Erin Lane

"Mind is the source of all movement . . ." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 283). I love exploring that in dance classes physically and metaphysically.

Erin Lane teaches Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Dance History, Dance Composition, Dance as Movement, and directs the Spring Dance Production. She has trained and performed in Chicago and New York City (Merce Cunningham Studio, David Howard, Jocelyn Lorenzo) as well as abroad in Montreal, Canada, and Salzburg, Austria. Erin has danced professionally with contemporary companies ESS:Danceworks, SYREN Modern Dance, Leverage Dance Theatre, and numerous contemporary choreographers in New York City and St. Louis, including recent freelance performances in Alton, IL. Erin still occasionally serves as a guest performer with Leverage Dance Theater where she originated two characters for the company's highly successful educational programing. In terms of dance education, she has served as a teaching artist, program director, lead instructor, choreographer, director of dance, and ballet curriculum development specialist in private studios and public schools in New York City, St. Louis, and the Metro East. Erin holds teaching certificates in the Vaganova Method and is a PBT (Progressing Ballet Technique) Certified Instructor.

Erin is also passionate about increasing students’ dance literacy. She thrives on the process of engaging students in identifying their unique dance interests and strengths by developing their artistic and scholarly voices.

Scholarly Interests

• Using somatics and conditioning techniques/practices to support Western dance training.
• Dance History: tracing the lineage of Eurocentric dance techniques seen in popular choreography and training; illuminate the African and Eastern movement aesthetics embedded in the development of American Ballet, Modern, Jazz, and Vernacular Dance
• Developing improvisational practices.
• Using dance as a function of arts integration within traditional educational settings.
• Community-based site-specific choreography

Contributions to Field

• Served in a variety of directorial positions of dance schools and studios
• Choreography has been presented across the Metro East: Give Dance a Chance Festival, Mississippi Earthtones Festival, Perpetual Motion Dance Concert (Jacoby Arts Center), Audubon Center (site-specific), and St. Louis Dance Festival
• Choreography for numerous children’s and collegiate musicals: Urinetown, Cinderella, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Godspell, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan
• MFA thesis concert, Beyond the Divide, marked the first site-specific dance concert in Alton, IL

Awards

• J.S. Seidman Award for Excellence in the Field of Dance from NYU Tisch Dance
• Chancellor's Award from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts

Memberships and Affiliations

• National Dance Education Organization
• Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT)