Guest Artists

Chris Burnside has a BFA in Communication Arts and Design from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MM in Dance from Florida State University. As a dancer, he has been a member of the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company and has performed with John Bernd, Jane Comfort, Tim Miller and Johanna Boyce. His own work, which ranges from flat out choreography to movement monologues, has been presented in the Fast/Forward series of the Virginia Museum of the Fine Arts, and in Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, and up and down the East Coast; it is currently in the repertory of the Richmond Ballet.

Bill Evans was Artistic Director of the Bill Evans Dance Company (based in Seattle and Albuquerque) for 30 years. The Company performed in all 50 states as well as many other countries. Evans was the most-booked company in the United States for several years under the Dance Touring and Artist-in-the-Schools Programs of the National Endowment for the Arts. It is now reassembled on a project basis for performances in the Rochester area. He founded the Evans Rhythm Tap Ensemble in 1992 and performs solo tap concerts frequently throughout North America. He was formerly Artistic Coordinator, dancer and principal resident choreographer of Utah’s Repertory Dance Theatre and Artistic Director and resident choreographer of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers. He received the Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous fellowships and grants from the NEA as well as state, regional and private arts agencies. He received the National Dance Education Organization Lifetime Achievement Award, the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and two Albuquerque Arts Alliance Awards for Excellence in Dance.

He earned a BA in English/Ballet and an MFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah and is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst with both IMS and LIMS. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico, Permanent Guest Artist in the Professional Program of Winnipeg’s School of Contemporary Dancers and Artistic Director of the annual Bill Evans Dance Teachers Intensives and Evans Technique Certification Program, which take place at The College at Brockport and in the Pacific Northwest. He teaches Evans Modern Dance Technique and Repertory, Rhythm Tap, Laban Movement Analysis/Bartenieff Fundamentals, Dance Conditioning/Applied Kinesiology, Improvisation, Choreography and Dance Pedagogy.

He served on the boards of the American College Dance Festival Association, the National Dance Association and NDEO and produced works for the 2003 NDEO Conference in Albuquerque. A cover story on his impact in the professional and educational worlds was featured in the October, 2003 issue of Dance Magazine, and he was named in the top three favorite tap dancers in Dance Magazine’s most recent Readers Poll. Visit www.billevansdance.org to find out more about his Brockport summer teachers programs or about his book, “Reminiscences of a Dancing Man,” published by NDA in 2005.

Sarah Gamblin is an Associate Professor of Dance at Texas Woman’s University and a former member of Bebe Miller’s Company. Her teaching and scholarship reside in the intersection of improvisation, performance and choreography. She has been invited to present her work at the New Genre Festival in Tulsa, through Flatlands Dance Theater, the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation and she has served as a guest artist at Barnard College, University of South Florida, Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas. She is a co-coordinator for the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival and recently served as a facilitator for the Form In Question Symposium at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Sandra Lacy is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dancing in London. She has performed with the Maryland Ballet, Impetus Dance Company, Path Dance Company, Phoenix Repertory Dance, James Hansen’s Assemblage Dance Company, ClancyWorks Dance Company, Lorraine Chapman The Company and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Company. Currently Ms. Lacy is Co-Artistic Director of Lacy & Shade Solo Duet Dance Works. Ms. Lacy is a recipient of 8 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in Solo Dance Performance. She is a member of the Dance Faculty at UMBC and the Baltimore School for the Arts. In 2008, Ms. Lacy completed the Gyrokinesis teacher training program. Presently Ms. Lacy is working on her teacher training in Gyrotonics and studies in New York with neuromuscular therapist, Irene Dowd.

Barbara Mahler is a 30-year active member of the New York City dance community as a choreographer, performer, body-worker and movement educator; a major contributor in the development and outreach of Klein Technique– a Master Teacher, and the Assistant Director of the Klein School of Dance from 1983-2004- the “motor” of the school, to quote Dianne Madden, current rehearsal director of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Since 2004, Barbara has been an ongoing faculty member with Movement Research and the State School for Dance and Theater in Copenhagen, Denmark (since 1994), as well as teaching at various studios, colleges and festivals in the greater NY area, across the US, and abroad. She is the recipient of a BAX Award in Arts and Arts Education 2013.

Susan Shields, recipient of the 2006 Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography, has created dances on several professional companies and universities. Her work appears in the repertories of Ballet West, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Washington Ballet, Richmond Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Boston Ballet II, and City Dance Ensemble. She has also created work for Harvard University, George Mason University, University of Richmond and Shenandoah University. She performed nationally and internationally, most recently as a member of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. In addition to performing the works of numerous contemporary choreographers, she was partnered by Mr. Baryshnikov in Mark Morris’ acclaimed dance,”The Argument.” She was also a member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company for eight years, performing a substantial part of his repertory worldwide. In addition to performing, she assisted Mr. Lubovitch in setting his work on American Ballet Theatre and had numerous roles created on her. She performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group in “The Hard Nut,” and has performed with Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians, Eliot Feld Ballet New York and the Washington Ballet, where she received her training. Ms. Shields has taught extensively at major universities throughout the world, most recently in China, Korea, and Poland. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from SUNY Empire State and is a Professor and the Director of the Dance Department at George Mason University.

Adriane Fang is a dancer, teacher and choreographer with a keen interest in multi-disciplinary collaboration. She was a member of Doug Varone and Dancers from 1996-2006 and has worked with several other choreographers including Colleen Thomas, Bill Young, Wally Cardona and Alvin Mayes. She was awarded a 2014 Local Dance Commissioning Project Award from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to present her full-length work, “Grains,” and a 2014 Creative and Performing Arts Award (CAPAA) to perform dances by Wally Cardona and Nancy Bannon in a shared program with Gesel Mason, presented by Dance Place, DC. Recent teaching highlights include being on faculty at the Doug Varone and Dancers Summer Intensive 2015; workshops at the Damansara Performing Arts Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and master classes at the Dance Educators Training Institute (DETI), James Madison University, Shenandoah University and SUNY Purchase. Currently on faculty at the University of Maryland, Adriane is the recipient of a 2007 New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for her performance with Doug Varone and Dancers.

Nora Reynolds Daniel, Pilates Specialist, is originally from Los Angeles where she grew up dancing under the guidance of her mother and mentor, Bella Lewitzky. Nora danced professionally for eleven years, first with the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company, then with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Mark Morris Dance Group in New York. Nora lived for 19 years in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she raised two sons, taught dance technique, improvisation, and body conditioning at the University of New Mexico, and was Artistic Director of Nora Reynolds Dance. While living in New Mexico, Nora developed a private practice in Pilates, training primarily with Michele Larsson and Celia Hulton, who were both closely connected with Eve Gentry in Santa Fe. In 1998, she became a teacher of GYROKINESIS®exercise. Nora is also certified in Somatic Experiencing®, a therapeutic modality developed by Peter Levine that assists clients in recovery from trauma. Nora has traveled throughout the US, Canada, & Europe, as a guest teacher and choreographer. She moved back to California in 2002 where she has taught at Idyllwild Arts, and California Institute of the Arts.