Elaine Avila

Associate Professor of Theatre

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505 277-0603
E-mail:

Elaine Avila’s plays have been performed across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Some of her favorite projects include Lieutenant Nun (based on the true story of a woman conquistador), Burn Gloom (a music-theatre collaboration involving writers from 14 cities, including Malawi, Santiago, Tasmania, Bali, New York City, Montreal, and Belle Ile, France) and Good Fooling (the story of Shakespeare’s Clown). She is the recipient of numerous awards including The Victoria Critic’s Circle for Best New Play, a Canada Council Millennium Grant, “New Works for Young Women” Award/Residency from Tulsa University, the A.S.K. Theatre Projects Scholarship, and the Alden B. Dow Fellowship. Her screenplays include “Fortune,” “Kai takes a Solo” “Lead Dress” (with Juliet Belmas). She is currently at work on her novel, Saudades, about her Portuguese grandfather immigrating to North America from the Azores. She has an MFA in playwriting from California Institute of the Arts, where she worked closely with Suzan-Lori Parks and Erik Ehn. She has taught in universities from British Columbia to Tasmania.
One of her passions is working with people who do not traditionally have access to theatre because of life threatening illness, violence, poverty, language barriers or disability. Highlights in artistic leadership include serving as Artistic Director of a company specializing in international theatre and the classics, and spearheading LEAP, a multicultural initiative fostering young playwrights. While working professionally as an actor/director, in the U.S., Canada and Australia, she became one of the few people in the world trained in Pochinko clown through mask technique, a combination of Native North American and European clowning, as well as Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and commedia dell’ arte.
Her play, Quality, (a dark comedy set in the world of women’s footwear) is about to premiere in Edmonton, Alberta in a highly innovative, site-specific production set in a shoe shop, directed by one of Canada’s top Directors, Kathleen Weiss (an UNM alum) and London, England in the Fall of 2007

Dorothy Baca

Associate Professor of Design

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505 277-4109
E-mail:

Dorothy Baca, associate professor and costume designer for the Department of Theatre & Dance, is an alumna of UNM who returned to New Mexico after twenty-five years of professional work in film and television. She received her MFA from the University of California at Los Angeles. Some of her television credits include Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Major Dad, Charles in Charge, and Murder, She Wrote. Her stage work includes Bette Midler’s signature character, Delores DeLago, the mermaid who rides on a wheel chair, designed for the Divine Madness World Tour. Since her return to New Mexico, Baca has been fortunate enough to work on such feature films as Batman and Robin, The Longest Yard, and What Women Want. Baca was the costume supervisor on Suspect Zero, starring Ben Kingsley and Bordertown, both filmed in New Mexico.

Dorothy served as Head of the Design for Performance program for four years. Dorothy Baca is the current Director of the Arts of The Americas Institute, in the College of Fine Arts.  In 2006, the AAI collaborated with SOLAS, and several community organizations to produce the Sin Fronteras Film Festival last spring.  This year, the festival will be called ¡CiNéMás! Albuquerque Latino Film Festival.  It is New Mexico's premiere Latino film festival.  The mission of the festival is to promote New Mexican film makers as well as presenting the voice and the vision of the Americas.

Kathleen Clawson

Lecturer II, Musical Theatre

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-9125
E-mail:

Kathleen Clawson teaches Musical Theatre at UNM and is the Department publicity director. She studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music, The University of Southern California, and has a master’s degree in Music from UNM. Her directing credits for UNM include Urinetown the Musical, The Pirates of Penzance, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Secret Garden, Honk! and Hair. Also at UNM, she was musical director for a workshop production of Jonathan Larson's J.P. Morgan Saves the Nation and the collaboration with the NMSO on West Side Story. She has directed for The Albuquerque Little Theatre and recently completed her sixth year as director for the Santa Fe Opera, directing their Spring Tour and Summer Apprentice Showcases. She is active nationally as a classical singer, performing opera, concert works, musical theatre, and operetta, and has a private voice studio in Albuquerque.

