Judy Bejarano, artistic director of IMPACT Dance Company, began creating work under the name of IMPACT Dance in 1995. She has received funding for her work from Colorado Creative Industries, Bohemian Foundation, City of Fort Collins and many others. Judy received the Colorado Dance Alliance “Cutting Edge” Award (2006) and the Arts Alive Fellowship (2004), both for outstanding quality and innovation in the field. She is a member of the Colorado State University Dance faculty where she teaches Choreography, Modern Dance Technique and Improvisation, and she teaches Advanced Modern Technique at Canyon Concert Ballet (CCB). Judy’s commissioned work includes private and public events for Pat Stryker and Bohemian Companies, the staging of Carmina Burana for the Larimer Chorale for their 25th and 35th anniversary performances and many others. She developed a rich relationship with Pathways Hospice of Larimer County that began in 2005, creating collaborative performances and workshops. She has set work on companies and at festivals throughout the region, including CSU, CCB, University of Northern Colorado, the Colorado Dance Festival, Contemporary Dance Wyoming, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, the EWS School in New York, and many others. Her work has been described as “…existing in the poignant space where comedy and tragedy intersect.” Contact: impactdance@comcast.net; website; (970) 231-0844

Pamela Barker, MA, PT, is an educational psychologist and trainer in Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), a parenting coach, and conflict mediator. She works with individuals, couples, families, schools, and organizations. Pamela is certified with Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network to deliver the Self-Science and EQ Matters curricula and SEI Emotional Intelligence Assessments and with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to deliver the Anchors of Emotional Intelligence curriculum. She holds an alternative dispute resolution/mediation certificate with Mediators without Borders, is trained in Restorative Dialogue, and is an advanced facilitator of Restorative Justice practices. Her research explores the intersection of SEL, Restorative Justice, and Transformational Learning in youth. Contact: cpt@consplan.com (970) 980-1183

Ann Biddle M.A., Dance Education, Columbia University, B.A., English Literature, Kenyon College and Fulbright Scholar. Ms. Biddle has been a dance educator, staff developer, curriculum consultant, writer and choreographer for the past 25 years. She is the founding faculty of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92nd St Y with Jody Arnhold (1994 to present). Ms. Biddle has designed and taught numerous courses for DEL including Foundations in Dance Education, DEL Essentials, Planet Dance-Multicultural Dance Education, Dancing in Early Childhood, Dance and Nature, Teaching from Transformation to Inspiration (Tina Curran), Dance and Literacy (Barbara Bashaw), Generation DEL, and the DEL Facilitators Course.

As a staff developer and curriculum consultant, Ms. Biddle has partnered with numerous cultural organizations including: Urban Bush Women, Doug Varone, Flamenco Vivo, Jose Limon Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, New York City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Movement Research. An advisor to the NYC Department of Education’s Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance, PreK-12, she has been a NYCDOE Blueprint professional development facilitator since 2005. Ms. Biddle has taught overseas at the National University in Costa Rica as a Fulbright scholar and at the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana. Additionally, she worked closely with the late Alan Lomax as a Choreometrics analyst and is currently an advisor to the Global Jukebox initiative.

Watch a video about the Dance Education Laboratory.

Celebrate the Beat (CTB) changes the lives of the children who experience it.  Driven by the core belief that the arts are essential to the development of every child, highly professional, physically demanding and deeply inspiring programming is brought to children from ages five to fifteen during school, after school and throughout the summer.

In 2000, Tracy Straus founded CTB as the Colorado associate of National Dance Institute (NDI). CTB began working with 100 children in 3 schools and currently partners with 28 schools, inspiring over 4,000 children annually in several Colorado counties and in Nayarit, Mexico. The growth is a result of CTB’s deeply effective methodology.

CTB programs are rooted in hard work and excellence, and our staff brings those standards to every class they teach. In classes and performances, CTB students are joyfully challenged to develop healthy living habits, expanded worldviews and cultural literacy, critical thinking skills, the ability to communicate ideas through the arts, and collaborative skills. They are instilled with confidence, the drive to achieve, and a desire to succeed.

All children, including those with physical and cognitive challenges, participate. CTB’s unique teaching methods have the uncanny ability to reach the most motivated students as well as those who struggle with classroom engagement. CTB was created for every student, boys and girls, introvert and extrovert, to find their joy in movement. All of this is done through exhilarating, challenging, stimulating and engaging teaching.

