Faculty and Staff

Elizabeth Johnson
Associate Professor, Chair

PAHB 344 // 410-455-3886

elizabj2@umbc.edu

Elizabeth Johnson’s professional dance training began in high school at North Carolina School of the Arts where she studied with many historically notable teachers. She earned a BFA with honors from George Mason University, and her MFA in Performance and Choreography from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where she was awarded the first Patricia Knowles Scholarship for graduate student excellence and the Wanda M. Nettl prize for student choreography.

Her teaching and research include the integration of aesthetics, anatomy, kinesiology, and somatic inquiry into embodied movement practices (inclusive of classical and contemporized Western and non-Western dance), Dance making/composition pedagogies, and exploring embodiment, relationship, feminisms, and popular culture trends and ironies in her choreographies. Her dances and dance-theatre works—often rooted in autobiography and her love/hate relationship with popular culture—include props and digital technologies to exaggerate and subvert cultural tropes regarding propriety, relationships, and bodies as objects/commodities. Johnson also enjoys choreographing and coaching movement in Theatre and musical theatre contexts (most recently: Danielle Moleman’s Dust, Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and Chekhov’s The Seagull).

As a professional performer, Johnson toured nationally and internationally with New York City’s David Parker and The Bang Group and also danced with Sara Hook Dances (NYC), and Molly Rabinowitz Liquid Grip (NYC). Throughout her training and performance career, she performed distinguished classical and contemporary works by Marius Petipa, George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Salvatore Aiello, Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Rachel Lampert, Mark Morris, Cynthia Oliver, Luc Vanier, Trey McIntyre, and Heinz Poll and has served as rehearsal director for works by Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Sara Hook, Rebecca Stenn, Daniel Gwirtzman, Rebecca Bryant, and Maria Gillespie.

From 2004-2015, her Milwaukee-based company, Your Mother Dances, featured her choreography as well as produced national and regional guest artists (David Parker, Sara Hook, Gerald Casel, Trey McIntyre, Molly Rabinowitz, Heinz Poll, Luc Vanier, Erika Randall, Anna Sapozhnikov, Dawn Springer). Milwaukee Journal Sentinel arts critic and Dance Magazine contributor, Tom Strini said of her, “Johnson’s voice as a choreographer is unique and provocative, and she is a riveting stage presence.” Her choreography has been performed in New York City (DancenOw at Joe’s Pub, West End Theatre), Washington D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, Louisville, New Haven, CT, Fort Worth, the UIUC Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and has been selected multiple times for Gala performance at the American College Dance Association.

A somatic practitioner and educator, Johnson holds a Graduate Laban Certificate of Movement Analysis from Columbia College Chicago’s Department of Creative Arts Therapies and is also a dual-certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT, ATI). She regularly guest teaches in Alexander Technique Teacher training courses in the United States and South America (Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil).  Johnson is also a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator (RSMT/E), Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT200), and continues her somatic education/certification in Dynamic Embodiment-Somatic Movement Therapy Training (DM-SMTT) with Dr. Martha Eddy (NYC).

Johnson regularly presents her research at national conferences as lectures and workshops, including the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT), Dance Science and Somatics Educators (DSSE),  Body-Mind Centering Association (BMCA), and the University of Southern Florida Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA). Nationally, her dance guest teaching and choreographic residencies have included the University of Utah’s Utah Ballet Summer Intensive (UBSI), Valdosta State University, Stephens College, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Texas Christian University, Milwaukee Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet Summer Intensive, Danceworks Milwaukee Performance Company, Wild Space Dance Company, and American College Dance Association regional conferences.

