University of Akron Dance Professor and Ohio State PhD Student Robin Prichard received two awards this fall. Prichard won the Selma Jean Cohen Award for excellence in dance scholarship from Dance Studies Association (DSA) for her paper “The Haka Heard Around the World and the Indigenous Performance Commons.” DSA is the premier academic organization for Dance Studies worldwide.

Additionally, OhioDance, a statewide service organization for dance, honored Prichard as a finalist for their 50th year anniversary Individual Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advancement of Dance. Prichard was nominated for this award by two University of Akron alumni. One alumna said of Prichard, “because of Robin, I found my voice, and I will NEVER forget that. She encouraged me to go use my voice to create the world I want.” A second alumna said, “the material I covered with Robin, both in technique and theory classes, was by far the most formative and impactful work I did as an undergraduate. It lit me up and made me both macro- and micro- curious — curious about the ways that dance has and does intersect with broader culture, and the role that I could play within that ecosystem. She modeled for us that it was possible to do and make serious, rigorous work without taking ourselves too seriously.”

Prichard has a 15-year history with OhioDance, and performances of her choreography have been selected for their statewide Gala five times. In 2013, she was commissioned by OhioDance and The Dublin Arts Center to create a site-specific dance with casts of dancers from both Ohio State University and University of Akron. She is one of the artists featured in OhioDance’s Virtual Dance Collection as well as their statewide touring exhibit.