Classes are one to three hours long depending on the program, and are taught by a team of three trained CTB members: two professional teaching artists/dancers and one talented musician. Live music in every class is one of the many aspects that separate CTB from other programs. Each program culminates in a final public performance during which students joyfully share what they’ve learned with the entire community. These performances are highly professional and are choreographed and performed with a live band. They illustrate the amazing knowledge and skills the students gain during their tenure in CTB classes.

We work in high-poverty communities and school districts. 23.95% of students currently live below the poverty line and 83.6% are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches. 81.5% of the residents are Hispanic and 55.09% are English Language Learners. There is a 32.6% mobility rate among students, and nearly 10% of our students are classified as homeless. An increasing number of children are struggling with obesity. These challenging demographics serve as the backdrop for CTB programming.

Visit the website.

Tommi Sue Cox has been an educator for 25 years. She has served as the principal of Laurel Elementary School of Arts & Technology since 2002. Mrs. Cox successfully led her staff through a process to brand Laurel as a school focusing on arts and technology integration. Laurel’s mission is “Educating the whole child through the infusion of the arts and technology.” Tommi Sue is a strong advocate for the arts, and has been involved with creating unique programs such as the K - 5 violin and mandolin program, and adding a Theatre/Dance program at Laurel. Contact: tscox@psdschools.org

MacKenzie Mushel Ellis was selected as the SHAPE America National Dance Education Teacher of the Year 2014 in addition to being named both the 2014 Central District and 2013 Colorado Dance T.O.Y. She has been teaching courses in Dance, Health, Physical Education, and Adapted Physical Education for eleven years. For the past ten years she has applied her love of movement and dance in her work with students at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colo. She brings a unique energy and passion to her work that reveals itself in the high expectation she sets for her students and all they accomplish in her classes. In MacKenzie’s time with Poudre School District she has been nominated for PSD Promising Teacher of the Year 2008 and PSD Collaboration Award 2011 for work with differently-abled students. Currently, MacKenzie is pursuing a Dance Education Master of Arts degree at the University of Northern Colorado. MacKenzie’s dedication to preparing teachers more adequately to teach dance is evident with her innovative facilitation of professional development across the state of Colo. and presentations at multiple state and national conventions.

Contact: mlmushel@gmail.com
Phone: office (970) 488-7063; cell (970) 215-1333

Dr. Patrick Fahey is area coordinator for art education in the Department of Art and Art History and associate curator of education for the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art at CSU. He received his PhD in art education, from the University of Iowa. He is past co-director of the School of the Arts and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, serving earlier as assistant chair. Dr. Fahey has exhibited mixed media and encaustic art work in adjudicated, invited, group, and solo exhibitions throughout the United States. His research in pre-service art education, arts integration, assessment, and service-learning in art has been published in peer reviewed journals, as well as presented at over 60 national and regional conferences. Dr. Fahey co-chaired the Colorado Academic Visual Arts Standards Committee and served as facilitator of the Colorado Sample Curriculum Project with CDE. He has been on the editorial boards of Seminar for Research in Art Education Abstracts, serving two years as editor, Visual Arts Research, and Arts Education Policy Review. Dr. Fahey has presented at such conferences as the National Network for Education Renewal (NNER), National Art Education Association (NAEA), Colorado Art Education Association (CAEA), Center for Integrated Arts Education, International Society for Education through Art, International Conference on Service-Learning Research, ArtSource Colorado, and the National Conference on Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE). In short, Patrick Fahey has a passion for arts education.

Christophe Febvre is a member of the PSD Board of Education. He has focused his energy on developing a positive and constructive relationship with a new superintendent; collaboratively developing strong and meaningful new District Ends; supporting education that reaches and enables passions for all students; nurturing ideas in support of creativity in education and system wide social and emotional learning; and actively contemplating the future of education in our community. Christophe, a native of Fort Collins, is married with three lively, post-teen kids who all graduated from PSD. He is an electrical engineer and a small business owner who started DGCD, Inc. with partners in 2001 and has actively participated in managing and growing the company into a vibrant Front Range engineering design services firm.  Prior to starting DGCD he spent 12 years as a hardware design engineer employed by Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, and iTi (a Boulder tech start-up). Christophe earned his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, has two patents to his name, volunteered in schools and coached youth soccer for many years, and was a member the City of Fort Collins Economic Advisory Commission.

