News
Fall 2026: Week 5 September 24, 2026
Department News and Events Guest Artist YNOT: Lecture/Demonstration and Showing Fri, September 25, 2026 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Barnett Theatre, Sullivant Hall Join…
Archives and Heartbreaks: Piecing Together the Lost Lives of Baghdadi Jewish Actresses in Early Hindi Cinema
Speaker: Dr. Manjari Mukherjee, President’s…
Fall 2026: Week 4 September 16, 2026
Department News and Events Sizzle Session for Prospective BFA and Minor Students Wed, September 23, 2026 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm Zoom Are you ready to ignite your…
From the stage to the page... 🩰📖✨ After a showing of Fabrications at City Center, Professor Daniel Roberts celebrated a signing of "The Artistry of Merce Cunningham: Choreography, Technique,…
Faculty research is fire!
Here is a teaser from Improving Motion Modeling with Dance Expertise for Archiving and Analysis, funded by a 2026 @schmidtsciences Humanities and AI (HAVI) development…
Belonging in Motion How Students Experience Inclusion in Dance in Higher Education Authors Karen Schupp
Arizona State University, United States …
Professors Alfonso Abraham Cervera and Irvin Manuel Gonzalez continue to build national recognition for their collaborative choreographic research with "Las Rosas Que Enter(r)amos…
Professor Zbikowski's company Abby Z and the New Utility premiered "Radioactive Practice" at Domaine d'O – Théâtre Jean-Claude Carrière, as part of the Montpellier Danse festival in France on June…
Ohio State's Department of Dance mourns the loss of Emerita Professor Dr. Sheila Marion, who died on June 22, 2026. Professor Marion served as director of the Dance Notation Bureau Extension for…
Associate Professor Hannah Kosstrin has published her second book, Kinesthetic Peoplehood: Jewish Diasporic Dance Migrations (Oxford University Press, 2026). Kinesthetic Peoplehood…
Season 4 Eposode 1 · A State of Dance
Dancing Diasporas: Tracing Migration Through Movement with Dr. Hannah Kosstrin
You can now listen to the OhioDance Podcasts on …
An anthology conceived and co-edited by Hilary Bergen, Eric Mullis, PhD Dance Student Benjamin Simon, and Sydney Skybetter, "Robot Theaters: Collisions in Performance and Social Robotics" has just…
In the article, Dance Lecturer Joyelle Fobbs Weaver discusses the connections between interoception and balance and shares ways of integrating these concepts with teaching the Pilates method. "I’m…
Charles Anderson, a professor in the Department of Dance and Ohio State's 2026-27 artist laureate, was recently featured in an article by The Columbus…
For the past 15 months I have had the distinct pleasure of being a guest in the Department of Dance in the role of interim chair. During this time, I have learned why the department has long been…
The Program 60 team and the College of Arts and Sciences selected MFA Student Shaela Davis for the 2026 Friend of Program 60 Award. This award, its inaugural year, is being granted to five…
Ohio State's Office of Outreach and Engagement selected Assistant Professor Alfonso Cervera's research project "Transnational Folklórico Exchange: Community-Engaged Knowledge Sharing Between Ohio…
Assistant Professor Kym McDaniel recently received several awards for her films, including a Juror Honorable Mention at the Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Best of Theme at the West Virginia…
Balanced Body International published the article "Balance and the Systems That Drive It," by Lecturer Joyelle Weaver on April 25, 2026. The piece explores balance in Pilates training through a…
The Global Arts + Humanities announced MFA Student Shaela Davis and Professor Momar Ndiaye as part of their 2026-27 Society of Fellows Faculty and Graduate Team Fellows awards. …
Under the mentorship of faculty advisors Dr. Hannah Kosstrin and Eddie Taketa, BFA Student Lindsey Beatty presented her research, "FIGS (Feminal InGlorius Surrender) An Embodied Study of Personal…
MFA Student Celia Benvenutti is the recipient of this year’s Graduate Award in Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts from The Ohio State University’s Center for the Study of Religion. The award…
PhD Student Zihao Yuan received an honorable mention for the arts at the Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum on March 6th, 2026 for his oral presentation, "Recentering the Cultural & Gender…
CUNY Dance Initiative announced performances of Assistant Professor Gerson Lanza in "To Dance Is To Be Free."
