Beckah Reed
Professor
Dance Chair
voigtbe@webster.edu
Beckah Reed is a Professor and Dance Chair of the Dance Program at Webster University (1986-Present), teaching all levels of modern technique, composition, improvisation and dance history. Beckah is on the Board of Directors for the American College Dance Festival. She is Artistic Director of ANNONYArts, an organization dedicated to supporting a consortium of independent movement and performing artists presenting original works and providing arts education. Her choreography is best described as theatre dance, as she draws on the use of props, voice and the motivation of human interactions to create her pieces. Beckah has toured extensively with an all women’s contemporary dance theatre company, sharing her work with people in Russia, Taiwan, Costa Rica, China, Turkey, Greece, Hungary….
James Robey
Assistant Professor of Dance
BFA in Dance, University of Akron
MFA in Contemporary Choreography and Performance, Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
New At Webster - Fall 2012
James Robey is Artistic Director of James Robey Dance, a member of the National Dance Education Organization, a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and is author and creator of the Robey Jazz Dance Technique and Syllabus™. He has been a faculty member in the dance programs at The Hartt School/University of Hartford, the University of Akron, Long Island High School for Performing Arts, Naugatuck Valley Community College, Manhattan Motion Dance Studios, Broadway Dance Center and served as Director of Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance for over 10 years.
Along with creating over 30 new works for James Robey Dance since 1998, he has choreographed for the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra's productions of "Histoire du Soldat" and Benjamin Britton’s “Dances from Gloriana”, the 5x5 Dance Festival at St. Joseph's College, CT Meets NY Dance Fest at Dance New Amsterdam in NYC, Ridgefield 300: A Concert Celebration, Locust Contemporary Dance Works, Zig Zag Ballet's “A Celebration of Men in Dance” in Vermont, Connecticut, and New York, and choreographed original works for Full Force Dance Theatre, Ohio Dance Theatre, Wellesley College, Naugatuck Valley Community College, and Artists for Peace. James is a two-time finalist in the Leo's Choreography Competitive Event at the Jazz Dance World Congress in Buffalo and Chicago.
His professional performing career included the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, Connecticut Ballet, New York Dance Theater, Ground Works Dance Theater, Off Center Dance Theater, Ohio Dance Theater, Covenant Ballet Theater of Brooklyn, Cleveland Opera, Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Busch Gardens. James has served on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Dance Alliance; on Connecticut Ballet's Danbury Dance Initiative Task Force; on the creative team behind the Young Choreographer’s Festival in Stamford, CT; and presented papers and workshops at the National Dance Education Organization’s National Conferences, at the Hawaii University International Conferences on Art and Humanities, and at Advancing Creative Thinking: Imagination to Innovation. In addition, James has taught master classes throughout the U.S., Guam, Canada, and Japan.
Alan Schilling
Music Director
B.M. Percussion/Piano Performance;
St. Louis Conservatory of Music
Alan Schilling began his musical career at the age of four as a tap dancer. At age eleven, while performing with the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra, he appeared on the “What’s My Line?” syndicated national TV show as the “youngest timpanist in America”. He toured Europe with the American Youth Band and Chorus and was a charter member of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra under conductor Leonard Slatkin. Schilling served as the program administrator of the Music, Dance and Missouri Touring programs of the Missouri Arts Council. He is a graduate of the St. Louis Conservatory of Music where he studied with St. Louis Symphony percussionists John Kasica, Thomas Stubbs, Rich O’Donnell and timpanist Richard Holmes. Returning to the dance world as the Director of Music in the Performing Arts Area - Dance Program at Washington University in St. Louis, Schilling composed and premiered electronic and acoustic works for modern dance and performed his real-time electronic composition, “B-4-U-GO” live at the Riverside Dance Festival in NYC. He recently returned to NYC to perform with the SLSO at Carnegie Hall.
As the Music Director of Webster’s Dance programs, Alan accompanies tap, ballet and modern dance classes, guest artist master classes, and in collaboration with the dance faculty, composes music for and accompanies the Webster University Dance Ensemble performances.
As a free-lance percussionist, he performs and records with various St. Louis area groups including: the Fox Theatre Orchestra, the Muny Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, The New Opera, the Poor People of Paris, and his own percussion duo, Bare Bars. Schilling can be heard on various recordings by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra including the SLSO’s Percussion ensemble Nonsuch recording of “Ogoun Badagris” based on Haitian rhythms.
Jan (Feager) Cosby
Adjunct • Tap
Jan Feager Cosby has taught tap at Webster University since 1990. Formerly on faculty at Washington University in St. Louis and the Ballet Conservatory of St. Louis, she also teaches at DaySpring School of the Arts.
