MFA, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Charleston danced and toured with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company; performed in the world tour of the Robert Wilson/Philip Glass opera, Einstein on the Beach; and is a performer, rehearsal director, and company manager for Douglas Dunn + Dancers. She also dances with Christopher Williams and has worked with an array of other artists, including Chamecki/Lerner, Kota Yamazaki, David Parker/The Bang Group, RoseAnne Spradlin, Stephen Koester, and June Finch. Invited by Merce Cunningham to teach at the Cunningham Studio, Charleston was on the faculty for 12 years. She has taught in many university and professional programs, including the Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Program, Barnard College, SUNY-Purchase, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, NYU Steinhardt Graduate Program, Hofstra University, Franklin & Marshall, University of Kansas, University of Illinois U-C, SEAD (Salzburg, Austria), and El Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico City). Charleston has taught yoga and movement for children, the elderly, and people with Parkinson’s Disease. Her choreography has been presented at venues in New York City, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, and South America. A Fulbright Scholar in Santiago, Chile, she subsequently served as Peer Reviewer in Dance for the Fulbright organization. SLC, 2019–
Undergraduate Courses 2024-2025
Dance
Movement Studio Practice (Level 2)
Component—Year
DNCE 5503
These classes will emphasize the steady development of movement skills, energy use, strength, and articulation relevant to each teacher's technical and aesthetic orientations. Instructors will change at either the end of each semester or midway through the semester, allowing students to experience present-day dance practice across diverse styles and cultural lineages. At all levels, attention will be given to sharpening each student’s awareness of time and energy and training rhythmically, precisely, and according to sound anatomical principles. Degrees of complexity in movement patterns will vary within the leveled class structure. All students will investigate sensory experience and the various demands of performance.
Faculty
Previous Courses
MFA Dance
Contemporary Dance Practices
Component—Year
In these classes, emphasis will be on the continued development of basic skills, energy use, strength, and control relevant to the particular style of each teacher. At all levels, attention will be given to sharpening each student’s awareness of time and energy and to disciplining the body to move rhythmically, precisely, and in accordance with sound anatomical principles. Students will study complex movement patterns, investigate somatic use, and concentrate on the demands of performance.
Faculty
- Jodi Melnick
- Paul Singh
- Jennifer Nugent
- Stuart Shugg
- Angie Pittman
- Janet Charleston
Movement Studio Practice
Component—Year
In these classes, emphasis will be on the steady development of movement skills, energy use, strength, and articulation relevant to the technical and aesthetic orientations of each teacher. At all levels, attention will be given to sharpening each student’s awareness of time and energy and to training rhythmically, precisely, and in accordance with sound anatomical principles. Degrees of complexity in movement patterns will vary within the leveled class structure. All students will investigate sensory experience and the various demands of performance.