Dates: 5/14/2026 - 5/15/2026
📍 Theatre: CUNY Dance Initiative
129 Convent Ave…
70 years ago, this Jewish choreographer predicted our epidemic of loneliness and isolation
‘Rooms,’ which premiered in 1955, was inspired by the Lower East Side tenements of Anna Sokolow’s youth…
The Ohio State University has selected Anderson, professor in the Department of Dance, as its 2026–27 Artist Laureate.
Anderson will begin a one-year appointment on July 1, 2026.
Columbus Dance Theatre commissioned PhD Student Sidra Bell for a new work for their professional ensemble company. In residence from March 30-April 4, 2026, Bell worked with them on a new piece…
BOOST dance festival featured PhD Student and Graduate Fellow Zihao Yuan's newest solo work with other Seattle contemporary dance artists, March 27 - 29, 2026 @ eXit SPACE | NOD Theater.
Congratulations to MFA Dance Candidate jiara sha as LIMINAL (LMNL) selected her dance film, "s o f t e d g e s m a l l d a n c e" for their dance film festival presented by Orange Grove Dance +…
Dr. Valarie Williams and Ambre Emory-Maier served as consultants for the George Balanchine Trust during Paul Boos' staging of the iconic ballet, Serenade, on the Cincinnati Ballet for…
The Department of Dance at The Ohio State University is proud to share that Assistant Professors Alfonso Abraham Cervera and Dr. Irvin Manuel Gonzalez have been invited to present their evening…
Overview
The Dance Preservation Fund was established in 1994 to further the recording of dance, supporting projects dealing with Labanotation or other notation systems, movement analysis,…
Alighting from the Air
Tamara Karsavina, Dancer and Writer
By Emerita Professor Karen Eliot
Published by Oxford University Press
Hardcover
Published: 16 March 2026
240 Pages |…
The Office of Outreach and Engagement selected Assistant Professor Alfonso Cervera for a 2026 Community Engaged Scholar Award for outstanding achievement in producing engaged scholarship and…
BFA in Dance Students Malaika Burke, Anya Huth and Tess Scearbo presented their work at the 31st Annual Richard J. and Martha D. Denman…
The College of Arts and Sciences selected Associate Professor Abby Zbikowski to receive a 2025-2026 ASC Mid-Career Faculty Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding performance in all three…
Quilan “Cue” Arnold (MFA 2016) won Best Short Experimental Film (US) at the Dance Camera West Fest in January 2026 for his film "Lowelyfe Ep. 1 'The Only Way Out Is Through.'" Dance Camera West is a…
Title: Cold War Legacies: American Illiteracy of the Postcolonial Aesthetics of Spectacle in Chinese Dance Dramas
Journal: Dance Research Journal …
Zoey November on Her Inspirations, Collaborations and Her Capstone Project
CityPulse, Your Guide to Columbus
Ohio State Department of Dance MFA Candidates Zoey November and Mary…
How can AI motion models capture the nuance, expertise, and history that dance artists hold in their bodies? Improving Motion Modeling with Dance Expertise for Archiving and Analysis…
The Ohio Arts Council recognized MFA Dance Alumni Alisha Jihn (MFA 2025) and Joshua Manculich (MFA 2017) with Individual Excellence Awards for "outstanding accomplishments by artists in a variety…
DanceUS.org, "an innovative portal for dance professionals, learners and enthusiasts," recently recommended Ohio State's Department of Dance as one of the best college dance programs for 2026 in…
The Museum of African Diaspora invited PhD Student Sidra Bell back for Black History Month celebrations. Her collaborative team will be performing a new version of "O-O-H Child" this Thursday,…
Professor Valarie Williams and Lecturer Ambre Emory-Maier co-authored a book chapter titled “Sociability and Hidden Connections: The Ballet Stage and Ballroom in the Long Eighteenth Century” for…
The Department of Dance is pleased to share that Alfonso Cervera, Assistant Professor of Dance at The Ohio State University, has been commissioned to create a new choreographic work for Bates…
Alumna Marjana Krajač (Ph.D. in Dance Studies, 2024) has been awarded the Annual Award of the Croatian Associations of Dance Artists for Outstanding Choreography for her 2025 work titled
Congratulations MFA Dance Candidate jiara sha and her dance film, "s o f t e d g e s m a l l d a n c e" which was adjudicated and accepted as 1 of 7 films in the American College Dance Association…
Assistant Professor Kym McDaniel's chapter, ACTING QUEERLY: Creative Collaboration in Applied Bioarchaeology, was published in the volume Applied Bioarchaeology: Making an Impact. Co-written with…
The Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) awarded Alumna Loren Bucek (MA 1980, PhD 2013) a Funds for Artists grant for art making/ painting, exhibiting in the community - e.g., Hammond Harkins…
Video of high school students dancing in Ohio State Dance studios and enjoying the Summer Dance Intensive at The Ohio State University.
June 1-5, 2026, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sullivant Hall
The American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) awarded PhD Candidate Alyssa Stover the Selma Jeanne Cohen Conference Presentation Award at the 2025 ASTR Conference in Denver, Colorado November 6…
City Dance Showcase VII features MFA Student Yinqi Wang's work "A Touch of Sin" with other Columbus artists November 22, 2025 at 8 pm and November 23, 2025 at 3 pm. '"A Touch of Sin" is a duet…
Kym McDaniel: Artist, Educator, Intuitive Filmmaker October 22, 2025 at 12:00pm
Kym McDaniel, Assistant Professor of Dance, shares her wide range of experiences with experimental filmmaking, dance…
💃 Get InFormed 🕺🏾
Read the latest news and updates from Ohio State's Department of Dance>
IN THIS ISSUE
Dance Faculty Summer Research and Creative Inquiry Updates Associate…
The Department of Dance is pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Alfonso Abrahm Cervera will present his solo work RP…
"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…
Nyama McCarthy-Brown: Everybody is a Dancer
October 1, 2025 at 12:00pm by juliabiller
Nyama McCarthy-Brown, Associate Professor of Dance Pedagogy through Community Engagement, discusses…
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…
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…
Assistant Professor in Dance Film + Digital Technologies Kym McDaniel, is an American College Dance Association (ACDA) Screendance Adjudicator this year. As an adjudicator, she presented a virtual…
The Ohio State University enjoys the spirit and support from one of the nation’s longest standing alumni associations (now nearly 600,000 strong) and one of the nation’s largest single-campus…
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…
PhD Student 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…
September 30, 2025
2 pm - 3:30 pm
Location: Sullivant Hall 247, 1813 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210
Speaker: Cindy García, author of "Salsa Crossings: Dancing Latinidad in Los…
PhD in Dance Studies Student Sidra Bell worked with Slovenian director Karmina Sîlec as principal collaborator/movement advisor in collaboration with Beth Morrison Productions and renowned…
The Ohio State University Department of Dance welcomes Cyrah L. Ward (pronounced seer-ah) (she/they) to our faculty in autumn 2025 as an assistant professor of practice. Ward is a…
The Ohio State University Department of Dance welcomes Gerson Lanza Ruiz to our faculty in autumn 2025 as a tenure-track assistant professor. Gerson is an Afro…
PhD Student Sidra Bell will be honored 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,…
In Spring 2025, Dr. Irvin Manuel Gonzalez led the Department of Dance’s inaugural course through the Ohio Prison Education Exchange Project (OPEEP). The semester focused on introducing students to…
On June 11, 2025, the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) announced the recipients of the first round of its 2025 Artist Projects grants. Grant applications were reviewed and scored by community…
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…
PhD Student Sidra Bell premiered her work "Areas of Relief" commissioned by ODC/Dance for the troupe’s “Dance Downtown” program April 10–13, 2025 at the Blue Shield of California Theater at Yerba…
Ohio State Dance mourns the loss of Emerita Professor Ann Lilly, who died on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. She worked for Columbus City Schools and knew Department of Dance founding Chair Helen Alkire…
MFA Student Zoey November won first place for the arts at the Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum on February 28, 2025 for her oral presentation, "Making the Audible Visible: Improving…
UF alumni inducted to Curtain Raisers Wall of Fame
By ELIZABETH CLAUSS
Jun 03, 2025 12:00 PM
The Courier (thecourier.com)
FINDLAY — Five University of Findlay…
Congratulations to PhD Students Yujie Chen, Amy Schofield and recent Alumna Bhumi Patel (PhD 2025) for winning this year's Selma Jeanne Cohen Award presented by the Dance Studies Association (DSA)…
LA’s CANVAS REBEL interviews Assistant Professor Alfonso Abraham Cervera about his work, journey, and artistic practice.