Vladimir Conde Reche

Assistant Professor of Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-1856
E-mail:

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Vladimir Conde Reche began dancing at age of 17, and by the age of 19, was dancing with Ballet Stagiun. One year after joining that company, he moved to New York with a full scholarship from the Juilliard School, from which he received his BFA in 1995. Vladimir worked as Hector Zaraspe’s assistant in South America and Spain, teaching ballet, modern dance and performing at Mr. Zaraspe’s dance seminars. After leaving Juilliard he joined the Cisne Negro Dance Company in Brazil, where he taught company classes, workshops, and choreographed.

Throughout his career, Vladimir performed in Brazil, all over South America, England, Germany, Italy, Panama, South Africa, New York and other cities in the USA. Vladimir has danced works from Marius Petipa to Jiri Kylian, from Borunonville to David Dorfman, and has worked with choreographers from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, New Zeland, United States, France, Germany and Portugal. He has choreographed for the Cisne Negro Dance Company, and its affiliated school, Cia. 10, for regional dance companies in Brazil, and at the University of Iowa; he has also collaborated with American and Brazilian composers. After 11 years with Cisne Negro, Vladimir attended the University of Iowa with a Teaching Assistantship, a Scholarship and a Fellowship, teaching ballet, modern dance, pas-de-deux, and point technique classes. While in Iowa, Vladimir also performed and taught as a guest with the Quad cities ballet. He received his MFA from the University of Iowa in 2008.

Eva Encinias-Sandoval

Professor of Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-1855
E-mail:

Eva Encinias Sandoval belongs to one of the flamenco families among those that emigrated to the United States after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) which was most steeped in flamenco tradition. She learned to dance within her own family and in her mother's (the bailaora Clarita - Clara García de Aranda) dance academy, which is still one of the academies with the best reputation in the United States.

Eva Encinias also continued her mother's didactic work. She was a teacher in her academy, and furthermore, in 1992 she established the Instituto Nacional de Flamenco (National Flamenco Institute, based in Alburquerque, New Mexico), which has its own Conservatory of Flamenco Art. This institute is also one of the great centres for the divulging of flamenco throughout the American continent. In the same way, Eva Encinias has been responsible for introducing flamenco into the University of New Mexico.

Although at present she is mainly devoted to her teaching work, between the years 1970 and 1989 she toured all over the United States with her own company, Ritmo Flamenco.

Marisol Encinias

Lecturer II, Flamenco Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Marisol began studying flamenco at age 5 with her grandmother Clarita Garcia de Aranda.  As a fourth generation flamenco dancer, Marisol is one on the few American flamenco dancers raised in a flamenco family.  Her artistic interpretation, stunning in its depth and purity, arises from Marisol's immersion in the art form throughout her childhood.  Marisol has been featured in the internationally renowned Festival Flamenco Internacional and is Assistant Director for this annual event.  She has been an instructor for the National Institute of Flamenco since 1990 and became a member of the University of New Mexico dance faculty in 2000. Marisol performs as a soloist with the American Flamenco Repertory Company, "Yjastros," directed by Joaquin Encinias.

Paul Ford

Lecturer II, Acting

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-7148
E-mail:

Paul Ford worked for a number of years in northern California as an actor, director and theatre educator after graduating from U.C Davis with a degree in Dramatic Arts.  After founding drama education programs in Sacramento theatres, art centers and schools, Paul moved to the southwest to create an educational division for New Mexico Repertory Theatre. 

In 1989, he founded Theatre-in-the-Making where he still serves as Artistic Director, and began teaching acting courses at UNM.  Paul was the theatrical director for the television show “Fences: Assumptions of Culture”, which received the Grand Award for Children’s Programming at the New York Festivals.  In 1998, he was given the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award for Excellence in Arts Education. 

Paul continues to direct and act in the Albuquerque theatre community.

