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Alumni 
Anteaters in the Arts: Michelle Caumiant Zehnder

Michelle Caumiant Zehnder, B.A. Dance, ’76, continues to inspire students with clever choreography and carefully crafted lesson plans. Zehnder has taught ballet and jazz for the past nine years at the OASIS Senior Center of Newport Beach, for students ages 50 and up. Zehnder states that “it is a...
Faculty, Connect 
Faculty Research: Embodying Humanity

What if dance could make us all better people? S. Ama Wray, associate professor of dance, believes it can. “The world needs dance to connect with our bodies in terms of rhythm (since the constraints of time impact everything), and to connect with empathy to one another,” Wray says. “These things...
Student, Connect 
Student Research: Jehbreal Jackson

New Tools for School Students at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts explore the human experience through a variety of creative avenues by using skills as classically trained fine artists, but also through emerging technology and media. Students from all four departments have access to a range of...
Faculty, Connect 
The Dance Scientist

View the full pictorial in CONNECT, the quarterly magazine for UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts Dr. Kelli Sharp is not your typical dance professor. She spends her days collecting and analyzing motion-capture data to investigate movement patterns, responses to stimuli, and the acceleration of...
Faculty 
Vitor Luiz guest stars in Festival Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker" at the Irvine Barclay Theatre

Festival Ballet Theatre’s family-friendly breathtaking production features superb colorful scenery and dazzling costumes, which make this age-old tradition sparkle like new. Be swept away by Tchaikovsky’s iconic score as the Sugar Plum Fairy, our heroine Clara, and a cast of hundreds take you on a...
 
These Are The 5 Best Colleges For Dance Majors In California For 2019

Zippia.com, a career expert website, recently published their annual study on the best colleges offer the best career opportunities for Dance Majors in California. University of California-Irvine Department of Dance at CTSA is ranked #2.
Faculty 
Welcome new ballet faculty, Vitor Luiz!

The UCI Department of Dance announces the hiring of Vitor Luiz as a new ballet faculty. Vitor is an international dancer, choreographer and ballet master. Since 2009 he has been a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet. He has also performed with the Ballet of Rio de Janeiro, English National...
Alumni, Connect 
Alumni reunite at the American College Dance Association (ACDA) Baja Regional Conference

  Spring break on college and university campuses can be quiet. This was not the case in March 2019 for the Department of Dance, which hosted the American College Dance Association (ACDA) Baja Regional Conference. The ACDA’s goal is to promote and exalt the existing and potential artistry visible...
Student, Connect 
Professional Pathways

It’s summer in Rome and, inspired by the architecture of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, a UCI student ties on her pointe shoes and begins dancing in the cobblestone plaza. As if on cue, a street musician emerges from an alleyway playing Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance” on his harmonica....
Faculty 
Paul Taylor American Dance Company Pays Special Tribute to Donald McKayle

As a tribute to the passing of world-renowned choreographer and former UCI Dance Faculty Member, Donald McKayle, Paul Taylor American Dance Company (PTDC) will include three of McKayle’s most notable choreographic works in their fall season at the Lincoln Center: Crossing the Rubicon (2017),...
Faculty 
Summer Dance ‘Intensive’ Embodies Improvisation

S. Ama Wray, Ph.D., associate professor of dance, was featured in the El Paso Herald-Post for her work conducting an Embodiology workshop at The University of Texas at El Paso's Fox Fine Arts Center. "A half dozen or so pairs of bodies set in a circle moved in tandem though almost never in sync...
Faculty 
Choreographers Get Lab Time to Experiment Without Restrictions

Professor Molly Lynch, chair for the Department of Dance, is featured in "Voice of OC" for her upcoming National Choreographers Initiative 2019 showcase. By Kaitlin Wright "Molly Lynch, professor and chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Dance, has over 35 years experience creating, producing, and...
Faculty 
Dr. S. Ama Wray is Making New Global Strides

In May 2019, Associate Professor of Dance at UC Irvine, Dr. Ama Wray, was invited to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Good-Global Summit at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. This Summit aims to amalgamate the work of both scientific and artistic innovators in hopes of utilizing AI in...
 
UCI commencement ceremonies to take place June 14-17

UCI will host commencement services for its 54th graduating class over four days in the Bren Events Center. Between Friday, June 14, and Monday, June 17, 11 ceremonies will take place – with UCI awarding 10,323 undergraduate degrees to 9,403 Anteaters.
 
American College Dance Association Gala Concert at the Barclay

Terry Schilling reivews the ACDA at UCI which brought 500 students and faculty from dance departments at 33 schools came together to celebrate dance. During that time, they presented 66 dances. (Photo by Skye Schmidt)
 
Looking Back On Dance Visions 2019

UCI Dance Department’s annual faculty-run show, Dance Visions, featured incredibly choreographed works from renowned dancers during its four-performance run at the Irvine Barclay Theatre from Feb. 21 to Feb. 23.

Faculty 
Why Arts Administration Matters: An Interview with UCI's Molly Lynch

Dance Plug, Interview by Keira Whitaker - 20 February 2019 "As I pulled into the University of California, Irvine to park my car I couldn’t help but be transported back in time. I graduated from UCl in 2016, and poured all of myself into four years of dancing, reading, and writing. My degree was...
 
UCI’s Latest Experimental Production: Your Ocean, My Ocean

YOMO/Intermedia is part of a bi-coastal collaboration connecting faculty and students from Rhode Island School of Design RISD and UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. YOMO includes contributions from Professor Kyna Leski’s students in the Architecture