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About Me |
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I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the youngest of four sons so I was forced early on to learn the basic survival skills. After doctoring my elder brothers through various sports-related injuries, my mother decided that instead of taking up dangerous sports like hockey, football or rugby, I would be enrolled in clogging classes instead. This was a crushing blow for an impressionable 11 year-old, but she made me promise to stick with it for a year. |
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The only problem was, after a year I found that I was really enjoying clogging. I was one of the few boys among bevies of girls, and was suddenly starting to win the competitions I was entering. My interest and skill grew, and within a few years I was winning every competition I entered. Soon though my interest waned, and I was offered to travel the world with a folk dance performing group. I decided to pack up and try something new, the chance to travel being one thing I greatly longed to do. With this American folk dance group, I participated in international dance festivals throughout Europe travelling to France, Spain, Portugal, England, Mallorca, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary. It was such a great experience to see the world and learn about dance and culture of other peoples, so I made the decision to try and do more dancing and traveling through my college experience. During my senior year in high school (1991)I auditioned and received a dance scholarship from Brigham Young University. While at BYU I was a four-year member of the renowned International Folk Dance Ensemble. While on the team I was able to be a part of tours to Scandinavia, Russia, Canada and throughout the US. I was also given the chance to teach a few dance classes at the University. This was where my dance hobby turned into a love for teaching and sharing dance with others. It is also where I found a beautiful young woman named Mindy, who was incedently my partner for a very romantic waltz piece. It is hard not to fall in love under such circumstance, and we married in June 1996. I finished up at BYU two years later in 1998 earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in European Studies and French. |
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Next we packed up our meagre belongings and headed for sunny southern California, where I attended UCLA for my Master of Arts Degree in Dance Ethnography. Living in Los Angeles was an interesting adventure; we loved the diversity, the food, the performance and teaching opportunities, but weren't sure about the traffic, crime and air pollution. While there I had the chance to become acquainted with some of the great people in the academic and professional dance worlds. I danced and toured professionally on the Aman and Karpatok folk ensembles and completed my thesis research on clogging in Utah. During my last year of school at UCLA our first daughter Maggie was born - four days before graduation, in fact - and I proudly carried her across the podium to receive my diploma from UCLA. |
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After graduation, I returned to teach clogging and folk dance at Brigham Young University, with the ususal side activities of workshops, setting choreographies, and guest performances around the country. I was also able to travel to France and Hungary to attend dance research conferences where I presented my own research. After teaching at BYU for 3 years, I was offered teaching work at BYU-Idaho, where I would become the director and choreographer of the World Dance Company. We loved our time in Eastern Idaho, I was able to teach some new and interesting things and great experiences like our time owning our own dance studio. Sophie came along during our brief stay in Idaho. She is so sweet, soft and cuddly.
In the summer of 2006 we picked up our belongings again and moved across the country. I taught for two years in the Departent of Dance and Theater at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte in a lecturing position. I created and taught an undergrad general education course on "Dance as a Global Phenomenon". I also had the chance to teach a few studio courses and create choreoraphy for the annual Spring Dance Concert. In Charlotte we added little Spencer to our family, he's all boy and so much fun to have around.
In the summer of 2008 we AGAIN moved, it seems like we can't stay in one place very long. This time it was back to beautiful Eastern Idaho, where I was offered a full time, tenure-track position in the Dance Department. I was recently the Artistic Director for the Dance Alliance Ensemble and we took our show "The Journey" to Russia for and 18 day tour. Great experience! So life is pretty amazing right now! |
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