Brian Eugenio Herrera

Assistant Professor, Theatre

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-0942
Office: CFA B437
Email:

A native New Mexican, Brian Eugenio Herrera holds degrees from Brown University, the University of New Mexico and Yale University, where he did his PhD work in American Studies (Dissertation: Latin Explosion: Latinos, Racial Formation and Twentieth Century U.S. Popular Performance). A recipient of fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Smithsonian Institute, and the John Randolph & Dora Haynes Foundation, Brian is also an alumnus of The Drama League's Directors Project (Fall Directing Program). Brian's scholarly research examines the historical formation of cultural identities in U.S. popular entertainment and performance. In the fall of 2007, Brian joined the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of New Mexico, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Theatre History and Performance Theory.

Richard Hess

Lecturer II, Technical Director

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-2417
E-mail:

Richard K. Hess, Technical Director / Lecturer II, M.A. '86 Kent State University. Richard joined the UNM Theatre & Dance Department in the fall of 1996. Besides his duties as Technical Director and Lecturer, he has been scenic designer on many department productions. Some of his designs include Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, Our Lady of the Tortilla, Everyman, Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, and Marriage of Figaro. He has also designed for many community groups including Theatre-In-The -Making, Working Classroom, Tricklock Theatre Company, Vortex Theatre, Musical Theatre Southwest, Albuquerque Little Theatre, Ballet Theatre New Mexico and the UNM Opera Theatre.

Donna Jewell

Assistant Professor of Dance
Head of Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-6711
E-mail:

MFA in Dance 1993
Tisch School for the Arts
New York University

Donna Jewell is the Head of Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of New Mexico and is the Artistic Director of Jewell & Company Dance Theater. Ms. Jewell has been choreographing, performing and teaching in Europe and the United States for the last 20 years. She was a full-time faculty member of the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Salzburg, Austria while giving company classes and workshops in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, and Slovenia. Her choreography has been purchased and commissioned by various schools, including Brown University in Rhode Island and the Turku Conservatory in Finland.

As the dance teacher in the Theater Department of the College for the Fine Arts Mozarteum in Salzburg, she began investigating interdisciplinary teaching, choreographing and performing while working with actors, expanding as a performer into the theater discipline and becoming a member of ONNO Theater of Vienna, where she continues to perform as a guest actor. Ms. Jewell is a contributing free lance dance critic for "Attitude Magazine" based in Brooklyn, NY.
Currently creating site specific work and dance/theater pieces for video for her own company, she continues to work as guest choreographer and rehearsal director for Lawine Torren (www.torren.at) in Austria, a company devoted to theatrical works for large machinery (helicopters, snowmobiles, airplanes, trucks, tanks, and cranes) and humans (actors, dancers, BASE jumpers, and skiers). Ms. Jewell is co founder of ECOTONE, a dance theater company using improvisation as a model for performance. (www.ecotonephysicaltheatre.com)

Gordon Kennedy

Associate Professor of Design

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-5865
E-mail:

Gordon Kennedy works as a Designer/Art Director in Theatre, Television, Film, Dance, Opera, and Interactive Arts. Professional credentials include membership in United Scenic Artists 829, New York City, NY. (Scenic and Lighting Design), Art Directors' Guild 800, Hollywood, CA., Motion Picture Set Painters' Guild 729, Hollywood, CA., and IATSE Stagehands. He possesses a MFA in Design for Theatre /TV/Film from UCLA and a MA in Design for Theatre from Colorado State University.

At UNM, Gordon teaches in the Design for Performance program, including classes in Art Direction for TV/Film, Scenic Design for Theatre, CAD, 3D Modeling and Animation, Digital Imagery, Multimedia/Video Production, and Interactive Arts Technology. Current artistic interests focus on melding high technology and performance arts, and in particular interactive relationships between audiences, performers, and environments.