International research presentation conferences of note include the International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association (ISMETA-NYC), International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS-Italy, Montreal), Movementis Brain, Body, Cognition (La Sorbonne Paris, Harvard Medical School), International Alexander Technique Congresses (Chicago, Berlin, Dublin), CORPS de Ballet International (Florence, Italy), the International Symposium on Practice as Research (Hong Kong), and The Fourth International Dance and Somatic Practices Conference at Coventry University (UK). In addition, Johnson has taught many master classes in Dance/Movement, Alexander Technique, Framework for Integration, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis and more in the UK (London, Birmingham), Argentina (Buenos Aires, La Plata), and Chile (Santiago), including work with the mixed-ability dance company Compañía de Danza Sin Fronteras/Dance Without Frontiers (Buenos Aires).

In Dance Science and Medicine contexts, Johnson is eager to continue the work she has done in collaboration with colleagues from the UF Center for the Arts in Medicine and College of Medicine’s Department of Neurology, which considered best practices and protocols for dance/movement interventions for patients with Multiple Sclerosis. With colleagues from Scottish Ballet, Georgetown, Marquette University, and Joffrey Ballet School, she has presented research at IADMS and Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Center conferences.

Johnson is co-author and author of five book chapters featuring Alexander Technique and developmental movement applications that promote conscious embodiment in response to new media technologies, student stress and trauma, as well as applications in arts performance pedagogies. With co-authors Rebecca Nettl-Fiol (University of Illinois) and Luc Vanier (University of Utah), she is awaiting the publication of a forthcoming book from University of Illinois Press, which introduces an emergent movement patterning and analysis system called Framework for Integration, rooted in somatic, educational, and developmental methodologies (Alexander Technique, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis, the Dart Procedures, and developmental movement). She has served as an editor for the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT) Journal and is on the Journal of Dance Education (JODE) Review Board.

Johnson has served as Dance faculty at the University of Florida, Texas Tech University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is honored to be the next Chair of UMBC’s Department of Dance.

Carol Hess
Professor

PAHB 353 // 410-455-2951

hessvait@umbc.edu

Carol was born in New York City, where she trained as a dancer and received her BA from Barnard College. She has performed with Hannah Kahn and Dancers, The Rondo Dance Theater, DANCES/Janet Soares, and as a tap soloist, she appeared on television and in concerts in the United States and in York. She received an MA from Columbia University, where she studied dance composition from Robert Ellis Dunn. Dunn’s approach to developing and manipulating movement has had a profound effect on her work as a choreographer. Her choreography has been presented in New York at the Cubiculo, Dance Theater Workshop, the Grand Finale, and Dance Workshop in Bonn, and the Flora Theater in Amsterdam. She has been Artistic Director of Oregon Dance Theater and Phoenix Repertory Dance Company. Changing Room, a work for video created in collaboration with video artist Vin Grabill and composer Neal Woodson, has been featured on the Innovators Series, Artscape 1995, and on Maryland Public Television’s Independent Eye, an associate professor of dance, and chair of the dance department, she has taught at UMBC since 1982. Prof. Hess teaches Intermediate Contemporary (Modern) Technique, Dance and Technology, Dance Composition and Teaching Methods for Dance.

Ann Sofie Clemmensen
Associate Professor

PAHB 347 // 410-455-2952

asclem@umbc.edu

Ann Sofie Clemmensen (Danish) has a BA in Dance Pedagogy from the Norwegian College of Dance, a first-class honor Postgraduate Diploma (VERVE) from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and an MFA in Dance from Ohio State University. Her choreographic work has been presented at THE REACH – Kennedy Center (DC), the Davison Theater (OH), BalletMet Performance Space (OH), the Louis Armstrong Theatre (MI), American Dance Festival (ICR), Ullens Contemporary Dance Center (Beijing, China), Movement Research at Judson Church (NY), and other venues. Her creative research has received support from the US Embassy in Copenhagen, Columbus Dance Fellowship, and OhioDance. She has been awarded the 2022-2023 CIRCA-IMET Artist-in-Residence fellowship and the 2019 Local Dance Commission Program by the John F. Kennedy Center. Other notable residencies include Dance All Year Long (Odense, Denmark), American Dance Festival (IRC), Grand Valley State University, and Old Dominion University (VA). She has performed original work by Wendy Houstoun, Henri Oguike, Darshan Shing Bhuller, Francesco Scavetta, Sølvi Edvardsen, Kari Hoaas, Tatiana Baganova, and Anne H. Ekenes.

Shaness D. Kemp
Associate Professor

PAHB 349 // 410-455-2952

skemp@umbc.edu

Shaness D. Kemp is a native of Nassau, Bahamas and holds both a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts from Temple University. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at University of Maryland Baltimore County, and continues to work as a freelance dancer, choreographer and dance educator. Most recently, Kemp was invited to be a guest performing artist with the Tabanka African & Caribbean Peoples Dance Ensemble which is Northern Europe’s largest all black professional dance company. As Master Teacher of the Umfundalai technique, she has taught at various institutions, festivals and intensives, both nationally and internationally. Kemp has trained and performed with several notable artists and professional dance companies, including Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Kariamu & Company: Traditions, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, Eleone Dance Theatre, Philadanco! The Philadelphia Dance Company, Urban Bush Women, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Rennie Harris Puremovement, The Katherine Dunham Seminar and The American Dance Festival to name a few. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at organizations such as the International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference and the 37th Annual Choreographers Showcase where she received the Audience Choice Award for her choreography. She was also the 2015-2016 recipient of the Ellen Forman Memorial Award.

Sandra Lacy
Full-Time Instructor

PAHB 348 // 410-455-2980

lacy@umbc.edu

Sandra Lacy has a  degree in Psychology, is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dancing in London, a certified Gyrokinesis teacher, a certified Feldenkrais Method ATM teacher and has studied with neuromuscular therapist/dance specialist Irene Dowd for 20 years. Some of the companies she has performed with include the BDP, Maryland Ballet, Impetus Dance Company, Path Dance Company, Phoenix Repertory Dance, James Hansen’s Assemblage Dance Company, Lorraine Chapman The Company, ClancyWorks and Bill T.  Jones/Arnie Zane and Company. Her extensive performance background also includes a 14 year partnership touring nationally and internationally with Mary Williford-Shade in Lacy & Shade Solo Duet Dance Works. She is the recipient of 9 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in Solo Dance Performance. Throughout her career, as well as making work, she has created work collaboratively with artists such as Adrienne Clancy, Mariah Maloney and Tonya Lockyer. She has performed the work of over 50 choreographers ranging from historical figures like Doris Humphrey, José Limón and Bill Evans to contemporary choreographers such as Bebe Miller,  Irene Hultman, Lisa Race and Jeanine During. Notable venues at which Lacy has performed include Jacob’s Pillow, The Kennedy Center Theater Lab, The Ailey Citigroup Theater in NYC, The Joyce SoHo, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Judson Church, DTW,  PS 122, BAM, the Winchester Street Theater in Toronto, The Puebla State Theater in Mexico,The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and The Toronto International Festival of Dance. At the 36th  Annual Choreographer’s Showcase at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Lacy was celebrated as the choreographer whose work was the most chosen in the history of the Showcase.

