by Sarah Mangelsdorf

Sarah Mangelsdorf attended the National Association of Schools of Dance meeting in Snowbird, UT in September, 2006.  During the meeting, the approval of accreditation for Ball State's Dance Program was announced.

Sarah Mangelsdorf, Doris Ressl, Lou Ann Young, and Audra Sokol and forty dance students attended ACDFA at Ohio University, March 16-19, 2007. Two dances were adjudicated: faculty member Michele Kriner's "Read Me O'er Verse by Verse" and a student work, Michelle Burger's "Altered Moment".

The Dance Program and Sarah Mangelsdorf organized and hosted 2 Hip Hop Workshops and a Salsa Dance Day this year. Guest Artists have included: Kasper, L.D. Kidd, and Dawn Dyson and Tony Platero. Valery Lantratrov taught Russian style ballet classes each semester; David Reuille taught the Dance Jury class, and Melanie Cortier visited from NYC to teach ballet and modern dance classes and conduct mock audition classes to give the students a New York experience.

Guest choreographers included Sara Semonis from Illinois, who created a very humorous dance for the fall concert "Who Done It?" and Gail Benedict from Kentucky, who has created a tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for the spring concert. Both artists taught classes for the dancers.

The choreography classes are now including film projects within the classes. It is an exciting addition to the classes and prepares the students in creating DVDs of their work for electronic resumes and auditions.