Teaching artist since 1980, trained in Madeleine Hunter / UBD / Stiggins / Expeditionary Learning and arts integration techniques. Teaching artist, professional development workshop designer, and seminar leader for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since 1996. Former co-artistic director and executive director of City in Motion Dance Theater in Kansas City, Mo. Professional choreographer and dancer, with numerous appearances and commissions with dance companies across the US.

Firmly based in a constructivist teaching philosophy, in which students construct and demonstrate their own understandings. Specifically, I design and lead hands-on activities that combine elements of dance, through choreographic puzzles and tasks, with other essential curriculum. For example, by creating dances about how different systems of the human body work, students are also creating lifelong understanding that they then demonstrate through their choreography. This means that I use a collaborative, everyone-can-learn style of instruction with both children and adults. My belief is that this leads to true self-confidence, the type that comes with successfully meeting challenges that seem daunting at first.

National Merit Finalist 1970 Member Alpha Sigma Nu

B.S. (Biology, Chemistry/Psychology) cum laude, 1974, Rockhurst University Professional Dance Program, Boston Conservatory of Music, 1974-1976

Have held jobs at all levels in education, including high school director and school bus driver. Also have skills in event management, technical theater (especially lighting design), and straw-bale construction. Home is a 10-acre retreat in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in northeastern New Mexico.