory Theatre, The Tallahassee Ballet, and was selected for a reconstruction of Hanya Holm’s Jocose at the American Dance Festival. She has also had the opportunity to perform in works choreographed by Jawole Zollar, Gerri Houlihan, Jane Weiner, Terry Creach, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Andy Noble, and Lynda Davis. Diane previously taught dance and directed Outreach Programming for FSU, Charleston Ballet Theatre, Fort Wayne Ballet, New England Ballet Theatre, and Ithaca Ballet. Additionally, she served as Professor of Dance at San Jacinto College South where she directed the San Jac Dance PAC.
ROSS DANIEL
Ross Daniel is a Georgia-born artist based in New York with an MFA in dance performance and choreography from Florida State University and a BA in theatre performance and directing from Georgia College & State University. Ross is a 2019–2020 New Directions Choreography Lab Fellow at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and a recent participant of the “MANCC Forward Dialogues” at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography where he developed a dance collective with choreographer Sarah Rose entitled Daniel Rose Projects. Ross is a current company member of Third Rail Projects, performing in Then She Fell. He also performs with 277 Dance Projects, Alexis Zacarello (Center for Performance Research A.I.R,) and Katelyn Halpern and Dancers based at SMUSH Gallery in Jersey City, NJ. He Performed on tour with Urban Bush Women in Hair & Other Stories and on tour with Fox and Beggar Theatre, a contemporary circus company based in Asheville, North Carolina. Ross’ work has been presented at Dixon Place (New York, NY), YourMove Dance Festival (Jersey City, NJ), Dumbo Dance Festival (Brooklyn, NY), Triskelion Arts (Brooklyn, NY), SMUSH Gallery (Jersey City, NJ), Studio Le Regard (Paris, France), Diana Wortham Theatre (Asheville, NC), and 621 Gallery (Tallahassee, FL.) Ross has performed at Art Basel (Miami, FL), The Orlando Fringe Festival, The Chicago Fringe Festival.
MICHELLE FLETCHER
Michelle Fletcher (MFA, 2008) is a dancer, director, choreographer, dance filmmaker, educator and artist manager living on Lenapehoking land currently referred to as Brooklyn, NY. Upon graduating with her Master of Fine Arts from Florida State University, she lived in San Francisco for seven years. While in San Francisco Fletcher made dances, collaborated with brilliant artists from multiple disciplines and served as Company Manager to the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. In 2014, Fletcher was a Fulbright Scholar at The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance where she taught contemporary technique and dance technology. She now teaches composition for FSU’s ARTS in NYC program. However, this past year due to the pandemic, Fletcher taught a new remote course for FSU’s SoD titled “Professional Practice and Arts Management.” Fletcher serves as a manager to Miguel Gutierrez, Camille A. Brown and Beth Gill. Aside from the stellar artists she supports, Fletcher is pursuing a second Masters in Social Work at NYU Silver. Ultimately she plans to braid her dance background with somatic healing modalities within a clinical therapeutic practice. She is a proud member of Dance Artists National Collective and an artist worker with Creating New Futures Phase 2. CNF’s collective work is aimed toward dismantling harmful systems within the dance field.
ALORA HAYNES
“I appreciate all that FSU meant to me. My time there was magical. I had just lost my mother and was in great need of emotional healing. I received this healing through the love and care of all of the faculty at FSU and the safety of living in Montgomery Hall all day and all night, doing nothing but Dancing and teaching, as a Grad Assistant.”
Born in Austin, Texas, Haynes is the Chairwoman of the Santa Fe College (SF) Fine Arts and Entertainment Technology Department in Gainesville, Florida. She manages the Art, Dance, Music, Theatre, Graphic Design and Digital Media Programs. Outside of her Administrative duties, Haynes is a well-known master teacher, choreographer, and performer in the Southeast, having taught thousands of dancers in over 40 years of teaching experience.
She attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts, where she worked under internationally renowned ballet luminary Dame Sonia Arova and her husband Thor Sutowski. Before coming to SF, she performed as a Soloist and as the Ballet Mistress for the Alabama Ballet under the direction of Arova and Sutowski and with Dance Alive! of Gainesville, Florida.
Ms. Haynes holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and an MFA in Dance from Florida State University. She has guest-taught throughout the southeast US, in Cuba, with Laura Alonso, and has been employed at colleges and universities including: the University of Alabama-Birmingham; Florida State University; Springhill College; Huntingdon College; the University of Florida; and thirty-three years with Santa Fe College.
