Dance Faculty and Staff
Alyson Colwell-Waber
Professor of Dance
MFA in Dance, Arizona State University
BS, Pennsylvania State University
Alyson Colwell-Waber has been a strong presence in the North Carolina dance community since joining the faculty of Meredith College in 1984.
Colwell-Waber received her undergraduate degree at the Pennsylvania State University and her MFA in dance at Arizona State University. She has trained with contemporary dance masters Hanya Holm, Daniel Nagrin, Ruth Currier, Clay Taliaferro, Robert Small, Betty Jones, Liz Lerman, Douglas Nielsen, and Doug Varone. In 1995 she produced and performed Soloflight, an evening of solos choreographed by Jack Arnold, Liz Lerman, Mark Taylor, and Jan Van Dyke.
She has been the recipient of two Dance Artist Project Grants from the North Carolina Arts Council, a Raleigh Arts Commission Emerging Artist Award, a Perry Artistic Achievement Award, and the Meredith College Presidential Award. She has served the dance community as a board member and board president of the North Carolina Dance Alliance and Even Exchange Dance Theatre, as well as a board member for Raleigh Dance Theatre. She lives in Cary with her husband Art Waber.
Colwell-Waber teaches all levels of Modern Technique; Dance Composition I; Movement Structure and Function; Performing Arts Administration; Mind/Body Integration; Movement Studio for Somatics; Dance History; and Pedagogy.
Location: 16 Weatherspoon
Phone: (919) 760-8388
E-mail: colwella@meredith.edu
Carol Kyles Finley
Professor of Dance, Director of Dance
MFA in Dance, Choreography from The Ohio State University
Bachelor of Environmental Design, Graphic Design from North Carolina State University
Carol Kyles Finley serves as director of dance and artistic director of Meredith Dance Theatre. Her works for stage have been performed in many local venues and at North Carolina State University, The Ohio State University, James Madison University, the North Carolina Dance Festival tour, Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, NY, Third Avenue Performance Space in Columbus, the ACDFA Mid-Atlantic Regional Festival, Southeast Regional Festival and the National Festival in Washington, DC. Her videodance works have been screened at Toronto's Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film, the New York Dance Films Association Festival and Tour, Festival Riccione in Italy, Wexner Center for the Arts, Goose Route Festival, ODC Theatre in San Francisco, and can be seen on hulu.com's Dance For Camera channel. She has served as guest artist at James Madison University, middle and high schools across the state, and on the board of directors of the North Carolina Dance Alliance. She co-directs It Must Have Been Violet Dance Productions based in Bellingham, WA; Raleigh, NC; and Jacksonville, FL with Susan Haines and Talani Torres.
Her 2012-13 season includes performances in Seattle and on the NC Dance Festival tour with shows in Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington, Charlotte, and Boone. She will serve as guest artist at Florida State College at Jacksonville, and as part of a Fall, 2012 sabbatical create a new dance for camera.
Finley's "Prelude to Settling" co-choreographed with Lacy Lowder ('11), was selected for the 2012 American College Dance Festival National Gala performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In spring 2005 she received a Harry and Marion Eberly Faculty Development Award and in fall 2005 she was recognized by NCAAHPERD as the D.A.N.C.E. College Dance Educator of the Year.
Finley teaches Perspectives in Dance; Ballet I, II, III and IV; Improvisation I; Participation in Choreographic Projects; Movement Analysis; Music for Dance; Composition II; Technical Production for Dance; Dance Repertory; and Meredith Dance Theatre.Location: 25 Weatherspoon
Phone: (919) 760-8015
E-mail: finleyc@meredith.edu
Sherry Shapiro, EdD
Professor of Dance, Coordinator of Dance Education and Director of Women's Studies
EdD in Curriculum and Teaching, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
MA in Leadership and Higher Education, Appalachian State University
BA in Interdisciplinary Studies, Appalachian State University
Sherry Shapiro is a Fulbright Scholar and has served in state, national and international organizations and presented nationally and internationally. She is the author or editor of four books including Dance in a World of Change: Reflections on Globalization and Cultural Difference, Human Kinetics (2008); Body Movements; Pedagogy, Politics and Social Change, Hampton Press (2002); Pedagogy and the Politics of the Body: A Critical Praxis Garland Publishing (1999); and Dance, Power and Difference: Critical and Feminist Perspectives in Dance Education, Human Kinetics (1998). Chapters in books and articles have been published and reviewed within the United States, Australia, United Kingdom and Brasil. She has received awards for research and artistic work, as well as her work as a dance educator. She is currently serving as a co-chair for the Program and Administration Committee and serving on the Governing Board for the National Women’s Studies Association.
Her research interests include examining embodied pedagogy, aesthetic education and its connections to personal and social transformation, and the relationship of dance to feminist and cultural studies. She attempts to interrogate what it means to "become a dancer" and the phenomenon of "being in dance" through the use of critical theory, phenomenological description, and gender studies. Her choreographic work has provided a rich context to explore the ways in which women’s identities are constructed in the context of culture, power and difference.
Shapiro teaches Reading Women's Lives Introduction to Women's Studies, Crossing Borders: Women Making Change in a Global Society, Women's Studies Service Project, Research in Women's Studies, Our Bodies-Our Lives: Shaping Female Identity, Dance Research, Theory and Methods of Teaching K–6, 7–12, Reflective Teaching .
Location: 15 Weatherspoon
Phone: (919) 760-2857
E-mail: ShapiroS@meredith.edu
Eleanor Smith
Adjunct Instructor of Dance
BFA in Dance, Florida State University
MFA in Dance, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Eleanor Smith has taught and choreographed in public schools as well as private studios throughout Florida and North Carolina. She has performed with John Gamble Dance Theater as well as 2B Tribe, out of Greensboro NC, and Even Exchange Dance Theatre in Raleigh. She has served as the touring Technical Director for a number of years for the North Carolina Dance Festival. Currently, she is on the dance faculty at Arts Together and a member of and choreographer for the Rainbow Dance Company.
Smith teaches ballet, jazz, modern, and repertory. She will teach Perspectives in Dance and direct Meredith Dance Theatre for the Fall, 2012 semester.
E-mail: smithele@meredith.edu
Recent master class teachers and guest artists:
Mishay Petronelli (New York, NY), contemporary and hip-hop
Talani Torres (Jacksonville, FL), modern and contact improvisation
David Dorfman and Dancers (New York, NY), modern
Gene Medler (Chapel Hill, NC), rhythm tap
Renay Aumiller (Durham, NC), Meredith Dance Theatre choreographer
Ken Ray Wilemon
Accompanist
Ken Ray Wilemon is a percussionist, composer and painter based in Raleigh. He has accompanied dance at Texas Christian University, University of Texas at Austin, Connecticut College, Hollins University, the American Dance Festival, and at the White Mountain Summer Dance Festival for the last 11 years. Wilemon has appeared with Stage West, Hip Pocket and Jubilee Theaters in Ft. Worth, Texas; performed with singers/songwriters Karen Tyler and Illene Weiss; periodically records with songwriter Val Davis in Vermont; recently created scores for seven dances at North Carolina State University; and is currently staff accompanist at Meredith College, Duke University and the Durham School of the Arts.
