Candace Feck: The OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection™

When Emerita Associate Professor Candace Feck began working as Oral Historian for the OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection™, she thought she was jumping into a one-year project to contribute to a dance history website to preserve Ohio’s extensive, rich and unique dance history. Little did she know at the time that the endeavor would grow “into five years of ongoing work, including more than fifty interviews (to date) with dance professionals across the state, development of more than a dozen four-day school residencies (to date) across the state, and development of the screenplay for a 30-minute documentary film featuring the project,” says Dr. Feck. “I am currently writing a guide to accompany the documentary film and a textbook for use in Ohio schools emanating from the project.” And she has been busy presenting the collection at many local and national conferences.

Since launching the OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection™ at the 2017 OhioDance Festival at BalletMet, the project team has added five new histories. According to their website, “Using the site as source material, the team has developed ongoing educational activities, including statewide school residencies that introduce the research to Ohio’s school population.”