Faculty
Full Time Faculty
Catherine Solaas
Department Chair, Associate Professor of Dance, Production Manager
Email: [email protected]
Catherine Solaas has celebrated over 30 years as a dancer, choreographer, educator and arts administrator. A University of Oregon Distinguished Alumna (2023), Solaas joined the dance faculty at Austin Community College in 2011 and has served as department chair since 2015. Solaas currently serves as lead for ACC’s Department Chair Academy, directs ACC Dance’s paid internship program, produces an annual season of dance events, and teaches dance courses at ACC.
Solaas choreographs for faculty and student productions as well as local and regional dance festivals and conferences. Recently, her work has been shown at Austin Dance Festival, Texas State University, American College Dance Association Conferences, and other dance conferences and festivals. Solaas has received grants and commissions for the creation of new work, including awards from Arts Council Norway, Nordic Culture Point, Freedom of Expression Foundation, Sound and Picture Fund, The Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Austrian Embassy and The Center for the Study of Women in Society. She has presented research at The League for Innovation in the Community College, National Dance Education Organization, and Texas Dance Improvisation Festival. Solaas earned her bachelor’s (1993) and master’s (1996) degrees in dance from the University of Oregon. She is happy to have danced in the US and internationally with Jill Sigman, Tiffany Mills Company, Susan Hadley, Claire Porter, Margo Van Ummersen, Alito Alessi and others, including extensive seasons at New York venues such as Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Joyce Soho, Merce Cunningham Studio, Dumbo Dance Festival and the Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church.
Solaas is a member of National Association of Schools of Dance, National Dance Education Organization, and The League for Innovation in the Community College. She also serves on the board of directors for the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company.
Melissa Sanderson
Associate Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Melissa Sanderson (she/her) joined the dance faculty at Austin Community College as an associate professor in 2021. Melissa is a dance artist whose work spans choreography, performance, dance film, and education. Her choreography has been presented through 12 Minutes Max in Seattle, the World Dance Alliance Global Summit in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, WDA’s International Young Choreographers Project in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Austin Dance Festival, Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, BOOST Dance Festival, {254} Dance Festival, and Ponderosa in Stolzenhagen, Germany. She is passionate about being in the creative process with students and has choreographed for Bellevue College Dance Company and Kaleidoscope Dance Company. Melissa‘s dance films have been presented in festivals including Agite y Sirva in Mexico, Seyr Festival in Iran, São Carlos Videodance Festival in Brazil, Utah Dance Film Festival, Dans Kamera Istanbul in Turkey, and Festival International de Vidéo Danse de Bourgogne in France.
Based in Seattle from 2017-2021, Melissa performed in collaborative projects with Coriolis Dance, The Gray, Kinesis Project Dance Theatre, and Jessica Jobaris & General Magic in venues including On the Boards, Velocity Dance Center, and Base: Experimental Arts + Space. Additionally, she has danced with Jordan Fuchs Company since 2015. Melissa holds a MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University (2014) and a BFA in Dance from San Diego State University (2010). As an educator Melissa is committed to guiding students through an embodied learning experience to hone their unique creative voice. She previously taught as Adjunct Faculty at Bellevue College, University of North Texas, Dallas College Eastfield Campus, and Tarrant County College. www.melissasandersondance.com
Adjunct Faculty
Ellen Bartel, MFA, CMA, RSME
Adjunct Associate Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Ellen Bartel, MFA, CMA, RSME, and volunteer for Hospice Austin’s group grief counseling, received her B.A. in Liberal Arts from S.U.N.Y. Potsdam and her M.F.A. in Dance at the University of Texas focusing on the pedagogical methods of contemporary dance and choreography of site-dance. She is an award winning independent choreographer and an established dancer and teacher in Austin, Texas. She is the program director and instructor of Somatic Movement Education Training at Austin Community College and. has recently served as the Interim Education Coordinator and Assistant Instructor at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in NYC, also as a facilitator of creative and somatic approaches to grief while in NYC and in Austin, and previously has been a peer review dance panelist and Creative Ambassador both for the City of Austin. Over the past couple of decades Ellen has been recognized as a creative force in central Texas receiving accolades such as “Dance Mobilizer,” from the Austin Chronicle, “Fortunate 500” (top 500 people to know in Austin) from Austin American Statesman, a Critic’s Choice Award for “Dancing through the Pain,” and was also in the running for multiple “Best Of” nominations in the Austin Chronicle.
