November December 2023 College News

LeAnne Smith was a professor of dance from 1983 to 2023. She was the director of the divison of dance from 2003 to 2017. From 1984 to 2022, she served as the artistic director for Opening Door Dance Theatre, which she founded with Karen Earl and Sandy Rodriquez. In 1994 she won the Texas State Presidential Award for Scholarly/Creative Activities, LeAnne recently served on the Academic Course Guide Manual Committee for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. In collaboration with the Erick Hawkins Dance Foundation, LeAnne works to maintain Hawkins’ archives as a founding member of Hawkins West. #FACULTY SPOTL IGHT College of Fine Arts and Communication | 11 LeAnne Smith at her 38th year of Opening Door Dance Theatre DANCE Dance Studies, Per formance & Choreography, Single Teaching Certif ication, & Dual FACULTY ACCOLADES Jonathan Pattiwael will be performing a 22- minute solo "Threading Spirits, Weaving Whispers, Returning Promise"s in Portimão, Algarve Portugal as part of Festival Entrelaçados on December 15th. Ana Baer 's screendance works "Sympoiesis," "Stay Behind the Yellow Line" and "Ixchel" were screened at the festivals: Imagens em Movimento, São Paulo, BR; FESTIVERD VENEZUELA, Caracas, Venezuela; MIC EXPERIMENTA MICMX International Film Festival, Mexico City, MX; Dança em Foco, Rio de Janeiro, BR. Additionally, her collaboration with Michelle Nance and Richard Hall "HinterTerra" was screened at Women in Dance International Dance Film Fest, Tokyo Documentary Film Festival and Athens Video Dance Project. LeAnne Smith finished her time at Texas State University after teaching full-time from 1983-2022, directing the program from 2003-2017, and teaching part-time since her official retirement. She embarks upon a new journey in New Mexico where she will become more active with her grandfather’s organization: Southwest University of Naprapathic Medicine in Santa Fe. [2] Michelle Nance created a new work with CIMTEYA (TX State dance ensemble) entitled Don’t Dys Me on the topic of Dyslexia. The work was presented at the Texas Association of Physical Education, Health, Recreation, and Dance at their annual conference in Ft. Worth. [3] ALUMNI ACCOLADES Lilly Thurman , Krystal Tan , and Eilenne Vicencio choreographed a piece with Merge Dance Company for their annual concert. [3] Ana Baer's screendance were screened in São Paulo, Caracas, and Mexico city LeAnne Smith presented the Pioneer Award to Miranda-Budagher CIMTEYA prsented thier new work "Dont Dys Me" athe Texas Association of Physical Eduaction, Health, Recreation, and Dance 10 | November and December 2023 | College News 1 2 3