James Linnell

Professor of Dramatic Writing

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-2416
E-mail: jlinnell@unm.edu

Jim Linnell is a writer, teacher, and director. He received his graduate training at Ohio State(MA) and UC Berkeley (Ph.D. Directing). He has taught for over twenty-five years. He teaches in the Dramatic Writing Program in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of New Mexico. He is Artistic Director of the Words Afire Festival, a three-week festival of new plays from the writing program, performed in theatres on campus and off. He has written plays and scripts for dance theatre work, puppet theatre work. His work has been performed here and abroad in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. He served as Chairman of the Theatre & Dance Department helping to establish the MFA degree in Dramatic Writing. He is currently Senior Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts. His latest play Plunda, a bi-location play, was produced at UNM in two theatres simultaneously linked by video. He is completing a book with his colleague Digby Wolfe on Dramatic writing titled, Walking on Fire: The Shaping Force of Emotion in Writing Drama for Southern Illinois University Press.

William Liotta

Associate Professor of Design
Department Chair

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3517
E-mail:

William Liotta has served over the years in a variety of capacities, including lighting and sound designer, consultant and project designer and developer. He has designed more than 100 productions both nationally and internationally. He has been on the faculty at: California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, Tulane University in New Orleans, the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and is presently teaching lighting and sound design at the University of New Mexico. He has done consulting and design work for Universal Studios Hollywood, Warner Brothers Pictures, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Danny Kaye Playhouse and Fredrick Loewe theatre in New York City. He has worked with the Bella Lewitsky Dance Company, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Universal Ballet of Korea and The Acting Company. He has been a guest lecturer at the Central Academy of Drama and the National Academy of Chinese Dramatic Arts (formally the Beijing Opera Academy)
in Beijing China. His designs have been selected as part of the American contingent to the Prague Quadrennial, and he is the recipient of two Big Easy Awards for Best Lighting Design for New Orleans. He is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, and owns the patent on the “Gamchek” a lighting industry testing device marketed and sold by GAM Products, Hollywood.

Kristen Loree

Assistant Professor of Theatre

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505 277-7362
E-mail:

Kristen Loree is a native New Mexican who has been studying creativity, performance and vocology her entire life. She has performed locally and nationally on stage, in concert halls and in film. She directs plays for children and adults and spends her free time writing songs. Kristen is an Associate of Fitzmaurice Voicework has been teaching voice and performance techniques at UNM and privately for the past 14 years. She also works with the Santa Fe Opera in their Student Produced Opera Program. She is a founding member and Artistic Coordinator of Sol Arts a nonprofit community performance venue.

Mary Anne Santos Newhall

Assistant Professor of Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Mary Anne Santos Newhall has performed historic and contemporary dance works as a guest soloist for American Repertory Dance Theatre, Ausdruckstanz Dance Theater and other national companies. As a “dancing historian,” Mary Anne has presented performances and research on the history of American and German Modern dance and her writing was honored in 1999 with an award from the International Congress on Research in Dance. Most recently, she has been guest teacher/artist setting historic works for the American Dance Legacy Institute at Brown University, the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, the University of California at Irvine, the University of Washington and the New York State School for the Arts. She teaches dance technique, dance appreciation, dance history and dance criticism at the University of New Mexico and continues to perform as an independent soloist and choreographer. She is currently writing a biography of German dance pioneer Mary Wigman for Routledge.

Susan Pearson

Professor of Theatre

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-2416
E-mail:

Susan Pearson is a Professor of Theatre and current Chair of the Department. She oversees the Theatre Education and Outreach curriculum and teachers courses in children's theatre, creative drama, and theatre for education and social change as well as acting and voice.  She is a Past President of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, a national professional organization, and the winner of an Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award as Arts Educator of the Year for 1996 and the New Mexico Council of Teacher's of English Award for Excellence in 1998 for her work in developing the Wrinkle Writing Program, a playwriting in the schools program serving elementary and secondary students and teachers and using playwriting as a tool to build literacy.  As founder of Wrinkle Writing, she directed the program for its first nine years and now serves as its Education Director. She has directed numerous productions in Rodey Theatre and Theatre-X, most recently Stop Kiss and La Posada Mágica.

