Bio
Danielle Lydia Sheather, Canadian born dancer, choreographer, artist, and educator, considers herself a life-long learner and an arts advocate. Her professional training includes the Paul Taylor Winter Intensive, Limón Spring Studies Program, Horton Pedagogy Workshop, Centre National de la Danse, Off Jazz Stage d'été, and One Body One Career Countertechnique Intensive in Melbourne Australia. She has performed both nationally and internationally in various settings from commercial to concert dance on both television and stage including national commercials for Busch Gardens Williamsburg and the International Dance Festival at the Duke on Broadway.
Her choreographic works are an artistic expression of human consciousness through the medium of physical exploration and she has enjoyed successful collaborations with other artists including harpist Rachel Knight and visual artist Ruben Ramirez. Danielle's choreography has been showcased at various venues and festivals including Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC), WAXworks at Triskelion Arts (NYC), WHITE WAVE DUMBO Dance Festival at the Gelsey Kirkland ArtsCenter (NYC), Stevie Eller Dance Theater (Tucson, AZ), McGinnis Theater (Greenville, NC), and Le Regard du Cygne (Paris, France). She has also been commissioned to create works for Zodiaque Dance Company and Zodiaque Dance Ensemble. Most recently, her choreography has been selected to perform the SoloDuo Festival at Dixon Place in NYC.
As scholar, she is interested in exploring the neuromuscular/psychosomatic connections that exist between the mind and body in order to develop sound anatomical alignment, longevity, and injury prevention techniques and has presented at the Dance Science and Somatics Conference. She is also deeply passionate about continuing the legacy of choreographers both past and present and has an active research agenda in Dance Documentation and Preservation which has led her to present research on the subject at the National Dance Education Organization Conference.
She received her MFA from the University of Arizona as a University Fellow and was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant for the College of Fine Arts and the Creative Achievement Award. During her studies, she was invited to teach in Mexico and received funding, including the Medici Scholarship, to study in Nice, France. In 2003, Danielle received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Honors College with a BFA in Dance and BA in Psychology.
Danielle has previously served as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo, Guest Artist and Instructor at East Carolina University and is an ABT® Certified Teacher in Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. She is also a certified Yoga Instructor (RYT 500hr, ERYT 200hr) and has taught for New York Yoga and Sonic Yoga in NYC. Additionally, she has completed the Progressing Ballet Technique Teacher Training and enjoys teaching master classes for Dance Masters of America's Teachers Training School.
She is currently serving as Assistant Professor at Southern Utah University. Most recently she developed and wrote the curriculum for the progressive jazz dance track at SUU in order to represent a more equitable education allowing jazz dance to now be on par with both ballet and modern dance training. It is now the first program of its kind in the state of Utah where the study of jazz dance at multiple levels is now a required technical component to earn an undergraduate BA or BS degree in both the Dance and Dance Education track.