Last May, we sent Emerita Associate Professor Dr. Melanye White Dixon off in style after 33 years of dedication to Ohio State Dance. Multitudes of devoted Dr. Dixon fans, friends and family came to help us celebrate her career. In fact, so many people wanted to recognize Dixon for her service that we had to host the party in 390 Sullivant Hall in order to accommodate all the guests. After enjoying a meal together, many attendees thanked Dixon publicly. Department Chair Susan Hadley praised her for building community partnerships, for dedicating her work to dance pedagogy and for leaving us her legacy of dance history scholarship. Dixon responded with a few words of thanks and then, in true Dixon style, taught everyone a line dance to end the occasion with an exuberant dance party. The sense of love, community and pride in the room was palpable.
Dr. Dixon received the 2015 IABD/International Association of Blacks in Dance Educator/Scholar Award, a 2016 Coca-Cola Critical Difference for Women Research Grant to document the work of celebrated dancer Mary Hinkson and, in April 2017, the OhioDance Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of Dance Education. In autumn 2018, Dr. Dixon was awarded a Fulbright Specialist grant for her engagement as an invited speaker at the first annual International Conference on Arts and Design Education and lecturer on dance education at the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in Bandung, Indonesia, September 14-28, 2018. Clearly, this wife, mother, scholar, teacher and dancer is well-loved and highly-regarded by the university, the city, the state, and the international dance communities. We all wish her the best on this next chapter of her life.