Jennifer Predock-Linnell

Professor of Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3606
E-mail:

Jennifer Predock-Linnell, dancer, choreographer and scholar, has been an important and dynamic force in dance in the Southwest for the past forty-one years.  Since 1967, she has choreographed over forty-five works which have been produced regionally, nationally and internationally. Her dance works have been performed in the United States, Australia, France, Israel, New Zealand and Portugal. She was a scholarship student at the Juilliard School of Music, in New York and a semi-soloist/soloist with the Metropolitan Ballet Co. under the directorship of Antony Tudor.  She directed her own contemporary dance company, Here and Now Dance Co.  Predock-Linnell began the dance program in the Department of Theatre and Dance at UNM in 1974 and headed the program for over 13 years. She holds a B.F.A. in Art Studio – printmaking and sculpture, and an MA and Ph.D. in Psychological Foundations of Education.  She teaches improvisation, choreography, creative process methods, dance pedagogy, dance and technology, dance and photography, dance appreciation and interdisciplinary studies in the arts.  She developed over 26 courses during her tenure here and created and help develop 12 degrees/courses since leaving the Head of Dance position.  She was awarded the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award, 2001-2002, the Faculty Achievement Award, 2005 and the Bravos Award for Excellence in Dance, 2006. Was a recipient of a $21,000.00 Rockefeller Foundation for Cultural Exchange – USA-Mexico for a collaborative dance/video project with Mexico titled ROSTROS/FACES.

Karen Price

Lecturer II, Hip Hop Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Karen Price is well known in the Albuquerque dance community. She is an instructor at the University of New Mexico, Public Academy of Performing Arts and Outside-In, in Santa Fe. She has taught workshops with programs such as New Mexico Youth Camp, National Dance Institute, New Mexico Sports & Wellness, Elite Dance School, Charissma Dance School, Celebrate Youth and Southwest Theatre and Dance Festival. She trained in ballet, tap, modern and jazz at several schools in Philadelphia such as Jean Williams Dance Academy, Ile' Ife' and Stephens School of Dance. She was most positively affected by her training at Stephens School of Dance. Stephens School was well known for its aggressive pelvic and rib cage isolations combined with contemporary jazz. Stephens School of Dance was the first dance school invited to perform for the Presidents' Inaugural Ball in 1984. Karen found it to be a unique experience performing with this group professionally throughout the East Coast. After studying dance at  the Centenary College Dance Program, she moved to New Mexico and started a dance group called Attitude Dance Group that performed throughout the state of New Mexico. She is known for her ability to communicate the style, feel and flavor of urban hip-hop to students of all skill levels.

Stacia Smith

Lecturer II, Costume Design

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-5864
E-mail:

Stacia has been Costume Shop Supervisor with UNM’s Department of Theatre & Dance since 2005 but has worked there since 1999, when she was a student. An artist of diverse interests and talents, Stacia is experienced in a variety of interdisciplinary fields. Among her accomplishments is her work with photographer Bill Adams, instruction in multi-media design for the New Mexico Jazz Workshop, curriculum development for the prestigious Museum of Outdoor Arts in Denver, and her work as head designer for Urinetown at UNM’s Rodey Theatre in 2006, adding to a long list of design credits for the stage at UNM and the Albuquerque area. Stacia’s work can be seen in publications such as Photographer’s Forum, UNM’s Mirage and The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes. Her work has been featured in exhibits across the country, most recently in 2006’s Roid Riot at the 10th & Coal Studio, and she received a scholarship award from the Intermountain Weavers Conference in Durango. Stacia resides in Albuquerque with her husband, artist Matt Alexander.