Ms. Haynes has been honored on SF’s “Wall of Fame” in 2000–01 for her contributions to the college. She received the NISOD Excellence Award from the International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence for the installation of the Santa Fe Summer Dance Institute, as well as the 2016 Roueche Excellence Award for Leadership and Innovation, for the installation of the Young Dancer’s Workshop at SF, as well as other programs for Music and Theatre.
In 2005, Ms. Haynes was an Executive Producer of the film Dance of My Heart a feature documentary about her friend and co-worker Alberto Alonso. The film received the highest of reviews from The Edmonton Film Festival, the Havana International Film Festival and numerous other festivals throughout the state of Florida and is now in worldwide distribution.
In 2013, Ms. Haynes was asked to conceptualize a year of annual programming, utilizing her professional contacts, to be produced at the Jackson N. Sasser Fine Arts Hall and build a community-wide audience. She began a series she entitled the Master Artist Series, whereby well-known artists from the visual arts, dance, music and theatre not only come to entertain audiences, but they also engage in master classes with the SF Fine Arts students. The most recent success of the Master Artist Series was the re-staging of the ballet Carmen Suite, performed by guest artists Sarah Lane and Cory Stearns of American Ballet Theatre, accompanied live by The Gainesville Orchestra. Up until this performance, this ballet had not been performed with a live orchestra since 1967. Restaged by the late Alberto Alonso’s wife, Sonia Calero, the ballet played to two sold-out audiences.
Other active memberships include the Florida Higher Education Arts Network and the Board of the Gainesville Orchestra. Ms. Haynes is a proud advocate for all artists and Arts organizations with passion to support the arts in education.
Photo by Keiko Guest
KEHINDE ISHANGI
Kehinde Ishangi is a dance artist, educator, and scholar. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Pedagogy from Brenau University and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Florida State University (FSU). In 2017, Ishangi joined the tenure-track faculty at FSU in Studio Practices and Dance Science. As Assistant Professor, she directs the Dance in Paris Summer Study Abroad Program and co-directs the Science and Wellness services within the School of Dance. Ishangi is a Level 3 Franklin Method® Educator, certified GYROTONIC ®, GYROKINESIS®, STOTT PILATES™, and CoreAlign® Instructor. She formed The Ishangi Institute to further her research and application of movement science.
Ishangi is an international solo artist. Within the United States, she has performed with Ballethnic Dance Company, Terspsicorps Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, KM Dance Project, among others. While residing in Paris, France, Ishangi was a performing artist with Compagnie James Carlès and Compagnie Georges Momboye. She has danced the diverse repertoire of Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais, Gerri Houlihan, Christopher Huggins, Jawole Zollar, Milton Myers, Ron Brown, Nejla Yatkin, IréneTassembédo, Thomas Pazik, Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, Talley Beatty, George Momboye, among others. Ishangi performed Boschimanne: living curiosities with KM Dance Project at the 2019 National Performance Network conference and Ancestors at the 2020 Festival International de Danse de Ougoudouga in Burkina Faso. In addition, Ishangi’s performance experience includes the French film Fais danser la poussière, as well as the celebrated theater production Sea of Common Catastrophe premiering in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Ishangi held a Visiting Professorship at Tulane University, spent three years on the faculty of L’Académie Américaine de Danse de Paris, France. In addition, Ishangi used her training as a Movement Scientist during the collaboration of Les éscailles de la mémoire performed by Jawole Zollar’s Urban Bush Women in the USA, and Germaine Acogny’s Jant-Bi in Senegal, West Africa. Ishangi’s pedagogical approach aims to integrate functional anatomy within studio practices. In April 2021, she published in the anthology (Re:)Claiming Ballet curated by Adesola Akinleye discussing her research on functional anatomy and transcending the physical aesthetic of Ballet.
LAWRENCE JACKSON
“The MFA in Dance program at FSU afforded me the opportunity to refine my artistic voice while acquiring holistic knowledge of multiple perspectives in pedagogical practices and dance scholarship. The close faculty mentorship and numerous opportunities to produce and present scholarly and creative work gave me the opportunity to cultivate the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to work as a leader, teaching-artist, administrator, and artist-scholar.”
Lawrence M. Jackson is an Associate Professor and serves as the Associate Chair of Dance, Director of Graduate Studies in Dance, Artistic Director of the Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre, Dance Alabama, The MFA Dance Concert and Dance Collection within the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Alabama. Within the Dance program, Jackson teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in Jazz, Contemporary, Dance History, Pedagogy, Freshman Seminar, Improvisation and Choreography. In addition to his duties within the Department of Theatre and Dance, Jackson also serves the College of Arts and Sciences as Chair of the Diversity Committee and as a Distinguished Teaching Fellow. Jackson is also the current President of the Alabama Dance Council Executive Board.
