Faculty Artists

Charlotte Adams
Charlotte is a director of Dancers In Company and on the UI Dance Faculty.  She offers dance workshops and lecture-demonstration on the life of a performing artist as related to culture and diversity.  She received dual masters degrees from the University of Arizona and founded Tenth Street Danceworks, a professional modern dance company in Tuscon, Arizona.  The company has performed her choreography throughout the southwest and in Texas, Nebraska, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia and southern France.

Kristin Best
Bio forthcoming

Armando Duarte
UI Dance faculty Armando Duarte combines the rich music, dance and literary traditions of Brazil and the United States into Latin dance workshops and lecture-demonstrations. Mr. Duarte also directs unique video lectures about the Rain Forest, or Carnival(s) in Brazil. Mr. Duarte taught at the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, and was co-founder and company member of the Cisne Negro Dance Company in Sao Paulo for fourteen years.

Joan Gonwa
Joan Gonwa is Contemporary Modern Dancer, Choreographer, Performer, Educator, Certified Movement Analyst, and Specialist in children's dance/movement Education.

She is an advocate for dance in the schools as basic education and often does artist residencies with teachers and children in grades K-12. Visiting Professor Gonwa is available for clinics and masterclasses.

Gary Holmquist
Gary Holmquist has served as the primary Light Designer and technical Director for the UI Dance Department for over ten years. He has designed and worked in many differing spaces from the 3,000 seat Hancher Auditorium to area high school gyms. He has toured with many dance companies, especially the UI's Dancers In Company. He also manages and renovates the Dance Department's Space/Place Theatre on the UI Campus. Mr. Holmquist offers workshops on the following topics: Keys to Lighting in Limited Spaces; Facilities Planning and Upgrades; Touring: What I Should Think About; Dance Lighting.

Dance Ensembles

Afro-Cuban Drum and Dance Ensemble (ACDDE)

The Afro-Cuban Drum and Dance Ensemble is a unique group of dancers and percussionists performing the folkloric music and dance of Cuba. Members of the group have traveled to Cuba to learn the music and dance of this rich island culture. This colorful presentation includes drumming, song, and dance, and can enhance the study of Africa and Cuba, and the relationship between dance and music in cultural traditions.

Dancers In Company (DIC)

Directed by UI Dance Faculty Deanna Carter and Jennifer Kayle, Dancers In Company is the touring repertory dance company of the Department of Dance. The company of twelve dancers, undergraduates and graduate students, tours throughout Iowa and the Midwest from March to June each year performing live concerts and lecture demonstrations for audiences of all ages.

Duarte Dance Works (DDW)

Duarte Dance Works is a professional contemporary dance company performing in both traditional and non-traditional venues.  DDW collaborates with multiple artists and organizations.  In addition to their educational programs, DDW intends to serve the communities by providing public performances of various forms of contemporary dance.

Artists

Tom Truss

Tom is UI graduate student, teaching assistant, and research assistant.  he has been involved in the arts for over 30 years as a dancer, choreographer, actor and musician.  he has taught creative movement workshops for people of all ages in various environments (from prisons and nursing homes, to day care centers and high school chemistry classes).  He is comfortable integrating and teaching classroom curriculum as well as teaching in a traditional dance class.  he has performed in venues from the Kentucky Center and The Tokyo National Theater, to abandoned parking lots and elementary school cafeterias.  he brings ease to all workshop situations and is a master at including all abilities.

Huiying Zhang

Huiying is a graduate student in choreography track in the UI Dance Department. As a professional choreographer, dancer and teacher, she has over 16 years of experience in Ballet, Chinese Classical Dance and Folk Dances. Huiying has worked for many dance concerts and competitions, TV shows, and International Art Festivals, as well as taught Ballet and Chinese Dance in the Chinese Coal Mine Art Troupe and Beijing Education College. Her dance works have won several competition awards in China, been published on DVD, been documented in the criticism book, "Appreciation of Chinese National and Folk Dance Works", and have been performed in many countries throughout the world.

Huiying's interactive workshops begin with a session on basic theories and movements of Chinese classical and folk dance, including breathing training, Shenyun, the techniques of Chinese Sword, fans, and water sleeves; she also discusses the elementary theories of how these Chinese dances are related to Taiqi and Chinese Martial Arts.

After this teaching period, a dance work will be created by the teacher and students based on these elements.