Linny Frickman studied art history at Oberlin College (A.B., 1978) and at the University of Colorado at Boulder (M.A., 1987). She began her museum career at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 1979, followed by her position as registrar at the Menil Collection from 1980-1984. After relocating to Colo., Frickman began to teach modern and contemporary art history at Colorado State University, ran the gallery program, and became the founding director of Colorado State’s first art museum in 2009. At CSU, Frickman has organized and curated numerous exhibitions and founded and coordinated the Critic and Artist Residency Series. Frickman has been honored with a number of awards including a College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Teaching Award, the Award for Distinction in Advancement, the Richardson Honors Scholar Advisor Award, an Administrative Professional Star Award, and the Colorado Higher Education Art Educator of the Year Award.

Contact: linda.frickman@colostate.edu

Madeline Jazz Harvey is a dance educator, choreographer, and performer specializing in classical and contemporary ballet. She began her performance career at age fourteen as an apprentice with Charlotte Ballet, under the direction of Patricia McBride and Jean Pierre Bonnefoux. She attended summer intensive programs on full scholarship at Chautauqua Institution, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and The Juilliard School. In 2010, Madeline joined Carolina Ballet Theatre where she served as a principal dancer, resident choreographer, and outreach coordinator for five full-time seasons. Highlights include performing the role of Giselle, Alonzo King’s Map, Dwight Rhoden’s Beatle Juice, and various works created for her by artistic director Hernan Justo. She also performed as a guest artist with companies including Repertory Dance Theatre, American Repertory Ballet, Olney Ballet Theatre, and Colton Ballet Company of Augusta. After three performances as an invited guest artist, Madeline became a full member of Judy Bejarano’s IMPACT Dance Company in May 2020.

Madeline has been teaching and choreographing since 2006 in a variety of community and collegiate settings. In 2007, she was the youngest recipient of the New York Choreographic Institute Fellowship Award. Human connection and vulnerability drive her choreographic process. She values collaboration and is honored to have co-created works with composers, musicians, visual artists, and members of the National Organization for Parents of Murdered Children (South Carolina Chapter). Madeline’s choreography has been featured in concerts and festivals across the nation including as part of Regional Dance America and the American College Dance Association. She led instruction at Charlotte Ballet, Davidson College, and DanceArts Greenville, and seasonally at Repertory Ballet Academy, Springfield Ballet Company, and Canyon Concert Ballet, among others. In addition to guest teaching, she has created original works for UNCC, Davidson College, Converse College, Furman University, and Tampa University. She is honored to have served as a répétiteur for Mark Diamond, Jerri Kumery, Shaun Boyle, and Bryan Arias.

Madeline holds a BA and Professional Training Certificate in Dance from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University. She was appointed as Instructor of Ballet at the University of South Carolina in 2015 and became Assistant Professor of Dance at Colorado State University in 2017. She is credited with the development of ShapeX, a program designed for children with Type II Diabetes. Sponsored by grants from General Electric and the Greenville Health System, this curriculum promotes health and nutrition through movement-centered activities. Madeline’s research investigates play as a paradigm for choreographic process. Recent projects examine the artistry of parenting through dance. Her dance film, Embodiment, was featured as part of the Horsetooth International Film Festival (2019) and Screen Dance Miami (2020). She is currently working in collaboration with psychologist Zeynep Biringen to develop dance interventions for enhanced emotional availability and attachment from pregnancy through postpartum.

Judi Hofmeister taught theater, dance, and vocal music for the last twenty years and sat as chair of the Performing Arts Department at DCHS. In 2000, Judi was selected for the first phase of developing and piloting the International Baccalaureate (IB) dance program. Today the IB Dance program at DCHS continues to be the only one of its kind in the state of Colo. Judi has had the opportunity to be an author for the Colorado Department of Education’s (CDE) Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) in dance, and was awarded Dance Educator for 2009 by the Colorado Dance Alliance (CDA). Judi continues her work of developing performing arts curriculum for Lone Tree Arts Center, as facilitator for the CDE Dance Curriculum Project, and as a reviewer for the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards in Dance (NCCAS). She is also a member of the Colorado Dance Endorsement Committee.