Ellen has been a dance educator for over three decades teaching in Central Texas and New York and instructing locally at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University, Saint Edwards University and Austin Community College. She integrates contemporary dance techniques such as Humphrey-Limón, release technique, and Bartenieff Fundamentals into her beginning and intermediate modern classes. Ellen is also an experienced improvisor, and teaches improvisation as a tool for choreographic inquiry and as a performance practice. Currently she is an adjunct professor at Austin Community College and continues to choreograph original work and teach independently in Austin.
Rebekah Chappell
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Rebekah Chappell is a teaching artist, performer, and dance maker from Williamsburg, Virginia. She holds an MFA in Dance from The University of Iowa and BFA in Dance from Shenandoah University. She has taught dance in studios, community programs, public and private schools, and universities across the country. In higher education, she has served as an Adjunct Lecturer at Texas State University (2022), Adjunct Lecturer at SUNY Brockport (2020-2021), Visiting Assistant Professor and Assistant MFA Director at Hollins University (2017-2020), Instructor of Record at The University of Iowa (2014-2016), and as Adjunct Faculty at San Jacinto College South (2011-2014).
Rebekah has had an extensive performance career as a solo and ensemble artist. Her creative work explores the efficacy of somatic and improvisational practices to affect change. Her most recent project addressed the multiplicities of grief, resulting in the screen dance, Can’t Relax in a Yard Like That. Her choreography has been presented at Austin Dance Hub, Houston Fringe Festival, Small Plates Choreography Festival, Greensboro Fringe Festival, InHale / ExHale Performance Series, and Charlotte Dance Festival. As an Alexander Technique Teacher, she explores the relationship between identity and embodiment. You can learn more about her background, creative work, and scholarship at www.rebekahchappell.com.
Joseph Cox, MFA
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Joseph Cox holds an M.F.A. in Dance from The University of Iowa. He teaches Dance Appreciation for Austin Community College, offering a perspective informed by both scholarship and an extensive performance background.
Joseph and his wife currently serve as directors of the Slavin Nadal School of Ballet. His dance career began with Eugene Slavin and Alexandra Nadal at Ballet Austin, and continued with Cincinnati Ballet, Dayton Ballet, and most notably as a principal dancer with the Louisville Ballet. Over his twenty-five year performing career, he learned much of the classical ballet canon and numerous masterworks of the 20th century, working closely with dance icons, such as Sir Frederic Franklin, Suzanne Farrell, and Nicholas “Papa” Beriosoff.
Joseph previously taught ballet technique and dance history as Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He has also served in various teaching and staging capacities with Ballet Arkansas, Cincinnati Ballet, Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, Cincinnati Opera, and The Carnegie Theatre of Northern Kentucky. Joseph and his wife were the founding directors of the Crossing Lines Project, a team of professional performers dedicated to sharing dance with student artists throughout Kentucky.
Joseph’s choreography has been performed with Louisville Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Louisville’s Moving Collective, Austin Contemporary Ballet, and in other venues. His honors include the 2009 Kentucky Arts Council “Al Smith” Fellowship for Choreography, the 2011 Iowa Arts Fellowship, and a Governor’s commission as a Kentucky Colonel.
Jessica Coxe, MFA
Adjunct Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Jessica Lindberg Coxe is an Adjunct Professor of Dance at Austin Community College (ACC), an instructor of Ballet technique at Greater Austin Dance Academy, is actively involved in teaching the dance students at various schools in the Round Rock and Austin Independent School Districts, and presents, performs, and stages her reconstructions of Loie Fuller’s masterworks. Coxe holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University, an MFA in Dance Reconstruction / Directing from Score from The Ohio State University, and she is certified in Labanotation and Language of Dance®. Coxe has been teaching History and Appreciation of Dance, later Dance Appreciation, with ACC since 2010 and in 2018 she created the World Dance course in which ACC students learn about various cultures and interact with dance practitioners from around the world.
Coxe used historical accounts, reviews, photographs, lithographs, and other artwork of the 1890s, to reconstruct Night, Fire Dance, Lily of the Nile, and La Mer, master works by the dancer, choreographer, and theatrical lighting pioneer Loie Fuller. She has performed these works across the United States and locally with Dancestry at the Long Center. She has staged and presented her research internationally including the Art Institute of Chicago, Maryhill Museum, the University of Washington, Gonzaga University, Texas State University, Western Michigan University, MOMENTA Dance Company in Chicago, among others. Coxe is currently in talks to present La Mer at the Battery Dance Festival in New York City with the Lori Belilove Dance Company in August, 2023.
