The UNCG School of Dance is excited to announce Assistant Professor of Dance Clarice Young as the inaugural recipient of the Doug Risner Professor of Dance Award. Dr. Risner has a long relationship with UNCG Dance and he holds a BFA and MFA in Dance and Ph.D. in Educational Foundations from UNC Greensboro. His intent in establishing this innovative award is to enhance the work of the school by supporting dance faculty research, retaining high-performance dance faculty, and incentivizing tenure-track dance faculty preparing for promotion and tenure.

Dr. Risner is a Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Professor of Dance at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he directs the Master of Arts in Theatre and Dance Teaching Artistry, the first program of its kind in the nation. He conducts research on the sociology of dance training and education, curriculum theory, and policy, social foundations of dance pedagogy, gender in dance, postsecondary dance leadership, online learning, and web-based curriculum design.

Clarice Young, Assistant Professor of Dance, is an artist, teacher, choreographer, and performer who researches the intersection of African diasporic dance and contemporary modern dance. A Louisiana native, Young was an original member of Camille A. Brown & Dancers and served as an assistant to the director until 2012. She also performed with Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company from 2007-2017, and served as the rehearsal director. Her own choreographic work has been presented at her alma maters, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Hollins University, at UNCG Greensboro, and in New York City. Young’s academic scholarship focuses on writing about the language of the movement, including the style of Ronald K. Brown’s work.