Alumni Notes
In 2024, Sean Hoskins (MFA ’11, dance) collaborated with Romanian artist Cristina Lilienfeld on an international project, and he performed with Jessica Post (MFA ’14, dance) in Portland, Oregon. His creative work with Hillsdale College dancers was part of the 2024 Detroit Dance City Festival in the Rivera Court, Detroit Institute of Arts.
Lizzie Leopold (BFA ’05, dance) has accepted a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Arts Administration & Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She will continue her research on dance infrastructures and the political economy of choreographic production while teaching in the master’s program. (1/2025)
As artistic director for Terpsichore Collective, Aimee McDonald (BFA ’96, dance) has launched a new dance festival, Dancing in Summer, the Festival! held in Ypsilanti in June 2024. McDonald also worked in collaboration with U-M alum Teri Sarristo to create a documentary on the history of dance in Ann Arbor, Local Movement.
In 2024, Daniel Gwirtzman (BFA ’92, dance) was an artist-in-residence at the Dora Maar Cultural Center in Provence, France, he taught dance at Ithaca College Summer Theatre Conservatory, and the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company was in residence at the American Dance Festival. Gwirtzman also presented research at the 2024 National Dance Education Organization conference.
The 2024 book Black Queer Dance: Gay Men and the Politics of Passing for Almost Straight, by Mark Broomfield (MFA ’96, dance), was published by Routledge. Broomfield also wrote an essay in Being Black in the Ivory: Truth-Telling about Racism in Higher Education. He is founder and director of the Performance as Social Change program at SUNY Geneseo.
In the spring of 2024, Cassie Barnhardt (BDA ’97, dance), who also earned her BA in psychology and PhD in higher education from U-M, was promoted to full professor at the University of Iowa, College of Education.
Wendy Ellen (Schacknow) Cochran (MFA ’78, dance) has moved out of Oakland after 30 years of teaching multicultural dance at many school sites. Retiring to the beautiful Napa Valley, she swims in water dance classes and does Qi Gong when time permits. She travels and visits family and friends in San Diego several times a year. (1/2025)
A new picture book by Connie Bergstein Dow (MFA ’76, dance), Tap and Rap, Move and Groove (Free Spirit Publishing) has won four awards: a Moonbeam Bronze Award, a Purple Dragonfly First Place in the Arts/Music category, and two Colorado Authors League Awards for illustration and book design. (1/2025)
Catherine Coury (BFA ’10, dance) is the co-founder and co-artistic director of award-winning international contemporary dance company Marcat Dance and Festival Vildanza, based in the south of Spain. As a dancer she has been recognized with prominent awards and nominations. Her career was honored with a 2024 SMTD Alumni Award.
Alexandra Beller (BFA ’94, dance) teaches dance and has been the artistic director of Alexandra Beller/Dances since 2002. She has created over 50 original dance theatre works, presented at theaters and universities throughout the U.S. and internationally. The 2024 SMTD Alumni Awards honored Beller with the Professional Achievement in Dance Award.
Briana Ashley Stuart (BFA ’13, dance; BS ’13, sociology) completed an international tour with the production of The Golden Stool or the Story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa, an AfrOpera produced in Belgium. She was also invited to give a talk at TEDxBrussels, and she has rebranded and expanded her arts organization, STU Arts Dance. (3/2024)
Anthony Alterio (MFA ’16, dance) joined the faculty of Ohio University in August 2023 as assistant professor of instruction in musical theatre and dance. Alterio also premiered his new choreographed work, Underneath, at Dixon Place in New York City in November. (3/2024)