Roxanne Gage, BA
Adjunct Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Roxanne Gage has celebrated over 30 years of experience as a dance artist, choreographer, educator, and dance adjudicator. She holds a BA in Dance from the University of Texas at Austin and an Associate of Fine Arts from Kilgore College. She is a former Kilgore College Rangerette Lieutenant and Swingster as well as a former Austin High School Dance Director. As a dance educator in the industry, Roxanne has shared her knowledge and experience at conferences such as the American College Dance Association and the Texas Dance Educators Association for over 20 years. She is also a core member of the Dance Education Assessment and Learning staff as an adjudicator for TDEA.
Roxanne is a member of the dance faculty at ACC and the outreach and recruitment coordinator for the dance department. She enjoys encouraging high school dance students to reach their full potential through a college education. She is also a part-time faculty member at Texas State University where she teaches Jazz and Ballet. She is on the board of directors for the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company and serves as a producer and director for the Austin Dance Festival Youth Edition. She is also on the board of directors and serves as a volunteer for Leap of Joy which is an after-school program that gives at-risk youth empowerment and confidence through dance education. Her most recent dance adventure has been with Blue Lapis Light Aerial Dance Company where she collaborated with choreography and auditioned dancers in the Austin community to perform in a beautiful production about protecting our environment and honoring all beings, “Belonging”.
Roxanne has directed and produced choreography for the Blanton Museum of Art- Exhibition Opening of Andy Warhol, the Opening of the JW Marriott Austin, the Essential Oils World Convention in Dallas, the Rodan+Fields World convention, and the Texas CASA conferences. She was the assistant choreographer and assisted with auditioning and hiring dancers for the movie, “Miss Congeniality”, starring Sandra Bullock. In 2021 she choreographed a full dance scene for the HBO upcoming limited series Love and Death with Elizabeth Olsen and Krysten Ritter. She has had the privilege to serve as a USASF judge for The Dance World’s Championship where over 40 countries competed. She is a former dance company member and rehearsal director for the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company where she performed, and worked in collaboration for over 15 years. She is a former dance artist for Sharir Dance Company, Jose Bustamante Dance Company, and Andrea Beckham Collaborative Dance Company.
Roxanne’s artistic focus is to create an energetic and supportive learning environment for the training of dancers. She remains dedicated to making everyone feel welcome in the world of dance and emphasizes the importance of training students to have skills beyond movement technique, such as creative problem-solving, communication, critical listening, and leadership skills. Specifically, she strives to build the future dance industry with intelligent, disciplined, and passionate artists who are the next generation of choreographers, performers, educators, judges, dance directors, dance therapists, and YES, school administrators. She is committed to helping dancers grow and achieve levels they did not know they were capable of attaining.
Gabrielle (Aufiero) Gucciardi
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Gabrielle (Aufiero) Gucciardi is an educator, choreographer, and dancer based in Austin,
TX. She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Dance Department at Austin Community
College and serves as the Director of Round Rock High School’s Dragon Pride Dance
Company where she also founded and teaches the Modern/Contemporary dance
academy course. Gabrielle holds an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University and a
B.A. in American Studies with a minor in Dance from Franklin Pierce University—where she
graduated Valedictorian of her class. She was also selected as one of 7,980 individuals
selected out of 57,000 applicants to serve as a 2013 corps member for Teach For America.
As a choreographer, educator, performer, and scholar Gabrielle has made appearances
both nationally (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Texas, Virginia) and internationally
(Lyon, France). Her choreography has been selected for regional and national
performance debuts for the American College Dance Festival in New England and SHAPE
America’s National Convention and Exposition. She has presented professional
development workshops and lecture demonstrations at the Texas Dance Educators’
Association’s annual convention. She also enjoys teaching master classes, serving as a
guest artist/lecturer, and setting freelance choreography.