Photos by Lexi Clark-Stilianos
The Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Team at the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing selected Emily Kaniuka as one of their honorable mentions for the 2025 Outstanding Writing…
Post MFA Scholar Ryan Johnson, Alumna Dianne McIntyre (BFA 1969) and Alumna/Emerita Professor Bebe Miller (MA 1975) will be sharing the stage at the grand opening of the new Doris Duke Theatre at…
Dr. McCarthy-Brown's book Skin Colored Pointes Interviews With Women of Color in Ballet received the 2025 Harry Shaw and Katrina Hazzard-Donald Award for Outstanding Work in African-American Popular…
Assistant Professor Kym McDaniel installed her 3-channel visual art installation, “Gutted”, at the Ann Arbor Film Festival’s Off The Screen! The installation ran from March 25 to March 30 in…
Production and Stage Specialist External Career Site
Current Employees and Students:
If you are currently employed or enrolled as a student at…
Graduate Fellow Montë Murphy won a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for pursuing a course of study which requires advanced foreign language and area studies training. An…
Overview
The Dance Preservation Fund was established in 1994 to further the recording of dance, supporting projects dealing with Labanotation or other notation systems,…
As a member of Doug Varone and Dancers from 1994-2015, Ohio State Dance Assistant Professor of Practice Eddie Taketa served as the company’s rehearsal director and performed as an original…
Congratulations to MFA Students Benjamin Roach, Alisha Jihn and Isa Bowser for being selected by the 2025 American College Dance Association (ACDA) East-Central Conference to attend the 2025 ACDA…
Dance/USA selected Alumnus Ricarrdo Hunter-Valentine (MFA 2024) as a finalist for their Fellowship to Artists Program.
Washington, DC (March 13, 2025) Dance/USA, the…
NBC4 WCMH-TV Columbus featured PhD Student Sidra Bell on the Saturday, March 8, 2025, 6:00 p.m. news for her performance at The Met, her academic work at Ohio State Dance and as an associate at…
PhD Student Sidra Bell's new commission for ODC/Dance Company premieres at the Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center in San Francisco April 10-13, 2025. SF/ARTS featured the work in their March/April…
The Office of Outreach & Engagement selected Activists in Motion (AIM), led by Associate Professor Dr. Nyama McCarthy-Brown, as one of Ohio State’s 2025 Programs of Excellence in Engaged…
The Ohio State University Council of Graduate Students awarded PhD Candidate Alyssa Stover with an Edward J. Ray Travel Award for Scholarship and Service in the amount of $1000…
How Pivoting to Choreographing Full-Time Changed 3 Former Dancers’ Lives, Creative Processes, and Work
by Lauren Wingenroth
Dr. Dixon's essay on dancer Mary HInkson ("Black Body Between the Lines: Mary HInkson Dancing Graham and Transforming White Spaces") and several other dance essays have been published in the…
March 18 - 22, 2025
Developed by Department of Dance Assistant Professors Irvin Manuel Gonzalez and Alfonso Cervera, Pachanga e Poder is community-driven research incubator. The…
Professor Cervera will join FUSION for a three-week residency, during which he will create a new work premiering in Japan in 2025. This piece will explore the intertwined histories of Japan and…
Alexander will be talking to current students at his alma mater Ohio University about a career in the arts.
