“I want to combine my interest in pedagogy with experiences to ask, as a teacher, what are the best practices to foster emotional wellness? How do we as teachers not just help students to become good dancers but to be resilient and healthy and successful people in the world?"

Third-year MFA dance candidate Samantha Schmeer grew up in upstate New York on a rural road in a small town. Time spent in her family’s gardens and the Adirondack wilderness forged a strong connection to the natural environment which permeates her choreographic and performance research work. A self-described “eco-artist-scholar,” Schmeer is invested in interdisciplinarity.

Second year MFA Dance candidate Anna Caison Boyd is a choreographer, teacher, and performer from South Carolina. She graduated from Oklahoma City University’s Ann Lacy School of Dance and Entertainment Business in 2020 and is currently pursuing an MFA at UB with a Teaching Assistantship position.

Robyn Lee Horn is a third-year doctoral student whose research focuses primarily on the intersection of religious performance and tourism.