As an educator, Gabrielle recognizes that there is just as much responsibility in sharing
the art of dance as there is in mentoring the future of the dance field and the members of
our greater community. By sharing her passion for dance, creating a space that holds
students to high expectations, and teaching students the tools they need to be
successful in their lives beyond the classroom, Gabrielle hopes to enrich each student’s
understanding of their individual potential and empower them to create significant
contributions to their chosen career fields and beyond.
Kathy Hamrick, MFA
Adjunct Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Kathy Dunn Hamrick is the Artistic Director of Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company and Founder and Executive Director of Austin Dance Festival. Hamrick has committed her professional life to dancing, teaching, choreographing, presenting, mentoring, and advocating for modern dance and dancemakers. She has created over 50 dances that have been described as “strikingly athletic and wonderfully expressive,” “heavenly,” “smart” and “masterly,” garnering numerous recognitions for the dance company, including Austin Critics Table awards for Best Choreographer, Best Dance Concert, Best Dancer, Best Duet, Best Lighting Design, and Best Ensemble. Her work has been featured in Arts Journal and Dance Magazine, and the company has performed throughout Texas as well as in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto. Kathy teaches modern dance at Café Dance and ballet at Austin Community College; provides professional development for educators; directs artist residencies for high schools and universities; and serves as a mentor for Austin Emerging Arts Leaders. In 2018, Kathy was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame as “a model for the artist who approaches each project in a spirit of experimentation and reinvention.”
Darla Johnson
Adjunct Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Darla Johnson is a choreographer, teacher, and author living in Austin, Texas. She is the author of The Art of Listening: Intuition and Improvisation in Choreography (2012), and a contributor to Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project (2010). She is also a published poet.
From 1990 to 2005 Johnson was the co-artistic director of Johnson/Long Dance.
J/LDC received numerous awards and grants from the City of Austin, the State of Texas and the National Performance Network. The Austin Symphony, the University of Texas, Dance on Tulsa, and Winona State University commissioned dance/theatre works from J/LDC. The company performed nationally and internationally in such cities as Los Angeles, Honolulu, Little Rock, Albuquerque, and Hamburg, Germany, and taught residencies throughout the United States while touring.
Johnson founded the dance department at Austin Community College. She has received the ACC Teacher’s Excellence award twice. In 2009, she received the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Award for Teaching Excellence and Service. She was invited to be a Visiting Scholar, with a focus on globalizing curriculum, at the University of Texas for the 2016-2017 academic year.
Recently, Johnson’s work has been produced and performed at the Austin Dance Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Black Arts Movement Festival, Texas State University, Spelman College, Georgian Court University, with the Shay Ishii Dance Company and in a project with other Austin choreographers entitled 11:11.
The JUSTICE Project is Johnson’s recent work and research project. The project is a collaboration with Nicole Wesley. Spelman College (Atlanta, Georgia), Northumbria University and The Contemporary School of Dance (United Kingdom), Austin Community College (Austin, Texas) and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (Trinidad) the University of Bedfordshire, (United Kingdom), Texas State University (San Marcos, Texas) and McCallum Fine Arts Academy (Austin, Texas) have all commissioned The JUSTICE Project. In June of 2016 a chapter that was co-authored by Johnson and Wesley on the McCallum Fine Arts project was published in The Young are Making Their World, Essays on the Power of Youth Culture.
Dawn Davis Loring
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Dawn Davis Loring is delighted to be teaching Dance Appreciation and World Dance at ACC. She recently published her first book, Dance Appreciation, in January 2021 (Human Kinetics), co-written with Julie L. Pentz, and maintains the Today in Dance resource and podcast on her website. Dawn has been writing about dance since 1998 and has published articles and reviews in The Boston Globe, The Dancing Times magazine (UK), the Austin Chronicle, and the Journal of Dance Education (JODE). She directed the dance/theatre company, Mosaic Dance Body (MDB), for over 10 years and her choreography has been described as “goofy, pointed political theatre” by the Boston Globe, and by the Austin American-Statesman as “fresh and clever with a sarcastic wit,” and MDB is described as a company that is “not afraid to take themselves a little less seriously to achieve some big laughs”. She has taught dance for over 20 years to adults, youth, and children in situations ranging from universities, to K-12 public and private schools, and studio classes. As an administrator, she served as the San Antonio organizer for the first IAHPEDS World Conference in July 2022, and she has worked with the Royal Academy of Dance in London and the San Antonio Dance Umbrella.