In 1988 she founded and was artistic director for Tapsichore, a contemporary rhythm tap company that toured regionally and collaborated with dancers Acia Gray, Suzanne Grace, musicians Kim Portnoy, Ken Palmer, Paul deMarinis and composer Bob Chamberlin among others. She was one of eleven tap artists chosen from an international pool to work with the late tap master Charles “Honi” Coles at the Colorado Dance Festival’s first Tap Creative Residency. Since then she has performed and taught tap improvisation and technique for the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, the St. Louis Tap Festival, St. Louis Dance Festival, the Missouri Arts Council’s Missouri Touring Program and the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis. Jan served as a Regional Representative for the International Tap Association for several seasons and sat on the Steering Committee for that organization during its early years.
Prior to founding Tapsichore, Jan toured nationally as performer and teacher with the award-winning Metro Theater Company. Her work with MTC included performances at the Kennedy Center, the Detroit Institute of the Arts and at Powell Hall with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Also an early musician and recorderist, Jan was a guest member of the Ganzfeld Quartet and a long-time member of the St. Louis Early Music Band. She currently teaches recorder at Lighthouse Co-op where she has also taught Music Appreciation and Creative Movement.
Her poem Nobody Knew You was published in 2009 by Paraclete Press.
Maggi Dueker
Adjunct • Jazz • Ballet
Maggi Dueker is a St. Louis native and Summa cum Laude graduate of Webster University. While in school, she performed with Webster Dance Theatre, Webster University Dance Ensemble and as a member of the Equity Ensemble at the Muny. Upon graduation, she moved to Chicago where she trained on scholarship with River North Dance Chicago, Giordano Dance Center and Melissa Thodos and Dancers. She performed regionally and internationally with Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago II. In addition, she performed as a freelance artist with Melissa Thodos and Dancers and Chicago Arts Project, among others. She taught dance at Northwestern University, Giordano Dance Center and at various studios throughout Chicago. She also worked for Royal Caribbean International and served as the Dance Captain to her cast.
Since returning to St. Louis in 2005, Maggi has served as an adjunct faculty member at Webster. She has choreographed for the Webster University Dance Ensemble and her choreography has twice been selected to appear in the Gala Concert for American College Dance Festival regional conferences. She also teaches at Renee Johnson’s Dance Studio where she is the Assistant Director of the competitive team.
Lorianne Hagan
Adjunct • Jazz
B.F.A. Dance, Webster University, 2001
Lorianne Hagan has studied all forms of dance, acrobatics and acrobatic gymnastics for over 25 years. As a dance major at Webster University, she performed with Webster Dance Theatre and Webster University Dance Ensemble. Lorianne attended American Dance Festival where she was selected to perform company repertoire of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Paul Taylor Dance Company. She performed with Taylor 2 in their production of "Esplanade".
After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance with Departmental Honors, Ms. Hagan ventured into the professional arena by moving to New York. While living in New York City, she continued training at Broadway Dance Center, Dance Space and Steps on Broadway. Lorianne was honored to work as a performer, director and choreographer with past members of Cirque du Soleil in the extravaganza "Circo Magnifico". Lorianne is a former member of MOVE, a St. Louis based dance company. Ms. Hagan is an accomplished choreographer winning many overall awards at local and national dance competitions. Lorianne's students have gone on to successfully work at the Muny, Stages, the National Tour of "Annie", the Broadway production of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and various local and national productions.
Recently, Lorianne has been honored and selected of only eleven instructors in the country to be highlighted in the February 2010 issue of Dance Teacher Magazine. The article entitled "Doing it All" respected Lorianne's work in the field and featured her success as "being a teacher who does it all."
Currently, Ms. Hagan continues to shares her passion for dance by her teaching and choreographing for artists throughout the St. Louis area. She is a professional member of United States Acrobatic Gymnastics. Lorianne spends her summers choreographing and teaching for US Performing Arts Camps, a pre-professional camp striving to promote and develop the growth of performing artists in America. When not dancing, Lorianne enjoys spending time with her husband Ben and son Gavin.