Contact: judijetson1963@me.com
Website
Phone: (303) 332-3365

MARY ANN LEE is the director of the Tanner Dance Program and Children’s Dance Theatre in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Utah, where she is also an adjunct associate professor in the Dept. of Modern Dance. She trained with Virginia Tanner and was a member of Children’s Dance Theatre. She has united educators and dance/movement artists in many ways, including the Side-by-Side program - now in its 20th year - which pairs dance artists with K-12 teachers to present arts integrated curriculum. Ms. Lee was a dance specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Artists-in-Schools program and taught throughout the United States. She has been an invited guest teacher in China, Japan, The Netherlands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, England, Finland, Canada, and Brazil. Ms. Lee continues to teach at the University of Utah in the Departments of Modern Dance and Education, and in the Tanner Dance Program. She teaches throughout Utah, nationally, and internationally.

Amber Mazurana serves as the Outreach Coordinator for IMPACT Dance Company, and has been a performing member since 2005. She is on the CSU Dance faculty since 2010, teaching Modern Dance technique and Understanding Dance. Amber graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts in 1995, where she had the opportunity to study with Melissa Hayden, and graduated with honors in 1999 from Butler University with a B.A. in dance pedagogy. Amber danced as a soloist with Peter Sparling Dance Company in Michigan, and was a member of the Hannah Kahn Dance Company until 2004. She directed the school at Canyon Concert Ballet and founded their Youth Ensemble, which she continues to create work for each summer. For the past two summers, Amber has served as the administrative assistant for the Education in Motion Seminar at CSU Dance She revels in opportunities to train at the Bill Evans Institute of Dance, continuing her work in the Evans Laban-Based Modern Dance Technique. This past year Amber choreographed a new work for IMPACT and she is thrilled to be restaging it on the CSU dancers this fall. Contact:  mazurana@centurylink.net; www.impactdancecompany.com

Michael Mazurana is the elementary principal for University Schools in Greeley, Colorado. He has over 20 years of experience in K-6 education and is beginning his 10th year as an administrator. One of Michael’s greatest passions is early childhood literacy. At University Schools, he has been proactive in bringing in nationally recognized children’s authors as well as leaders in the field of literacy. In 2017, he received the Outstanding Administrative Leadership Award from the Colorado Council International Reading Association. Michael is most proud of his school’s ability to continue to provide specials in the arts and movement with daily P.E. during a time when many programs are being cut. His future goals include finding a balance between blended learning and his passion for outdoor education. Michael holds a B.A. in Elementary Education from University of Nebraska at Kearney, an M.A. in Elementary Education from University of Northern Colorado and received his principal’s licensure from Colorado State University.

Guest Presenter: STEPHANIE MILLING

Stephanie Milling is the interim chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, interim dance program director, and the head of dance education at the University of South Carolina. She holds a Ph.D. in Dance and M.A. in Women’s Studies from Texas Woman’s University, and an M.A in Dance Education from New York University. Milling’s training enabled her to perform with several prestigious ballet and modern dance companies, including Dayton Ballet, Berkshire Ballet, and Tressor Dance Company. Dr. Milling has also taught in a variety of environments, including public schools within the New York City Department of Education, Texas Christian University, Texas Woman’s University, and the University of North Texas. She previously served as assistant dean for the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Winthrop University. Dr. Milling helped author the 2010 and 2017 SC Standards for Dance Education and has been an active arts advocate in the state and nation, receiving the SC Dance Association’s Advocacy Award in 2012. In 2012, she was elected to serve as a board member for the South Carolina Arts Alliance, and currently occupies the role of president for the organization. In 2013, she was elected to serve a three-year term on the Arts Education Council at Americans for the Arts where she regularly wrote for ARTSblog on topics relating to Arts Education and Advocacy. Her artistic and academic work has appeared in venues such as the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, the Joyce Soho in New York City, the D.U.M.B.O. Dance Festival in Brooklyn, N.Y., Piccolo Spoleto, and the Journal of Dance Education, Dance Education in Practice, and other national and international publications.

