PhD Student Sidra Bell
Sidra Bell receives Yaddo Artist Medal with Jill Viney and Langston Hughes
Yaddo honored Sidra Bell with an artist medal on October 22, 2025 at Edison Ballroom in NYC by Yaddo. Yaddo is the leading nonprofit retreat for artists and writers who come from all nations and backgrounds to live and work in their supportive community in Saratoga Springs. Bell was honored alongside Langston Hughes and Jill Viney. According to their website, "The Yaddo Artist Medal honors those whose lives and work embody creative brilliance, generosity of spirit, and a belief in the transformative power of art. Designed by James Siena, the medal reflects the enduring values of our residency program: excellence, creative freedom, and unity."
Sidra Bell on creative team for "Old Man and the Sea" at the Wex
Sidra Bell worked with Slovenian director Karmina Sîlec as principal collaborator/movement advisor in collaboration with Beth Morrison Productions and renowned composer Paola Prestini to create the interdisciplinary opera "Old Man and the Sea" over several weeks at MassMoca and Arizona State University Gammage throughout 2023/2024. It also toured to UNC Chapel Hill through Carolina Performing Arts and continued with the Ohio premiere at the Wexner Center for the Arts October 10 - 12, 2025. The Wex performances include the original international cast as well as new members from Opera Columbus and Bell on the creative team.
This is Bell's fourth production with Sîlec having worked with her in Slovenia on "Fauvel" and "Threnos" and in San Francisco on "BABA".
Sidra Bell receives co-commission from the Museum of African Diaspora
Sidra Bell received a co-commission along with Cleveland based artist M. Carmen Lane (lead artist) from the Museum of African Diaspora (San Francisco). The piece titled "Irresistibly Alive" premiered in San Francisco on October 1, 2025.
MFA Student Shaela Davis presents self-choreographed solo for the 5th Annual Baltimore Black Choreographer's Festival
MFA Student Shaela Davis self-choreographed a solo entitled "She Is..." for the 5th Annual Baltimore Black Choreographer's Festival, which runs October 10-12, 2025.
Shaela is a dance artist, educator, and researcher whose work moves between the stage, classroom, and the community. She earned her BFA in Dance Performance with a K–12 Teaching Certification from Towson University, where she performed with the TU Dance Company and choreographed for the 2013 American College Dance Association in Virginia. On scholarship at the American Dance Festival, she appeared in Footprints and in repertory by Abby Zbikowski.
PhD Student Robin Raven Prichard wins Outstanding Researcher Award
PhD Student Robin Raven Prichard has received the Outstanding Dance Researcher Award from the National Dance Educators Organization. With more than 5,000 members and two journals, NDEO is the premier organization for dance education globally. The Outstanding Dance Education Researcher Award recognizes an individual who has made a unique contribution to the field of dance education through creative and/or scholarly research. Nominees are evaluated on the impact and innovativeness of their research, their national and/or international advocacy for dance research, and the recognition they've received from peers.
Nominator Karen Schupp said of Prichard, “The range of Robin’s scholarship is notable, demonstrating her intellectual dexterity and desire to activate needed changes across areas within dance education. I have witnessed Robin raise critical questions about equity, Indigenous knowledge, anti-racism, and power dynamics as an artist, educator, and scholar. Robin’s work is rooted in her commitment to broadening ideas about what voices, perspectives, and experiences are valued in dance; creating learning spaces that promote honest dialogue about inclusion; and imagining for a more equitable future.”
Reviewer Sherrie Barr said, “Robin does not shy away from troubling taken-for-granted traditions that can run counter to humane, artistic, and equitable tenets of dance education; a key attribute of landmark research. All of this is done with a sense of wit and writing style that encourages readers to question their own assumptions. Through all of her research, Robin showcases a path to move dance education forward with equity and humanness.”
Prichard’s most recent publications include “High Heels are a Hate Crime: Misogyny and Dance Education” (MacFarland Press) and “Performing Arts Education for Democracies: Are We Cultivating Citizens or Docile Laborers?” (Routledge).
MFA Student Mary Storm wins Grad Student Career Accelerator Fund Award
The College of Arts and Sciences Center for Career Success granted MFA Student Mary Storm a Grad Student Career Accelerator Fund Award for the Summer 2025 cycle. Mary received $2,450 to participate in an intimacy direction workshop series in Denver, CO.
MFA Dance Student Yinqi Wang's Omnivore Dance wins Dance City Festival Chicago Awards
"A Touch of Sin," a work by MFA Dance Student Yinqi Wang and his partner Maggie Liang of Omnivore Dance won the 2025 Dance City Festival Chicago Best Choreographer and National Exchange Awards. Wang and Liang have been invited to share their work at the 2026 Dance City Festival Detroit.
PhD Student Jeremy Zihao Yuan wins the NDEO Doug Risner Prize for Emerging Dance Researchers
PhD Student Jeremy Zihao Yuan won the The National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) 2024 Doug Risner Prize for Emerging Dance Researchers for his Journal of Dance Education publication, "A Call of Advocacy and Empathy: A Study of Gay Men in Chinese Dance."