As a scholar, Jackson has published in scholarly journals in the field of Black Dance. Most notably, he authored, co-edited and published a special edition devoted to Black Dance in the Journal of Pan African Studies, the second occurrence in history, where an academic journal edition was committed solely to Black Dance.
Professionally, Lawrence devoted several years with the internationally acclaimed modern dance company, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. Additionally, he has performed as a guest artist in a variety of concert dance venues. Most recently, Jackson performed I Walk with Spirit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Choreographically, Jackson has produced over 95 original choreographic works. Most recently, Lawrence choreographed an off-Broadway production, Separate and Equal, which was subsequently nominated for an AUDELCO Award for Best Choreography. Lawrence is currently choreographing an off-Broadway production Shooting Star, that will premiere at Theater 59E59 in September 2022.
Jackson has served as a guest artist/choreographer/master teacher at the University of Michigan, California State University Northridge, University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of Florida, University of Wyoming, Alabama State University, Brenau University, University of Northern Colorado, West Virginia University, Western Wyoming Community College, Dancer’s Workshop, Ballet Society of Colorado Springs, Red Mountain Theatre Company, Gus Giordano Dance School, Men in Motion, Wichita School of Performing Arts, American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive, Alabama Dance Festival, Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, International Association of Blacks in Dance, Florida Dance Festival, Tennessee Dance Festival, Alabama Dance Festival, American College Dance Association, Academic and Performing Arts Complex, University of Alabama Opera House, Gulf Coast Dance Alliance, Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre, Snowy Range Summer Dance Festival and West Virginia University Summer Dance Festival.
Lawrence also serves as a Faculty Mentor for the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference, Grant Reviewer for The National Endowment for the Arts, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, The UA Research Grants Committee and The Alabama State Council on the Arts. In the past six years, Lawrence has received funding from the Alabama Touring Artists Program to tour Dance concerts throughout rural communities within Alabama, exposing underserved communities to the art of dance.
ZAKIYA ALTA LEE
“The Florida State University Department of Dance nurtured my fearlessness. I received the space to explore myself fully and unapologetically. As an up-and-coming business leader I know that my time at FSU gave me the foundation to intelligently yet boldly take risks that have the potential to make a massive impact in the world.”
Zakiya Alta Lee is a woman who never stops moving! Her love for movement led to her acceptance into the prestigious Florida State University School of Visual Arts and Dance. After two years at FSU, Zakiya was given a scholarship to train at the acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York and returned to the Dance Department a stronger performer!
After receiving a BFA degree in dance and a minor in business, Z decided to take a break from the theatre and explore the world of sports entertainment. Zakiya was invited to join the NBA Atlanta Hawks dance team, eventually becoming a team choreographer/captain, coach for the Jr. Hawks dancers, and overall ambassador for the organization. Little did Miss Lee know that this experience would be the catalyst to kickstart her company Z Pro Prep®, an intensive training camp for individuals who desire to be entertainers on Pro NFL/NBA teams.
After Zakiya’s time in Atlanta, she spent four years in Los Angeles where she filmed three national commercials, two films, and a television show. During this time she also executive produced and sold her first television pilot to E! entertainment. Z’s many years of performing have taken her to cities such as St. Petersburg, Russia; Prague, Czech Republic; Monterrey, Mexico; Taipei, Taiwan and various cities in China.
Currently, Zakiya is completing her executive MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business while expanding Z Pro Prep® into multiple cities and exploring new B2B markets. With client placements on professional sports teams such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, LA Lakers, Atlanta Hawks, and NY Jets (just to name a few), Z is determined to reach as many women as possible to encourage and uplift all while spreading the message that, “You Are Enough!”
Zakiya is truly a woman of God whose light shines no matter the circumstance. She is determined not to stop until she has achieved all her goals!
Life motto: “You are enough!” • Purpose: “To Uplift Women”
Headshot photo by Art Morrison
JENNIE PETUCH
“Florida State University School of Dance has offered me the opportunity to grow creatively and technically as an artist. SoD has provided the technology resources to continue my creative exploration in discovering innovative ways for movement invention behind the camera. These tools have made it possible to film dance underwater with go pros, in the skies with drones, and highlight movement with interactive projections. I was nurtured as a student and now as a colleague, I am supported as a professional, with life-changing experiences, opportunities, and collaborations.”