Dr. Sandra Minton was dance coordinator/professor from 1972-1998 and is currently co-coordinator of the new Dance Education M.A. program at the University of Northern Colorado. Minton’s books on choreography, mind/body connections, and preventing dance injuries have been published with Human Kinetics, and her articles and research can be found in juried journals. Her most recent book, Using Movement to Teach Academics: The Mind & Body As One Entity was published by Rowman & Littlefield Education in 2008. A forthcoming book, Thinking with the Dancing Brain will also be published by R & L in 2016. Minton was a National Dance Association Artist/Scholar in 1999, and a Fulbright Scholar to Finland in 2001. Her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees are in dance from UCLA and Texas Woman’s University respectively. She has studied with a number of dance and dance education professionals. Contact: slminto@msn.com; (303) 450-6347; www.scmdance.com

Emily Morgan is a teacher, dancer, and choreographer. Her training is eclectic, largely rooted in Cunningham technique and postmodern release-based technique and complimented by her study of Limón, Graham, and Klein techniques, as well as ballet, kathak, capoeira, yoga, and other forms. She has performed with members of Lower Left Performance Collective in Texas and New Mexico, with Sebastian Prantl in Krems, Austria, Daniel Ashwanden in Vienna, Austria, in work in New York by Stephan Koplowitz and Ellen Cornfield, and in work in North Carolina by Sarah Council, Ashwini Gogate, Ann Dils, Martha Connerton, Jan van Dyke, and BJ Sullivan. Her choreography has been shown in North and South Carolina, Indiana, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, and California. Emily’s research is situated in community dance practices and interactive/participatory dance in traditional and non-traditional spaces. This encompasses many other research interests: dance created by and for community members, site-specific dance, and interdisciplinary and/or collaborative performance and pedagogy. She has presented her written and creative research at conferences and festivals throughout the United States and internationally in Mexico, Austria. and Barbados. Emily has taught modern dance, improvisation, choreography, history, world dance forms, ballet, and dance pedagogy, among others. She has taught at Winthrop University, the University of Texas, El Paso, El Paso Community College, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Elon University, the North Carolina Governor’s School, and at a public magnet arts high school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Emily holds an M.F.A. in Dance/Choreography from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, a B.A. in Dance from Denison University in Ohio, and is a doctoral student in dance at Texas Woman’s University.

Lisa Morgan has been a member of the CSU dance faculty since 2000, teaching modern dance technique, choreography and now focusing on Teaching Methods for Children's dance. She works with regional schools, K-12 educators and state agencies to increase movement experiences for children in public schools. She is especially interested in developing a Teaching Licensure program for dance in the state of Colorado. She coordinates the dance portion of BRAINY (BRinging Arts INtegration to Youth), a program designed to bring students from Title I schools to the University Center for the Arts to experience music, theatre, dance, and visual art for a day. She works with the CSU Music Therapy, teaching movement to undergraduate and graduate students and coordinates Moving Through Parkinson's, a movement therapy program for individuals living with Parkinson’s Disease. Morgan has been the assistant director of IMPACT Dance Company, a contemporary dance company based in Fort Collins, for the past twenty years.

Dr. Bonnie Schaffhauser Jacobi is assistant professor of Music Education at Colorado State University. For twenty-one years, she has been a music education specialist teaching students of all ages throughout Fla., Mass., N.J., and Texas. In 2008, she founded the Meadows Community Youth Chorus in Dallas for elementary-aged children without music in their schools. Dr. Jacobi holds music degrees from the University of Houston (D.M.A. in Music Education), the University of Texas at Austin (M.M. in Piano Performance), and Mount Holyoke College (B.A. in Music). Additionally, she holds Kodály Certification from Indiana University and McNeese State University and has completed rigorous training programs at Carnegie-Mellon University’s International Dalcroze Institute, The Juilliard School’s Abramson-Dalcroze Institute, the Dalcroze School of the Rockies and the TCU/Van Cliburn Piano Institute in Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Jacobi currently serves on the Editorial Board for Music Educators Journal. At CSU, Dr. Jacobi is the area coordinator for Music Education and teaches undergraduate and graduate coursework in Music Education. She also directs the Colorado Kodály Institute, and serves as a faculty advisor for CSU’s Collegiate CNAfME Chapter.

Contact: Bonnie.Jacobi@colostate.edu