<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Department of Dance is thrilled to announce that Rujeko Dumbutshena will be joining faculty as Assistant Professor of Dance beginning the 2020-2021 school year. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Assistant Professor of Dance is a tenure track position, and Dumbetshena will be the first full-time faculty member in the department history to be versed in dances of the African Diaspora, helping to advance the department’s continued <a href="/diversity-equity-inclusion-initiatives-uw-department-dance">efforts to increase diversity within the dance curriculum</a>.</span></p>
<h6>About Rujeko Dumbutshena: </h6>
<p class="Default"><span>Rujeko Dumbutshena is a Zimbabwean-born dancer, pedagogue, and performer who specializes in neo-traditional and contemporary African dance. She holds an MFA in dance from the University of New Mexico. She has been on faculty at the Central New Mexico Community College, the University of New Mexico, and Sarah Lawrence College. Rujeko was invited to be an artist in residence at Williams College, the University of Rochester, and Duke University. She conducts her scholarly research on the interplay of gender, and power, in ritual performances of communities in southern Africa. </span></p>
<p class="Default"><span>Rujeko was an original ensemble member in Bill T. Jones’ Off-Broadway and Broadway musical production of FELA! She was commissioned to produce a choreo-poem for the Smithsonian African Art Museum’s African Cosmos exhibit. She is a recipient of City of Albuquerque’</span><span lang="PT" xml:lang="PT">s Creative Bravos Award,</span><span>a New Mexico Arts and Brooklyn Arts Council grantee and a BAM/De Vos Institute fellow. Rujeko has directed and been a guest artist at African drum and dance conferences across the country for over 20 years.</span><span>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Department of Dance is thrilled to announce that Rujeko Dumbutshena will be joining faculty as Assistant Professor of Dance beginning the 2020-2021 school year. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">bst Residency recipients, Corrie Befort and Hannah Simmons, were scheduled to be in the UW Dance Department studios this March. Unfortunately, the residency had to be postponed until further notice due to COVID-19. </span></p>
<hr /><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>About the 2020 Spring bst Recipients:</b></span></h2>
<p><img src="/sites/dance/files/images/cbefortteachingsm.jpg" width="1518" height="956" alt="Corrie Befort teaching dance" title="Spring 2020 bst recipient, Corrie Befort " /></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">bst Residency recipients, Corrie Befort and Hannah Simmons, were scheduled to be in the UW Dance Department studios this March. Unfortunately, the residency had to be postponed until further notice due to COVID-19. </span></p>
<hr /><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>About the 2020 Spring bst Recipients:</b></span></h2>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The UW Department of Dance is excited to announce that Alana Isiguen  has accepted the Artist in Residence position, to start in September, 2020.</span></p>
<h6><span style="font-weight: 400;">About Alana Isiguen:  </span></h6>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Isiguen received her formative training as a student apprentice with the Charlotte Ballet, formerly the North Carolina Dance Theater, under the direction of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride. She continued studying privately with Rebecca Massey Wiley who mentored her in dance pedagogy, staging classical works, and rehearsal direction. Isiguen furthered her studies at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Chautauqua Ballet, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria, and with Summer Lee Rhatigan at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance.  </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Isiguen has presented her choreography at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in New York, and her performance credits include works by George Balanchine, Ohad Naharin, Mark Morris, and William Forsythe. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Isiguen has a MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine and a BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. She has served on faculty at the University of California, Irvine; the Dance Academy of North Jersey; Santa Ana College; and the School of the Sacramento Ballet. She most recently served as an Assistant Professor at Cornish College of the Arts.   </span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">  </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The UW Department of Dance is excited to announce that Alana Isiguen  has accepted the Artist in Residence position, to start in September, 2020.</span></p>
<h6><span style="font-weight: 400;">About Alana Isiguen:  </span></h6>

<p dir="ltr"><span>Congratulations to Louis Patsawee Maliyam for receiving the President's Medalist Award. The Awardees that included Louis and two others, Piper Coyner and Renee Zhang, were announced by the Undergraduate Academic Affairs at the end of January. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Louis is a computer science major and a dance minor. He recently performed in the UW Dance Presents Concert, and will be dancing in the <a href="/events/2020-03-04/dance-majors-concert-program-b">Dance Majors Concert</a> in March. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>&gt;&gt;Read more <a href="https://www.washington.edu/uaa/2020/01/30/2018-19-presidents-medalists-…;