Christopher Sousa-Wynn

Assistant Professor of Theatre

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505 277-3517
E-mail:

Christopher Sousa-Wynn, assistant professor and scenic designer for the Department of Theatre and Dance, joins the faculty at UNM after a visiting assistant professorship at Central Washington University. Prior to that he was the Resident Scenic Designer for PCPA Theaterfest, a professional repertory theatre company, in Santa Maria, California.

He earned his Master of Fine Arts at University of California Irvine and his Bachelor of Arts from California State University Fresno. He has designed scenery for numerous theatrical productions and recently he has starting deigning corporate events and working on television productions. Currently he is interested in exploring ways that new technologies can be utilized in theatrical events to tell stories in new ways. Examples of his work can be seen at: www.sousa-wynn.net.

Melissa Briggs

Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Melissa Briggs has been making dances since 1995.  Recent highlights include a sold out site-specific production of Book Dances, which traveled through a 19th century Brooklyn church, as well as performances of work set on the Lacy & Shade Dance Company at the Performatica International Dance Festival in Puebla, Mexico and the Out of the Loop Festival in Addison, Texas.  A former NYC resident, past venues include Symphony Space, PS 122, Joyce SoHo, The Flea Theater, and Dixon Place. Additional performances include the 2002 Philadelphia Fringe Festival and independent schools and universities throughout New England.  Listed as one of "gotham's finest dancemakers" by Voice Choices (Fall 2000), Melissa has enjoyed artist residencies from The Joyce Theater Foundation (NYC), The Yard (Martha's Vineyard, MA), BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange (NYC),  Smith College (MA), Vermont Academy (VT), SILO/Kirkland Farm (PA), and The Dragon’s Egg (CT).  She has received two grants from the Bossak-Heilbron Charitable Foundation--for citySTORY (2003) and Book Dances (2005).  Originally from California, Melissa is a graduate of New York Uuniversity/Tisch School of the Arts ( MFA Dance) and Smith College (BA Sociology; Phi Beta Kappa). She is currently on dance faculty at the University of New Mexico, the National Dance Institute of New Mexico (School for the Performing Arts), The School of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and Little Earth School.

Vicente "El Cartucho" Griego

Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Vicente “El Cartucho” Griego from Embudo, New Mexico has devoted his life to the study of cante flamenco, the art of flamenco singing. In 1992, Vicente began touring the United States, Canada and Latin America with the Jose Greco II Flamenco Dance Company, where he was mentored by Caño Roto singer, Alfonso “Veneno” of Madrid, Spain. Mr. Griego has also studied with renowned flamenco artists Jose Valle “Chuscales” from Granada, Spain. Vicente currently performs weekly with Chuscales and continues to perform with flamenco groups across the United States. To quote a review of a recent performance for the World Music Festival of Chicago: “Vicente Griego “El Cartucho” is striking for his deep, sonorous wails that seem to come from a cavern, someplace deep within his soul...”
- Anna Poplawska, Chicago Artist's News

Sara Hutchinson

Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Sara Hutchinson was first introduced to Tap at the Children’s Theater Workshop in Connecticut at the age of seven. Transferring from Connecticut College, her first dance experience at UNM was with Elizabeth Waters in 1972. Her tapping took a backseat to modern dance before reemerging in 1982 when she began teaching and choreographing privately. With the arrival of Bill Evans in 1989, Hutchinson joined ranks ushering in a local revival of interest in the genre. She performed and toured with the Bill Evans Company for ten years and enjoyed the opportunity for cross-pollination in the tap community on a national level.

Suzanne Johnston

Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Suzanne Johnston is a Master Teacher/Choreographer/Advance Coach and the founder of The New Mexico Ballet Company. She toured with several ballet companies and performed on Broadway, working with Jerome Robbins and Agnes de Mille as a featured dancer. Suzanne has trained more than fifty dancers who have danced professionally throughout the world. She is on the faculty at the University of New Mexico, where she teaches advanced ballet, and the Dance Theatre of the Southwest in Albuquerque. In previous years, Suzanne had been listed in the "Who's Who" as "Outstanding Woman in the West" (Library of Congress Catalogue #49-48186).