Ellen Isom
Adjunct • Ballet • Jazz
B.A. Dance, Webster University, 1987
Ellen Isom has had a versatile career in dance since graduating with her B.A. from Webster University. She has danced in modern companies in Chicago and St. Louis. She has performed around the world aboard Royal Viking and Royal Cruise Lines. Ellen is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and has performed in musical theatre venues regionally in the United States including the Goodman in Chicago and Stages St. Louis. Ellen has choreographed a variety of musicals, plays and/or dance pieces in the St. Louis area for professional venues including Stages St. Louis, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, New Jewish Theatre , Echo Theatre, and The Temporary Theatre Company. She has also choreographed musicals for both Webster University and St. Louis University. She is on faculty at several St. Louis area schools including Visitation Academy, the Stages’ Performing Arts Academy and On Your Toes Dance Studio.
Ellen is privileged to teach students of all ages and abilities. At Webster, she presently teaches beginning ballet and intermediate ballet and jazz which she finds particularly rewarding. Building a strong foundation in ballet and jazz is important to the success of a dancer and developing the keen mind-body connection of a dancer is beneficial to all students.
Dawn Karlovsky
Adjunct • Modern
Dawn Karlovsky is a prolific choreographer whose thought provoking, athletic, and emotionally candid dances have been commissioned and presented by universities, modern dance companies and theatre companies both regionally and nationally. She is a consortium artist with ANNONYArts and artistic director of her pick-up company, Dawn Karlovsky & Dancers, whose productions include collaborations with musicians, visual artists, and other choreographers. Dawn’s recent work focuses on developing dance for the camera. Her video, Closer, created in collaboration with choreographer, Megan Nicely, was presented at the American College Dance Festival – ScreenDance Festival in March 2011. Dawn’s choreography has been commissioned and presented by Webster University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), University of Minnesota-Duluth, University of Utah, American College Dance Festival Faculty Concert (ACDFA), Dance St. Louis, Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), Christopher Watson Dance Co. (Minneapolis), Ressl Dance!, and others. Ms. Karlovsky’s choreography has been twice featured in Dance St. Louis’ Spring to Dance Festival held at the Blanche Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis. Her solo piece, Finding Space, was presented in 2010, and a trio work, In…Into…One, was recently performed in May 2011.
Dawn Karlovsky came to St. Louis after dancing and touring with companies in San Francisco, Louisville, and Chicago. She holds an MFA from the University of Utah and a BA degree with honors from Northern Illinois University and teaches modern dance and somatic studies at Washington University in St. Louis and Webster University and is also dance faculty at COCA. Dawn is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.
Nina Reed
Adjunct • Costume Construction and Design
Nina Reed teaches the costume design and construction classes for dance students as well as costumer for Webster University Dance Ensemble. She works professionally with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the Reportory Theatre of St. Louis, both based at Webster's Loretto Hilton Center.
Mary Ann Rund
Adjunct • Modern
M.F.A., Dance, Florida State University, 1993
B.S., Dance, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, 1986
B.S., Biology, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, 1986
After finishing her MFA program in 1988, Mary Ann continued her studies in NYC, concentrating on the Jose Limon technique and research at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. It was in NYC that she discovered the power of yoga and somatics. Today, both are incorporated into her teachings.
While in NYC, Mary Ann danced in several productions at Dance Space, The Field, the Cunningham Studio, and City Hall in addition to producing a full evening of her work at the Ruth Currier Studio.
Returning to STL, Mary Ann joined Suzanne Grace’s Burning Feet Dance (1992-1997), followed by Gash/Voigt Dance Theatre (1998-2003). She taught dance and creative movement at Mary Institute & Country Day School for fourteen years, directing the Dance Club, producing the annual May Fete event, and choreographing musicals.
Additional teaching includes Washington University Performing Arts Department since 1994, American College Dance Festival 2005, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Center of Creative Arts (COCA), Ballet Conservatory, Alexandra Ballet, St. Louis Ballet, Missouri Fine Arts Academy, TUNZA Environmental Conference 2004, Holy Trinity School, and the Wellness Center. Along with Dawn Karlovsky, Mary Ann has taught an ongoing adult Community Modern Dance class since 1996.
Mary Ann has produced/directed several concerts with colleagues in St. Louis including Moving Voices (2007) and Harvesting Grace (1999), both benefits for cancer programs, and Dance Detour (1996). Her choreography has been included in various venues such as Dance St. Louis’s Contemporary Moves, Dancing in the Streets, Washington University’s Dance Closeup, Dine on Dance, 60 x 60, Joan Lipkin’s Women’s Bodies, Women’s Lives and Peace Out, Venus Envy, COCA’s Faculty Concerts, SIUE’s Dance In Concert, Young Audiences, Missouri Fine Arts Academy, Webster University’s Dance Ensemble, Washington University’s Dance Theatre, Florida Dance Festival, The Field in NYC, and the 2005 International Children’s Environmental Conference.
