The UNC Greensboro School of Dance is delighted to announce recipients of the 2022 UNCG | Susan W. Stinson Book Award for Dance Education: Lindsay Guarino, Carlos R.A. Jones, and Wendy Oliver for the edited volume of “Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century” (The University Press of Florida, 2022), and Pam Musil, Doug Risner, and Karen Schupp for the edited volume of “Dancing Across the Lifespan: Negotiating Age, Place, and Purpose” (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022).
Evaluation of nominated books centered upon assessment of the text’s originality, critical rigor, innovation, and potential contribution to the field of dance education with particular attention to books that engage, challenge, question, motivate and support dance educators across education sectors and diverse populations. The 2022 award selection committee noted the following about the two awarded books:
“Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century”
In addition to identifying how Africanist aesthetics in Jazz Dance have been marginalized, the authors challenge educators to evolve dance curricula to incorporate and celebrate Africanist and African American aesthetics and values in teaching Jazz Dance. They also provide educators with strategies to implement these changes.
Lindsay Guarino is an associate professor and the chair of music, theater, and dance at Salve Regina University. She co-edited Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches with Wendy Oliver and is featured in the film “UpRooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance”. Carlos R.A. Jones is a professor of musical theater and dance at the State University of New York College at Buffalo where he is also the associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. His early career was as a performer working in concert dance, musical theater, television, and film. Wendy Oliver, MFA, EdD is a professor at Providence College. She co-edited “Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches” with Lindsay Guarino and has edited six other books. She received the National Dance Education Organization’s Dance Education Researcher Award in 2019.
To find out more about this book, visit: https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813069111
“Dancing Across the Lifespan: Negotiating Age, Place, and Purpose”
Musil, Risner, and Schupp have edited a superb collection of academic and moving essays that probe the topics of age and aging from a kinesthetic perspective. The book presents influential scholarship from an embodied and somatic understanding which I believe will inform dance training by unpacking and asking the key questions from artistic social and educational contexts.
Pam Musil is Professor Emeritus, Brigham Young University Department of Dance whose teaching and administrative contributions spanned four decades. Dr. Doug Risner, professor of dance, distinguished faculty fellow at Wayne State University, received the 2021 Dance Teacher magazine Teacher of the Year Award (Higher Education). His forthcoming book, “Dancing Mind, Minding Dance: Socially Relevant and Personally Resonant Dance Education”, is published by Routledge. Karen Schupp is Associate Director of Curriculum and Instruction and Professor of Dance in the Herberger Institute School of Music, Dance, and Theatre at Arizona State University. Risner and Schupp’s edited volume “Ethical Dilemmas in Dance Education” (2020) received the NDEO Ruth Lovell Murray Book Award and the Susan W. Stinson Book Award for Dance Education in 2021.
To find out more about this book, visit: https://books.google.com/books/about/Dancing_Across_the_Lifespan.html?id=IuZcEAAAQBAJ
About the Award
Funded by an anonymous donor to UNCG in recognition of Dr. Susan W. Stinson—a leading pioneer in the field of dance education—the annual award recognizes book-length publications of excellence in dance education during the current and previous year and honors scholars and researchers who conduct and disseminate exemplary inquiry that advances the field of dance education. The award’s recognition contributes significantly to the visibility of dance education professionals and their work, as well as the vitality of outstanding dance scholarship and publication excellence. The deadline for nominations occurs annually in late December with award decisions determined by early March of the following year.
About Dr. Susan Stinson
Sue Stinson, Emeritus Professor of Dance, became a full-time faculty member in the Department of Dance at UNCG in 1979, having been recruited to develop the K-12 licensure program. She subsequently earned her EdD in Curriculum/Cultural Studies from UNCG in 1984.
Dr. Stinson served as Department Head in Dance 1993-2002 and undergraduate coordinator 2002-2012. During her tenure as Head, she led the Department to its first accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Dance. Dr. Stinson initiated the BA in dance and the MA in dance education, the latter delivered through online and summer courses. She served as Interim Dean of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance from July 2012 until her retirement in July 2013.
She has published her scholarly work in multiple journals and book chapters and has taught and presented her work throughout the USA and in a number of countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. Her research focused on both theoretical issues in dance education and how children and adolescents make meaning from their experiences in dance education. In addition, she is the author of two books, “Dance for Young Children: Finding the Magic in Movement “(1988), and “Embodied Curriculum Theory and Research in Arts Education: A Dance Scholar’s Search for Meaning” (2016). An active member of her profession at the state, national, and international levels, Dr. Stinson played a key role in the initial and subsequent development of standards for K-12 dance education. Her international service has included a number of positions in Dance and the Child: International, as Chair, Research Officer, international conference co-chair, and Proceedings editor. She has also served on international advisory boards for publications in Dance and Arts Education. National awards include National Dance Association Scholar (1994), National Dance Education Organization Lifetime Achievement Award (2012), and Congress on Research in Dance award for Outstanding Scholarly Research in Dance (2012). Since her retirement, she has engaged extensively in community-based activities related to social justice and other civic initiatives, creating a meaningful new chapter of her life.