Jessica MacFarlane, MA
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Jessica Maria MacFarlane (she/her) is an interdisciplinary dance researcher and creative writer from Houston, TX. Her teaching and research interests include dance history, theory, writing/criticism, and archival practices alongside creative writing, literature, visual art, film, fashion, music videos, social media, and popular culture. She aims to teach each course with a compassionate and curious interdisciplinary spirit, encouraging students of all majors to explore connections between the dance world and their areas of study, career wisdom, and personal experiences. She’s returning to ACC Dance as an adjunct professor of dance with specialization in research, library assistance, professional arts writing, and interdisciplinary integration.
Dr. Sanchita Sharma
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Sanchita is a performing artist, choreographer, and a dance scholar from New Delhi, India. She recently 
earned her Doctorate from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where she taught courses ranging from arts activism to community engagement. She holds a Masters in Performance Studies from Ambedkar University, Delhi, and Bachelors in Psychology from Delhi University. As the Chair for Dance Studies Association’s (DSA) working group, Practice-as-Research, she intends to bridge the gap between dance theory and practice, looking towards a more interdisciplinary approach to dance scholarship. Sanchita makes dances that are experimental and derives their movement vocabulary from her lived experiences as well as from her training in jazz, modern, and contemporary dance styles.
Her choreographies have been presented at ACC’s 7th Annual Faculty and Guest Artist Dance Concert and First Street Studio (Austin), The Broad Art Center (UCLA), Lost and Found Festival: Invisible Cities, Some Bodies of Dance, Contemporary Arts week, and Inside/Outside festival (India), and “Release 4.0” at Maya Dance Theatre (Singapore). Her dance film, Engage, was awarded the “Best Dance Film” in Seoul International Short Film Festival (2021) and was officially selected at several festivals across New York, Austin, and Germany. As a dancer, she has performed extensively across India, China, Scotland, and the United States. Her recent collaborations include performances with Early Era Collective and choreographer Jahna Bobolia (Austin), interdisciplinary artist Julie Tolentino, choreographers Milka Djordjevich, Ligia Lewis, and Emily Barasch (Los Angeles), Mandeep Raikhy (New Delhi), Preethi Athreya (Chennai), and Parijat Desai (New York). She has been an artist-in-residence at Crashbox, Rude Mechs (Austin) and at Gati Summer Dance Residency (New Delhi).
In her scholarly work, Sanchita analyzes the politics of corporeal dissent and liberation in Indian contemporary dance and brings fields like Critical Dance Studies, Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, and South Asian Studies into conversation. She has presented her research at American Society for Theatre Research, DSA, and Fourth Annual Graduate Interdisciplinary Conference on South Asia at UCLA, among others, and has been awarded the UCLA International Institute Fieldwork Fellowship (2022), Dance Studies Association Pre-Conference Scholarship from American Society of Aesthetics (2021), UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s Oxman Fellowship (2020), Sandra Zell Kaufman Memorial Scholarship (2019), and Dean’s General Award (2019), and American Alumni Association Grant (2018) to support her research endeavors. In 2023, she served as the first Editorial Fellow for the DSA’s journal, Conversations Across the field of Dance Studies, and contributed to the journal’s mission to promote decolonial and anti-racist frameworks and methodologies in dance research..
Jun Shen, MFA
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance
Email: [email protected]
Jun Shen is the founder and artistic director of Shen Jun Movement Effect based in the Austin area. Shen, born in Mainland China, began dancing in high school. He earned his bachelor degree in dance at Beijing Capital Normal University and then attended Beijing Dance/LDTX as a dancer and choreographer. In the past several years, he has performed and choreographed many dance works for many worldwide dance festivals and events including Dance Salad Festival, Beijing Dance Festival, Fall For Dance Festival, and Busan International Dance Festival, among others. He has collaborated with many different artists from various fields, as well. Shen has also taught in many educational institutions and dance studios, both nationally and internationally, such as Virginia Common University, Shanghai Drama Academy, Lines Ballet Training Program, and the University of Texas at Austin. He was invited to join the graduate dance program at UT Austin in 2013 and earned his MFA in May of 2016. He currently teaches movement and Tai-Chi at Sansori High School and is the modern dance instructor and guest artist for Blue Lapis Light.