Mary Ann believes in the authentic expression and honest experience of the deeper self through movement.
Dr. Bill Russell, M.A., M.F.A., D.C., DABCSP
Dance Medicine
tuskdog@sbcglobal.net
B.F.A. Printmaking, M.A. Fiber arts Pittsburg University; M.F.A. Multimedia, Washington University; D.C. Logan University. Diplomat Sport Medicine
Dr. Bill Russell MA MFA DC DABCSP, has specialized in the treatment of Dancers, Musicians and Actors for over 20 years. He currently maintains an on-site clinic for Webster students, treating acute and chronic injuries using a variety of physical medicine techniques and Pilates based exercise programs. In addition to his Webster duties he maintains an active performing arts practice and serves as the House Doctor for Dance St. Louis. Dr Russell graduated from, Pittsburg University with a BFA and MA and Washington University with a MFA in Multimedia. He has danced with Sara Shelton Mann and Off Track Dancers and studies African Dance via Katherine Dunham Technique and Black Dance USA. He is an active member of The International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and the Performing Arts Medicine Association, and has published numerous articles and lectured nationally and internationally on Dance Medicine. Currently he serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science. In addition to his Performing Arts Medicine Practice he is an Internationally known artist, exhibiting works in Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom. In St Louis his work can be seen at ARTICA and The Contemporary Museum and as sets for ANNONYArts.
Michael Uthoff
Adjunct • Ballet
Artistic Director,
Dance St. Louis
Michael Uthoff, internationally renowned artistic director, choreographer, teacher and dancer, assumed the newly titled post of artistic and executive director of Dance St. Louis on July 1, 2006. Uthoff was born in Santiago, Chile, to former dancers, Ernst Uthoff and Lola Botka, both of the Jooss Ballet and founders of the Chilean National Ballet. He started dancing after high school and a year later arrived in New York to attend the Juilliard School of Music, School of American Ballet, and Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. He danced with the José Limón Company and was a principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet.
In 1972, Uthoff established the Hartford Ballet in Hartford, Connecticut. For the next 20 years, as artistic director, he developed the company into a national institution that toured throughout 49 states. He commissioned works by both new and established choreographers, and created more than 100 ballets for the company himself. In 1992, Uthoff accepted the position of artistic director of Ballet Arizona, a post he held until 1999. From the time that Uthoff created his first dance for the Joffrey Ballet in 1967, his ballets have entered the repertory of companies all over the world. His large-scale works include The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Hansel and Gretel, Alice in Wonderland, Awakening, Dias de Muertos, and Romeo and Juliet. He has directed opera and choreographed for opera companies internationally, and has served on the Board of Dance/USA and panels of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Uthoff's recent career as guest teacher, choreographer, and artistic advisor includes entities such as the government of Chile, the Shanghai Ballet of China, the California Ballet of San Diego, Portland Opera Performing Institute, Andanza Dance Company of Puerto Rico, the Ballet Estable of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he held the post of artistic director, and his own Michael Uthoff Dance Theatre, which premiered in 2003. His teaching continues at the university level in the dance departments at University of Missouri-St. Louis and Webster University.
Uthoff recently completed a recreation for MADCO in St. Louis and has been commissioned to create a new work by Dancing Wheels in Cleveland. He is also choreographing for New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, for the final performance under retiring Dean Daniel Lewis in Spring 2011. Among other recent dance works are Galleria, premiered in February 2007 by Boston Conservatory, and Honorable Sky, which he created in August 2007 for 30 X 30, the 30th anniversary celebration of BalletMet Columbus.
Uthoff is the proud father of Michelle Uthoff-Campbell and grandfather of Owen and Ivy.
Gary Hubler
Professor Emeritus
Gary Hubler joined the Webster faculty in 1973 and served as the artistic director for Webster Dance Theatre. He has performed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and at The Muny in St. Louis. He has trained with many well-known teachers including Leon Danielian, Edna McRae, Matt Mattox, and Luigi. He continues to work as a guest artist, teacher, and choreographer throughout the Midwest. After 33 years of teaching, Gary Hubler retired from Webster University in May of 2006.
In honor of Gary Hubler’s retirement after 33 years at Webster University, the 2006 Spring Concert featured many alumni who returned from across the country to take part in a celebration of Gary’s career. Alumni danced side-by-side with current members of Webster University Dance Ensemble in reprised pieces of Hubler's from as far back as 1987.The title of the concert, From Swan Lake To Swan Song, referenced the fact that Hubler’s first professional performance was in Swan Lake on the stage of Kiel Opera House.
Faculty & Staff Bios
