For a listing of instructor contact info, click here.

Peter Bracilano, Production Manager, Lecturer, is a graduate in lighting design from North Carolina School of the Arts. A long time Seattle resident, Peter has created the lighting designs for Teatro Zinzanni locally and in San Francisco. He has also designed for Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program, Pacific Northwest Ballet, 5thAvenue Theatre and Village Theatre. He has spent summers as a lighting designer at the Spoleto Festival of the Two Worlds in Italy, and he has designed lighting for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina as well. Mr. Bracilano’s extensive design work on the East Coast includes ten years with Civic Light Opera in Pittsburgh. Other companies he was worked with include Paramount Parks, Dallas Summer Musicals and Theatre Under the Stars in Atlanta and Houston. He has been the Associate Lighting Designer for the European tour of the musical Hair and Ken Hills’ Phantom of the Opera in Singapore as well as for several international productions of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Elizabeth Cooper, Associate Professor, became Director of the University of Washington Dance Program in 2001. She previously taught at the University of Texas at Austin, George Mason University, and the University of Waterloo. Cooper is active in the Seattle dance community where she guest teaches at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Arc School of Ballet, Dance Fremont and Cornish College of the Arts, Dance Department and Preparatory Division. Trained at the School of American Ballet, Cooper danced professionally for many years before becoming an academic. She performed in the New York City Ballet's Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky Festivals, and has danced with a number of classical and contemporary companies including, Makarova and Company, Matthew Nash Music & Dance, San Francisco Opera Ballet and Nationaltheater Mannheim. In addition to teaching and performing, Cooper has published articles on dance and politics in Theatre Research International, Dance Research Journal and The International Dictionary of Modern Dance. She received her M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Washington and a B.A. in Archeological Studies from Yale University. Cooper is a recipient of a 2004 Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Washington.

Jürg Koch, Assistant Professor
After completing a degree in education Jürg Koch studied dance in Bern, Amsterdam and London. After a one year special course at London Contemporary Dance School he joined their 4D performance group. During this postgraduate year he also completed his MA in Performance. From 1998 until spring 2000, Jürg performed with Diversions (Wales) in a repertoire including works by Bill T Jones, Örjan Anderson and Toni Mira. In 2000 he joined CandoCo, one of the world’s leading dance companies integrating disabled and non-disabled performers. During his time with CandoCo he performed works by internationally renowned choreographers like Javier de Frutos, Doug Elkins, Fin Walker and Jamie Watton. Since then Jürg has increased both his educational and choreographic interests, being commissioned by CandoCo to create the trio A Maze In You. In autumn 2003 he moved to Seattle and joined the faculty of the UW as a lecturer in January 2004.

Juliet McMains, Assistant Professor
With an eclectic dance background--including ballroom, salsa, swing, ballet, jazz, modern, yoga, and dance history, Juliet brings a broad array of experience and perspective to her teaching. She is a dance scholar and artist who defies normative categories of theorist vs. practitioner by maintaining an active career as a performer, choreographer, researcher, writer and teacher of dance. Her scholarship can be read in Dance Research Journal, I See America Dancing, and in her book Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry, published in 2006 by Wesleyan University Press. Current research projects include a history of salsa dance and an examination into the relationship between ballroom rumba and Afro-Cuban rumba. Juliet’s academic specializations include dance ethnography, social dance history, post-structural theory, cultural studies, and feminist theory. As a DanceSport professional, she has taught at studios in Boston, California, and Florida, traveled internationally to perform and compete, won championships in the U.S. and Canada, and twice been named a U.S. National Rising Star finalist. Juliet comes to Seattle from Orlando where she taught at the University of Central Florida and was director of a private ballroom and salsa dance studio––Dance Addiction. She has taught in dance departments at Florida State University and California Polytechnic Institute. Juliet has a Ph.D. is Dance History and Theory from the University of California at Riverside and a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Harvard University.

Paul Moore, Music Director
Paul R. Moore, Music Director, began his work for dance at the University of California Santa Barbara where he studied Music Composition with Marc Ainger, Carolyn Bremer, Jeremy Haladena, Larry Karush and Margaret Mayer. After graduating from the College of Creative Studies at UCSB in 1993, Paul remained in Santa Barbara for two years as Senior Musician of the UCSB Dance Department. During this period, Paul focused on composing musical works for small ensembles, soloists and orchestra, as well as collaborating with faculty choreographer, Christopher Pilafian. He has collaborated with choreographers Mark Dendy, Katie Duck, Mark Haim, Rob Kitsos, Peter Kyle, Maria Simpson and his wife, Alice de Muizon, and has performed with the Chamber Dance Company for five seasons. He was commissioned to compose a new orchestral work for the Degenerate Art Orchestra, which premiered in March 2005. Paul was selected to be a part of the 2003 season at On The Boards and won the Washington Composers Forum orchestra competition. His work has been performed by the Seattle Creative Orchestra and published by Mimicry Records.

Jennifer Salk, Associate Professor, teaches modern technique, composition, dance history, teaching methods, graduate seminars on Higher Education and Teaching Methods, and the Creative Process.  Prior to her time at UW she was at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  After receiving her M.F.A. from Ohio State University, Jennifer taught at Harrison Arts Center, a performing arts high school in Lakeland, Florida for three years. She received her B.F.A. in Dance from the University of Utah and spent seven years in NYC touring and dancing with various choreographers including David Dorfman (as a guest), Chris Burnside, and June Anderson, and was also the Artistic Director of Jennifer Salk and Company. She has taught at American Dance Festival and teaches master classes and choreographs for companies and schools around the country. Jennifer is a master teacher at the National High School Dance Festival and a frequent presenter at the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science and National Dance Education Organization Conferences. She is thrilled to be going to Paraguay in the fall to choreograph and teach. Her article, Teaching Experiential Anatomy via Modern Technique, was published in The Journal of Dance Education in Fall 2005 and a DVD on the subject is in development. This will be Salk’s 16th year as Director of the  Dance Department at a summer arts program in Fargo, ND. Salk was selected to receive a 2005 Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Washington.

Joan Skinner, Professor Emeritus
Former member of the Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham Dance Companies, Professor Skinner has been on the faculty of the University of Washington Dance Program since 1981. In 1963 she began experiments that evolved into Skinner Releasing Technique, and her annual workshops are filled with both a national and an international clientele. Professor Skinner annually travels to teach at Movement Research in New York City, and has been artist-in-residence at performing arts schools and festivals in Amsterdam, Caracas, New Zealand, Australia, and London.