Jennifer Akalina Petuch (MFA, 2017) is currently Adjunct Faculty and Staff at Florida State University’s School of Dance. Originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, Petuch graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Florida (USF) achieving a Bachelor’s in Dance Studies. At USF, she danced in several notable pieces including Gretchen Warren’s, Les Sylphides and Doug Varone’s, Sacre du Printemps. While attending FSU, she performed works such as Tim Glenn’s, RIDE; Joséphine Garibaldi’s, Land of the Pick and Choose; and a Tedx Talk in Spring of 2015. Her MFA thesis resulted in a two-year collaboration with the FSU Computer Science faculty and students creating an original interactive Augmented Reality software for the stage called ViFlow. Petuch became a certified Pilates Mat instructor by Balanced Body, Inc.
Petuch has taught a variety of classes including Survey of Dance Technology, virtual seminars on Dance Filmmaking, and Projection Design for Dance. Her work with multiple universities include creating choreographic works featuring large scale projection designs, setting works with interactive projection designs, master classes, and producing a full-length virtual concert presenting her recent works for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Department of Theater and Dance.
Petuch has worked with Corps de Ballet International as their Technical Coordinator and Facilitator, Videographer, and Editor; produced over 15 projection designs for South Georgia Ballet, Tampa City Ballet, Louisburg College Dance Company, Ballet Florida, Florida Atlantic University; and created a large-scale projection installation in 2020 at the ExCineLab at the Tallahassee Community College.
Petuch was Co-Director with Annali Rose (MFA, 2021) on their underwater dance film, Liminality, which has received National and International recognition and been screened in over 25 film festivals since 2020. This work has received “Best Film Production,” “People’s Choice Award” (Inspired Dance Film Fest Australia), “Most Innovative Dance Video” (Espoo Digi-Dance International), “Best Cinematography” (Rethink Dance Film Festival), “Best Dance Film” (Experimental, Dance & Music Film Festival), “Best of Show” (2020 Newgrounds: A Collection of Dance Films), and others.
Petuch has been featured on FSU and local news stations and in local newspapers recognizing Liminality’s success and for her community work of cinematography, editing, filmmaking for local companies like The Tallahassee Ballet and Theatre with a Mission.
SARAH ROSE
Headshot Photo by Ross Daniel Photo by Alexandra Lance
“The School of Dance connected me with an invaluable cohort of peer artists and mentors who continue to provide energy, feedback, and support to my life and work. My time at the School of Dance allowed me to experiment in a deep and fundamental way that I would likely not have accessed outside of the context of Montgomery Hall.”
Sarah Rose earned her BA from Princeton University (2014) and her MFA in Choreography and Performance from Florida State University (2019). She has shown her choreography in the eastern United States from Vermont to Florida. Most recently she created 12 hours (Feb, 2020) at SMUSH Gallery in Jersey City, New Jersey. Across the pandemic she has maintained a personal movement practice of taking long walks and then improvising. She is currently contemplating a return to creating set movement material, craving something certain after a year+ of uncertainty. In addition to her own work, she collaborates with Ross Daniel on choreographic work under the name DanielRose Projects. The pair met at FSU and began collaborating in 2017. Together, they investigate place through multiple media (movement, sculpture, sound) simultaneously. Most recently they created four shores (October, 2020). This pandemic project was based on their embodied experience of the four parallel shorelines of the Hudson and East Rivers. Sarah is also a guild certified Feldenkrais practitioner.
KIERON SARGEANT
“All of my memories happened inside the school of dance. I will always value the experience of being continuously mentored by faculty members ... I really enjoyed working with Dr. Craig in particular. La Toya has given me the tools and wisdom to become the artist I am currently. Her knowledge in the field of arts administration and grant writing is second to none. I will always remember how beautifully Rusell Sandifer lit my choreographic work and how he transformed the space for my MFA Thesis Performance. Finally, I really enjoyed my first semester during which Millicent Johnnie was a visiting artist at the school of dance. That semester was everything and more.”
Kieron Sargeant is a Trinidadian-born interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, dancer, and dance researcher emerging out of the African-Caribbean tradition. For the past 20 years, he has been involved in documenting, assessing and analyzing dance traditions of the Caribbean, and establishing a canon of dance teachings and workshops, informed by his research, to popularize the ancestral survival of movement traditions between the Circum-Caribbean and Western Africa.
