Dance Faculty

Joanne L. Lawrence, MFA Professor, Dance Program Director 801-626-6479 jlawrence@weber.edu Professor of Dance and Dance Area Program Director, received her B.A. Degree in Ballet from The University of Akron, in Ohio, her M.F.A. Degree in Dance from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and additional training as a scholarship student and performer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in NYC. She has performed, choreographed, and taught for numerous modern dance and ballet companies throughout the eastern U.S. Joanne has pursued additional studies at the Laban-Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, with the Society of American Fight Directors, and in West Africa. She has directed dance programs at Alfred University, New York, and Huntingdon College, Alabama. Her hobbies include anything to do with food: gardening, cooking and eating.

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Amanda Sowerby, MFA 801-626-7674 asowerby@weber.edu Assistant Professor of Dance, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the California Institute for the Arts and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah. She was a co-founder of Paradigm Dance Project; a Salt Lake area non-profit organization devoted to bringing dance to diverse populations. After receiving her BFA in 1990 Amanda worked for several years with the Gary Palmer Dance Company in California’s Bay Area. Amanda assisted the company’s artistic director in setting new and repertory pieces on the National Ballet of Peru and the National Ballet of Chile. During those years Amanda also aided in the implementation of GPDC’s outreach program that brought dance to children with special needs. During her years in California Amanda performed and collaborated with Enrico Labayen’s Lab Projekt; USA and Yasmen Metah’s California Contemporary Dancers. Amanda’s affiliation with Utah's Repertory Dance Theater includes a guest role in Martha Graham’s “Diversion of Angels” and as a co-creator of the RDT Community School’s “Prime Movement” dance class. Currently, Amanda sits on the board of the Utah Dance Education Organization as the Higher Education Representative.

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Erik Stern, MFA 801-626-6615 estern@weber.edu Recieved his B.A. in Biology from UC Santa Cruz and an M.F.A. in Dance from Cal Arts. His professional work as a musician, composer and actor is interwoven in his dances, and has led to collaborations with educational organizations, mathematicians, choirs, civic organizations, school systems, and dozens of artists. Erik toured with Tandy Beal and Company over a period of ten years and has performed with Patri Nader’s Ballet de España. Professor of Dance at Weber State University, Stern was ‘Endowed Artist’ for the College of Arts and Humanities from 1999-2002. In 2002, his duet, Table of Content, was selected and performed at the Kennedy Center as part of the National American College Dance Festival. In 1985 Stern created with Karl Schaffer the Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern Dance Ensemble. The ensemble has created eleven evening-length concerts, received over thirty grants, including five from the National Endowment for the Arts and toured throughout North America. On the roster of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners In Education program, they tour nationally to share their expertise on how to bring dance into the classrooms and connect it with mathematics curriculum. In 2003, he produced Muscle Memories as part of RDT’s LINK Series, and in 2006 Stern staged, directed and performed in Navigating Lake Bonneville, an original work by Utah Poet Laureate Ken Brewer and composer/guitarist Brad Richter. During summer 2006, Stern was at Appelboom, a resident artists’ program in rural France, during which he finalized aspects of Demolition Derby and worked on other projects with Brad Richter.