Staff
Mike Fonseca
Dance Accompanist
Mike Fonseca received his bachelor’s degree in Jazz Studies from North Texas in 1999 and his Master’s in Jazz performance from UT in 2016. Since his move to Austin in 2000, Mike has played and toured with various Indie-Rock and Jazz groups. With over 10 years of teaching experience at ACC he has taught Music Appreciation, Small Commercial Music Ensemble, American Music, Percussion ensemble and private percussion lessons. While his main focus is on drumset, he also teaches hand drums and the accompanying percussion for the Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythmic universes. When Mike is not teaching or performing, you can find him composing music for his solo Avant-Garde-Metal project Huelga. He is now reinvigorated and eager to teach everything he learned in the Study Abroad trips to Cuba that he led in the summer of 2023 and 2024! Mike has been an accompanist for the ACC Dance department since 2019.
Stevie Hawes
Dance Accompanist
Stevie Hawes is an agender multi-instrumentalist from Austin, Texas. Music has always been one of Stevie’s main passions since they learned to play the piano at a young age. They thrived as a flautist in the Cedar Park High School marching band which won 10th place at the BOA Grand Nationals during Stevie’s senior year. They received their Bachelor of Arts in Music with a minor in Creative Writing from Knox College in 2015, where they were also the saxophone section leader in the Knox Jazz Ensemble. After graduating Stevie returned to Knox as a Post-Baccalaureate for the Music Department and helped the KJE raise over $12,000 for a cultural exchange trip to China.
Upon returning to Texas, Stevie worked various jobs in the music industry before becoming a full-time piano accompanist at the beginning of 2021. Outside of playing for classes at both ACC and Ballet Austin, Stevie performs in two different local bands, Sheilava and Oh Antonio & His Imaginary Friends. Stevie also creates music under their own brand, SymphonicElectric. They have a passion for making music covers and writing original music for various projects including YouTube videos, livestreams on Twitch, and video game and film scores. Stevie’s other large passion is video games, which is reflected in a lot of their work. Visit their website to learn more: https://symphonicelectric.wordpress.com/
Channing Schreyer
Theater Productions Coordinator
Channing Schreyer is a full-time staff member in the Dance Department. Channing received their BA in Production Design and Studio Art from Pepperdine University and is an ACC alumnus. Before joining ACC, Channing gained extensive experience working for Pepperdine University’s Center for the Arts, Baylor University’s Theatre Department, and the Rudder Theater Complex at Texas A&M University.
Channing’s love for Dance Lighting Design began as a student at Pepperdine University, where they were introduced to the art through the yearly student production Dance in Flight under the instruction of resident Lighting Designer, David Barber. While at Pepperdine and Texas A&M, Channing was also fortunate to witness how lighting enhanced the beauty of touring dance troupes like Momix and Pilobolus, which further fueled their passion for lighting in dance.
At Austin Community College, one of Channing’s favorite responsibilities is designing lights for both the fall and spring Choreographer’s Showcase each year, where she works closely with dance students studying Production and Choreography. Additionally, she designs lights for the Faculty and Guest Concert, Dance Informance, and the pieces that ACC Dance sends to ACDA each spring.
Channing currently manages the electrics shop for both the Dance and Drama departments, ensuring that all productions are lit and technically sound. While Channing primarily serves as the lighting designer for the Dance Department and as a Theatre Master Electrician for Drama, she also occasionally designs lights for the Drama Department. Notable lighting designs for the Drama Department include The Snow, Iphigenia at Aulis, and Batboy the Musical. In addition to their work in lighting design, Channing has recently expanded their role to include teaching as an adjunct instructor in the Drama Department, where they share their expertise in Production Design and Scenic Painting.
Philip David Weaver
Dance Department Technician
Philip David Weaver has lived, studied, worked, volunteered, and performed in Austin since 2008. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts with majors in Classics, Latin, French, and Linguistics and a certificate in Paralegal Studies from the University of Texas, as well as an Associate’s of Arts in Dance and an Associate’s of Science in Computer Information Technology from Austin Community College. He is a mid-career paraprofessional in the legal services field. He has credits as Actor, Dancer, Instrumentalist, Assistant Director, Stage Manager, Choreographer, Writer, and Makeup Artist. His drag character Sister Serena, a fixture of the local activist community, has appeared across the United States. A proud graduate of ACC Dance, he is thrilled to join the staff as Department Assistant in 2024.
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT: CATHERINE SOLAAS AT (512) 223-7198 OR [email protected]