Marta Lichlyter

Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Marta Lichlyter received her Ph.D. in Dance and Related Arts from Texas Woman's University where her primary research interest focused on the direct integration of somatic practice with modern dance technique. In the course of her many years as a freelance modern dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Ms. Lichlyter earned an M.A. in Choreography and an M.Ed. in Dance Education. She has taught modern and jazz dance at Colorado State University, Western Michigan University, the University of New Mexico, and Texas Christian University. Ms. Lichlyter has performed professionally with the Pulse Dance Experience, a modern/jazz dance company in Colorado and with Tim Wengerd and Company, a Graham based company in New Mexico. While in New Mexico she was a founding member of the aLANDdance Performance Company, a multi-disciplinary company which incorporated poetry, dance, music and film. She is currently a member of the faculty at UiS Institutt for Musikk og Dans in Stavanger, Norway. Her choreographic works have been presented throughout the United States, Norway, and the Netherlands. She is currently adjunct faculty at the University of New Mexico Department of Theatre and Dance.

Jolie Sutton-Simballa

Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Jolie Simballa is a native of Albuquerque and received her training at Alwin's School of Dance under Karen Alwin where she studied the Cecchetti method extensively. She has performed with the New Mexico Ballet Co., Ballet Theatre of New Mexico, UNM Ballet Ensemble, Ballet International, Performers Ballet and Jazz Co., Dance Theatre Southwest, Bill Evans and Lane Lucas, among others. She graduated cum laude with her B.F.A from UNM in 1997 and was the recipient of a scholarship named in her honor that same year. She graduated with distinction as UNM's first M.F.A in Choreography in 2004. She is the creator of A Celebration of Community Dance, a concert with studios from all over Albuquerque gathering to raise money for UNM Dance scholarships. She teaches ballet at Keshet Dance Co., Dance Theatre Southwest, Sandra's School of Dance and UNM and also serves as the Assistant Artistic Director at The New Mexico Ballet Company. She has choreographed over 40 ballets

Ginny Wilmerding

Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Mary Virginia ("Ginny") Wilmerding, PhD, danced professionally in New York City with: the Solomons Company/Dance under the artistic direction of Gus Solomons, Musawwir Gymnastic Dance Company, under the artistic direction of Toby Towson, and Richard Walker and Dancers, under the artistic direction of Richard Walker. She is now a performer with New Mexico Ballet under the artistic direction of Patricia Dickinson. Dr. Wilmerding has taught for the UNM Dance Program since 1983. She is also on the faculty of UNM’s Department of Physical Performance and Development. Courses taught in both programs include kinesiology, research design, exercise physiology, health-related concepts in physical education, pedagogy, and exercise prescription, as well as ballet, jazz, modern dance and conditioning. Ginny is the current President of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Performing Arts Medical Association and the National Dance Association. She has published original research in Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, Medical Problems of Performing Artists, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and Idea Today. Research interests include body composition, training methodologies, injury incidence and prevention, pedagogical considerations in technique class, and the physiological requirements of various dance idioms. Dr.Wilmerding is the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award 2006.

Gretchen Williams

Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-3660
E-mail:

Gretchen Williams received her BA in Anthropology from UNM in 2002, and her MA in dance history from UNM in 2005. Gretchen’s thesis, titled Buen Metál de Voz: the Calé and Flamenco Cante Jondo reexamines our understanding of the Calé’s role in the early development of flamenco using newly available data on Roma history and language. She currently teaches flamenco 169 and flamenco history for the dance department at UNM. Gretchen is a member of the Yjastros American Flamenco Repertory Company under the direction of Joaquin Encinias. Gretchen was one of two company member sent to perform in Mexico City during the fall of 2005 at one of Mexico’s oldest tablaos, Gitanerias. She has had the opportunity to study with some of Spain’s top artists here in Albuquerque, such as La Tati, Alejandro Granados, Juana Amaya, Andrés Marin, Mercedes and Karime Amaya, La Farruca, Isreal Galván, Adela Campallo, Yolanda Heredia, and Belén Fernández. She currently studies with Joaquin Encinias at the National Conservatory of Flamenco Arts in downtown Albuquerque, where she also teaches both children and adults.

