Margie Gillis: The indelible art of an integrated artist

Barbara Dickinson is Professor of the Practice of Dance for the Duke University Dance Program where she teaches Modern Technique, Repertory, Performance, Choreography, and Dance History. She served as Dance Program Director for eighteen years, overseeing faculty growth, guiding the focus of a greatly expanded curriculum and establishing a major in dance. Barbara has created many large scale, full evening collaborative choreographic works including Walking Miracles, an original dance/theater production based on the stories of six survivors of child sexual abuse, and Contents Under Pressure, an exploration of the many faces of bias in society co-choreographed with Ava LaVonne Vinesett. She was the Artistic Director of her own company, the Ways and Means Dance Company from 1986-2002, and of Three For All, a company of dancer, poet, and pianist from 1981-87. She has been a member of Manbites Dog Theater, a professional experimental theater company based in Durham, NC, since its founding in 1987, serving as actress, choreographer, and movement consultant. She has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Durham Arts Council, and professional development grants from Wells College and Duke University. She has performed, taught and presented her choreography in numerous concerts, master classes and workshops in schools, colleges, private studios and dance festivals throughout the United States. Her current research interest is age and the dance artist.