2006 Dance Newsletter - Slippery Rock University

During summer 2005, Nola Nolen
Holland worked with Jaya Mani and
Srinivasa Mani to coordinate the
trip of the three dance majors who
traveled to Chennai, India. She also
taught master classes and created
two new works for the students at
SheLor School of Dance in Butler.
For the 2005 faculty concert, Nolen
Holland presented Transmission,
restaged for eight dancers. A new
section, which includes faculty
members Thom Cobb and Wilma
Cavill is slated for the 2006 faculty
concert. Nolen Holland and Dr. Glenn
Utsch continued their music and
dance technology collaboration in
the Music for Dance class. During
summer 2006, Nolen Holland plans
to complete the ninth chapter of
the Music for Dance text and travel
for research and professional
development projects.
faculty highlights
Nora Ambrosio recently had a
sabbatical leave and completed six
chapters of a new textbook under
the working title “The Excellent
Instructor and the Teaching of
Dance Technique.” Additionally,
she choreographed a solo, “3 a.m.-
Lonely City,” on senior dance major
Nicolyn Lonzo. This solo was part
of the “Nightowl Suite” that featured
live music by the Three Rivers Jazz
Orchestra.
Thom Cobb attended the
PSAHPERD Convention in
Lancaster, PA where he received
the Dance Educator of the Year
Award. He was also selected as
the 2006 EDA Memorial Scholar
for the Eastern District Association
Conference. At this same event
Cobb presented a session titled
“Syncopation in Sneakers: Jazz
in the Gymnasium.” In October he
attended the National
Dance Education
Organization
Conference in
Buffalo, NY where
he facilitated a student member
discussion on current issues in
undergraduate dance education.
He is also currently on the NDEO
Board of Directors in charge of
bylaws and organization structure.
Cobb taught at the Dance Teacher
Magazine Conference in New
York City and went from there to a
dance workshop for public school
educators held at the University of
Wyoming in Laramie. Society and
Social Dance is a new Liberal
Studies course designed and
developed by Thom Cobb.
In Summer 2005, Jennifer Keller
received the SRU President’s Award
for International Travel. She traveled
to Brussels, Belgium to attend
the Kunsten Festival of the Arts
and a dance workshop at the Wim
Vandekeybus/Utlima Vez studio.
In October 2005 she presented
“Political Reflex,” an evening of solos
and duets at the Kelly-Strayhorn
Theatre in Pittsburgh. The
concert featured two collaborative
duets, a solo premiere, and two
commissioned solos. Keller plans
on touring some of these works,
along with other works from her
2003 concert repertory, during
her sabbatical in fall 2006. She
recently participated in a research
and development laboratory,
titled “March to Marfa,” with 20
experienced improvisers in Marfa,
Texas. Her students presented her
choreography at SRU in the 2005
Faculty and Guest Artist concert,
as well as in Pittsburgh at Attack
Theatre’s First Friday series last
March.
Jaya Mani, along with master
teacher from India, Revathi
Ramachandran, conducted a
workshop on Bharata Natyam in
Pittsburgh in the Summer of 2005.
Together they performed two dances
based on Indian mythology in both
Pittsburgh and Orlando, FL. In
addition, she presented a paper
titled “Dance and Therapy” at the
Fourth Annual Hawai’i International
Conference on Arts and Humanities,
held in Honolulu, HI.
Ursula Payne’s involvement as a
choreographer/performer with the
collective This Woman’s Work (TWW)
has lead to her inclusion in the Dance
Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch list. Most
recently she was awarded her fourth
Pennsylvania Council of the Arts
2006 Choreographer’s Fellowship.
This award will allow her to create
a group work that will be premiered
in a shared dance concert with
Edgeworks Dance Company at the
American Dance Institute in Rockville,
Maryland on April 29th, 2006.
Payne was named Director of the
Professional Dancer’s Workshops at
the American Dance Festival where
she has been on faculty for the past
four summers, teaching contemporary
dance technique, movement analysis
and dance notation.
Melissa Teodoro spent the Summer
of 2005 doing field research on
Cumbia in the Colombian village of
El Banco. She presented a paper
based on her research findings at
the SDHS conference in Evanston,
IL. She also presented a multidisciplinary
piece at the 2005 SRU
Faculty Concert titled “Cumbia: an
Endless Quest” that included dance,
text and projected images. In the Fall
of 2005 Teodoro presented another
paper titled “Farotas de Talaigua:
The unveiling of female sexual abuse
during the Spanish colonization in
Colombia” at the CORD conference
in Montreal. In March of 2006 she
participated as a moderator in the
2nd Undergraduate Symposium of
Latin American Studies held at the
University of Pittsburgh and mentored
senior dance major Laura Stokes
who successfully presented a paper
at this symposium.
4 DEPARTMENT OF Dance