In 2019, he received his MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from FSU and continues to be one of the leading voices in the emerging field of African-Trinidadian dance practices. His views were recently included, along with other noted African-diaspora choreographers, in “Decolonizing Dance Writing: Who is Writing for?”—an assessment on the standard of dance review writing in Black Dance. In 2020, he was selected to join the coordinating team of the Emerging Black Choreographers Incubator as a Mentor, hosted by the Mojuba! Dance Collective (MDC) based in Ohio, USA.
As a student, he committed to making closer connections between dance in the Caribbean and the wider global dance community. Kieron assisted in the successful coordination of the first ever international audition for the recruitment of MFA and MA candidates for the school through his connection with the Contemporary Choreographers Collective Festival (COCO) in Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2020, he was awarded a place in the Helen Pickett Choreographic Essentials Program along with a Dance Fellowship from UNESCO to South Africa. His mission was further amplified last year when he founded and launched the Kieron Sargeant Dance and Dance Education Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago—a new platform for artists/dancers to nurture their creativity, inspire their environments and empower themselves and the future of the arts industry in Trinidad and Tobago. He is also currently working in conjunction with the Tabanka Dance Ensemble (Norway), to host an ongoing Online Lecture Series of in-depth talks, sharing of knowledge and connecting with African and African-influenced dancers in that part of the world.
Both his artistic practice and research spans the fields of concert dance, modern Caribbean dance, contemporary Caribbean dance as well as their social and commercial applications. In May he was awarded a National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) 2021 Professional Development Scholarship towards Professional Development opportunities with the NDEO. He has also been recently confirmed in the position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Contemporary Dance Forms of the African Diaspora (Fulltime) in the Department and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Iowa (UI). At UI he will be responsible for teaching contemporary dance practices grounded in the dance cultures and aesthetics of the African diaspora and developing courses both within the department’s general education curriculum in Diversity and Inclusion.
CHERI STOKES
“My mentors in The School of Dance provided a supportive and nurturing environment which allowed me to realize my full artistic potential. Their feedback and encouragement prepared me to take risks that I would have never thought were possible prior to pursuing my MFA. These mentors continue to be an integral part of my growth as an artist in the field.”
Cheri L. Stokes, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, received her MFA in Choreography and Performance from Florida State University. She received her BA in Dance Studies with a K-12 North Carolina Dance Teaching Licensure from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her performance background spans the genres of West African, Afro-Contemporary, Contemporary and Hip-Hop dance forms. Her choreographic research examines the ways in which facets of social vernacular dance forms, specifically Hip-Hop and Dancehall, have influenced her contemporary practice and art making.
Additionally, Cheri’s expertise includes over ten years of dance education and over five years of arts administration. She has had the pleasure of rehearsal assisting notable choreographers such as Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Okwui Okpokwasili (2016 MANCC Residency). Presently, Cheri is a part of the Urban Bush Women administrative family serving as the Associate Producer of Special Projects.
Since 2018, Cheri’s artistic project entitled, The Living Room Series, has provided intimate works in progress salons for New York City-based performance artists, which she co-curates with her artistic collaborator Love Muwwakkil. She has been a guest teaching artist at Florida State University, Austin Peay State University, and at Elon University. An excerpt of her latest work, Da Block was featured in the MODarts Collective Thread Festival in March (2021) and she will be performing in the upcoming STOOPS Festival in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn in July. In March of 2021 she received the Stephen Petrionio Retreat and Restore dance residency and is the new recipient of the June 2021 Silent Partners Grant.
JADE TREADWELL
“I will forever honor the impact of the faculty relationships developed through the FSU School of Dance. These relationships have continued to encourage and support me professionally in my journey in academia. I seek to exemplify this level of mentorship with my students as they embark on dance careers in pedagogy and performance.”
Jade Treadwell is a dance artist based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). Professionally, she has performed with Staib Dance, ClancyWorks and as a freelance performer throughout Atlanta; the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area; and Florida. She received BFA and MFA degrees in dance performance and choreography from Florida State University. While at FSU, she was a member of Dance Repertory Theatre under the direction of Lynda Davis where she worked with artists such as Dan Wagoner, Tim Glenn, Gerri Houlihan, Susan Marshall, Alex Ketley, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women.
As a Certified Personal Trainer through the American College of Sports Medicine, she employs foundations of anatomy, kinesiology, and conditioning principles into her creative approach as an educator. She currently researches movement screens and injury protocols in undergraduate dancers as a PhD candidate in Exercise Science at MTSU.
As a choreographer she is inspired by historically-informed storytelling of African American culture, music, community, spirituality, and elevating the significance of women in these spaces. This summer, Jade will present a new choreographic work at the Frist Art Museum of Nashville for Kara Walker’s Cut to the Quick exhibit opening.
