PhD Dance 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). 

Robin Raven Prichard is a scholar/artist working between the worlds of contemporary concert dance and Indigenous dance. In her First Act, she danced throughout the U.S and Australia for award-winning choreographers, Opera Australia, and created her own award-winning choreography. In her Second Act, she was a professor of dance for two decades at universities in the U.S. and Australia. She served as choreographer for the American Idol video game, and recently her dance film Trigger Warning was an official selection at ADF. She has received two Fulbright Fellowships to study Australian Aboriginal and Maori (New Zealand) dance. She has served as a grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts and the MAPFund and serves as a reviewer for Journal of Dance Education (JoDE). In 2022, three books in which she contributed book chapters won NDEO Ruth Lovell Murray Awards and the Susan W. Stinson Book Award. Now in her Third Act, she is pursuing dance studies where she writes about inscrutable, unruly dancing bodies, both in concert and Indigenous dance.