Judith Chazin-Bennahum

Distinguished Professor Emerita of Dance

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-4332
E-mail:

She was Principal Soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company when Antony Tudor was Director of Ballet. Ms. Bennahum was invited by George Balanchine to join the New York City Ballet on their first trip to Russia and danced in numerous modern dance companies in New York. She received her Doctorate in Romance Languages at the University of New Mexico and is the author of many articles as well as five books, Dance in the Shadow of the Guillotine, (1988) a book on late eighteenth century French ballet, The Ballets of Antony Tudor which received the De la Torre Bueno Prize in 1995 for the best book on dance and The Lure of Perfection: Fashion and Ballet 1780-1830 which was published by Routledge in the fall 2004. She edited the book, The Living Dance: An Anthology of Essays on Movement and Culture that was published by Kendall/Hunt in September 2003. It just came out in its second edition. She compiled a series of essays on Teaching Dance Studies for Routledge that was p
ublish
ed in 2005. . Bennahum has choreographed for the Santa Fe Opera, The Opera Academy in Rome, the South West Ballet Company, The University of New Mexico Opera Studio and annually for the UNM Dance Ensemble. She received the Bravo Award for Life Time Excellence in Dance in 2002 from the Albuquerque Arts Alliance. She was appointed Distinguished Professor Emerita upon her retirement in 2006. In addition, A Friends of Dance scholarship will be awarded in her name every year.

Recently, though retired, she has taken on the co presidency of the UNM Friends of Dance. In addition she was appointed to the Advisory Board of Dance Chronicle, the foremost journal of dance history. She continues to be active with Albuquerque’s Global Dance organization and often participates in conferences for the Society of Dance History Scholars. She created a panel on Ivor Guest at the last June conference in Paris at the Centre National de la Danse. She hopes to finish her biography of René Blum in the next year, “The Charmed but Tragic Life of René Blum: Ballets Russes Impresario.”

John Malolepsy

Professor Emeritus of Design

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-6261
E-mail:

MFA University of Wisconsin 1972

John Malolepsy’s design credits include seven years as resident scenery and lighting designer  for New Mexico Repertory Theatre of Santa Fe, lighting designer for ODC San Francisco Dance, and ten years as LD for Festival Flamenco Internacional. Recent designs include: Time and Again Barelas and West Side story for NM Symphony Orchestra, Nuestro Pueblo (Our Town) at the Teatro Nacional de Caracas, Midsummer Night’s Dream at UNM, Much Ado About Nothing for American Stage, St. Petersburg, Mr. Malolepsy's designs have  been exhibited in the Prague Quadrennial Scenography Exhibition, World Stage Design in Toronto and in numerous Scenography Exhibits around the United States. Portfolio website

Denise Schulz

Professor Emerita of Theatre

UNM Address: MSC04 2570
Dept. of Theatre & Dance
Phone: 505-277-7326
E-mail:

Denise Schulz, Head of the Theatre Program, has been teaching Acting, Directing, and Script Analysis at UNM’s Department of Theatre and Dance for the past 27 years.  She has served as Chair of the department, Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts and was awarded the ASUNM Student’s Outstanding Teachers Award. Along with mentoring the student directors in the department, she also is the Undergraduate Advisor for all Theatre majors, and faculty advisor to the student X Committee.  Denise’s recent productions are:  Mercy Seat (Tricklock Theatre Company), The Madwoman of Chaillot, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dracula (Tricklock Theatre Company), The Laramie Project, and Metamorphoses.