Waters is a 16-minute video dance filmed at Vatnasafn (the Library of Waters) in Stykkishólmur, Iceland, features an international cast and consists of choreographic material from the…
Creative Lives: Staff Artists & Makers Exhibition
January 14 - January 25, 2025
11:00AM - 6:00PM
Urban Arts Space
Many individuals who take art classes, study the arts, or learn…
June 2-6, 2025, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sullivant Hall
1813 North High Street
Columbus OH, 43210
The Ohio State Dance Summer Intensive is a one-week immersive dance experience. The Ohio…
College of Arts and Sciences Dean David Horn appointed Professor of History of Art Andrew Shelton to serve as the interim chair of the Department of Dance effective January 1, 2025.
Shelton…
Dance Magazine recently announced their top 25 dancers, choreographers, directors, and companies to look out for in 2025. These artists are acknowledged as innovative figures shaping the direction…
Dear Department of Dance Community,
As you have heard from the College of Arts and Sciences, I will have stepped down as chair by the time you read this message. This final InForm letter…
The Guardian ranked Associate Professor Abby Zbikowski's company Abby Z and the New Utility's work "Radioactive Practice" the #1 dance performance in 2024. Presented in association with Dance…
The American Society for Theatre Research Annual Conference honored Alumna Wu Menghang (PhD 2024) with the Selma Jeanne Cohen Conference Presentation Award. Wu's award-winning paper, titled "If…
The Office of Academic Affairs awarded $20,000 to support Chair Anderson’s proposal to continue the HATCH (Holistic Approaches to Transformative Choreography) incubator program, an ambitious…
Revisiting Pina Bausch’s World of Love and Longing in Aging Bodies
“Kontakthof,” a pivotal Bausch dance from 1978, is being staged with members of the original cast. They talk about coming back to…
Ohio State Dance congratulates Ph.D. Candidate Yujie Chen for being named one of the 2024-2025 Presidential Fellowship recipients. The Presidential Fellowship is the most prestigious award given…
The Biggest Surprise at the Met’s Egypt Show? Live Performance Black artists have long claimed ancient Egypt as their own. Now they’re telling their stories in person on the museum’s floor. www…
Associate Professor Abby Zbikowski's company Abby Z and the New Utility earned a 5 star review from the Guardian for her work "Radioactive Practice" presented in association with Dance Umbrella UK…
Ohio State Associate Professor of Dance Harmony Bench and collaborator Kate Elswit, Professor of Performance and Technology at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (University of London),…
Current Employees and Students:
If you are currently employed or enrolled as a student at The Ohio State University, please log in to Workday to use the internal application…
The Ohio State University enjoys the spirit and support from one of the nation’s longest standing alumni associations (now nearly 500,000 strong) and one of the nation’s largest single-campus…
Human Rights on the Move — the first volume in Ohio State Press' new series, On Possibility: Social Change and the Arts and Humanities, was published in June…
Join us in giving a shout out to Ohio State Dance Alum Fen Kennedy (PhD 2019) for winning the 2024 National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) National Award for Outstanding Dance Educator. Dr…
Check out the Department of Dance’s feature in the new University Marketing and Communications' national commercial that is set to air during televised sporting events this fall, including…
Please join us in giving a shout out to Ohio State Dance Alumna Cali Cummings (BFA 2024) for being hired by the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders! O-H!
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It is with profound pride and immense joy that I reflect on the extraordinary accomplishments of The Ohio State University Department of Dance over the past…