Brandon Russell
Assistant Teaching Professor

PAHB 346 //

bprussel@umbc.edu

Brandon Russell is a native of Fort Worth, TX. He began his dance training at Dian West Dance Studio, Texas Ballet Theatre School and Debbie Allen Dance Academy. Brandon was named NYCDA’s regional outstanding senior male and won NDA’s best senior male dancer national title. Brandon continued his academic and dance training at Southern Methodist University studying a variety of dance techniques and composition, where his choreographic aspirations were nurtured by Larry White and Nathan Montoya. Mr. Russell was awarded numerous scholarships and trained all over the country, including such prestigious institutions as Edge Performing Arts, The Ailey School, Dance Theatre of Harlem School, Joffery Ballet School, Boston Ballet, Orlando Ballet, Kirov Ballet Academy, Houston Ballet School and many more. Upon leaving SMU Mr. Russell moved to New York, to pursue his career in dance. He has performed with Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble(DTH) under the directorship of Arthur Mitchell, Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre, Lydia Johnson Dance, Errol Grimes Dance Group, Nanette Bearden Contemporary Ballet, Balance Dance Theater, Texas Ballet Theater, Subtle Changes Inc and Bad Boys of Dance. Mr. Russell has taught ballet, modern, jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, gymnastics and choreographed for various companies, schools, colleges, studios, fine arts programs, summer intensives (including DTH, Kirov Academy of DC, Paul Taylor Intensive, Showbiz Xtreme …) and served as proud founding choreographer, ballet master and Director of Operations for Bad Boys of Dance. Brandon is an instructor of classical ballet and contemporary dance at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Brian Jones
Technical Director

PAHB 354 // 410-455-3772

jonesb@umbc.edu

Brian’s lighting for dance includes works for Any Seiwert (But Now I Must Rest, Under Covers, Dear Ms. Cline, Requiem, Slow Ride, and others since 2001), Larry Keigwin (Caffeinated), Charlotte Boye­Christensen (Walls), and many others. A close collaborative relationship with Kate Weare has included Dark Lark (2013), The Light Has Not The Arms to Carry Us (revived 2012), Garden (2012), Bright Land (2010, with music by The Crooked Jades), Lean­to (2009), Bridge of Sighs (2008) and rep works. His lighting has premiered at the BAM Next Wave Festival, New York City Center’s Fall For Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater and The Joyce Soho, as well as with Washington Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow (Massachusetts) and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco). Brian has toured nationally and internationally since 2000, most recently with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. He holds his MFA from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts and is a member of United Scenic Artists. Brian also lights theater and music productions.

Alison Crosby

Ballet, Floor barre

acrosby@umbc.edu

Amanda Fair

Contemporary

afairum@umbc.edu

Franki Graham

Teaching Methods for Dance

franki1@umbc.edu

Max Vanderbeek

Music Coordinator, staff

Music for Dance, instructor

vanderbe@umbc.edu

Maximus Vanderbeek discovered his passion for percussion at the age of 16 when he received his first conga drum. A dedicated musician, he specializes in percussion, keyboard, and performance. He received his undergraduate degree from SUNY Purchase, later earning his Doctorate in World Percussion from the University of Maryland in 2000, studying a diverse range of instruments, including congas, djembe, drum set, frame drums, tablas, and keyboard percussion.

His career began at UMBC, where he started playing percussion for university modern dance classes at just 19. He then transferred to, and was active in the Dance Department at Purchase College, New York.He later served as the Music Coordinator for the Dance Department at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. In addition to teaching music in Maryland public schools, he has composed an original music piece for a Merce Cunningham solo dance that was discovered in 2016 on old film footage from 1965 by Stan Vanderbeek (filmmaker).

Maximus continues to perform throughout the Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and New York areas, sharing his expertise and passion for percussion with audiences and fellow musicians alike.

Jill Vasbinder

Dance Appreciation, Dance History

vjill@umbc.edu

Jill Vasbinder Morrison, BA (Barnard College), MFA (SUNY Purchase), is a dancer, scholar, and activist teaching dance at UMBC. She centers her research on decolonizing Dance Studies courses, incorporating embodied knowledge and learning into the practice of traditional lecture coursework. She examines the intersections of dance, open licensing, and copyright, questioning how historical practices of exclusion have brought us to this ambiguous place. Jill has presented at the Inclusion Imperative Symposium, DSA and MDEA annual conferences. Her article “There’s a long history of dances being pilfered for profit and TikTok is the latest battleground” was featured on the Conversation and is being adapted for Actively Learn. She led the HT Lab: Movement Relationships bring the concepts of Embodied Practice across disciplines. Currently, Jill has begun the writing of the biography of Barbara Supovitz. Her research is supported by the Dresher Center for Humanities and the Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative.