CoMotion Dance Project: Who's Who

	Project Director Karen Kaufmann is a professor of dance at The University of Montana. She has worked in the field of dance education for over 30 years, as a teacher, choreographer, performer, and author. Professor Kaufmann was recently honored with the 2011 National Dance Association’s Scholar/Artist Award and her lecture was published in JOPERD (May 2011). She is the Director of the Creative Pulse, a summer graduate program for teachers in arts education. Professor Kaufmann delivered the keynote address at the National Dance Association; Dance Pedagogy for the 21st Century Conference in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (2006) and her address was published in Focus on Dance Pedagogy: The Evolving Art of Teaching Excellence (2010). She is the author of Inclusive Creative Movement and Dance (Human Kinetics), a textbook for classroom teachers on teaching dance to classrooms with mixed abilities and has published eight journal articles on dance in education. Professor Kaufmann was awarded the 2009 Distinguished Faculty Award by the University of Montana’s College of Visual and Performing Arts for her work spearheading dance in Montana schools.
	Dance Educators Jordan Dehline graduated from the University of Montana in 2008 with a BFA in Dance Education and Choreography/Performance. While at UM, Ms. Dehline received the Theatre/Dance Talent Scholarship, the 2008 Outstanding Senior in Dance Award, and an Undergraduate Research Award for her work organizing Making Connections: Dance and Learning Festival. She performed as a company member with Headwaters Dance Company, the CoMotion Dance Project, and Plateau Ballet Repertory Theatre of Washington. Ms. Dehline currently teaches in Missoula County Public Schools as part of the Montana Model Dance Education Program (MoDE), integrating dance with the core curriculum. She also teaches ballet and modern at Ballet Arts Academy of Missoula and is adjunct faculty at UM.
	Stacy Jacobsen Burgard has been instructing dance in Northwest Montana for over a decade and is the Founder and Co-Director of AzureVision Dance Collective, a professional modern dance company in the Flathead Valley. She has lived in New York City where she studied, choreographed and performed. Stacy brings a diverse educational background to her choreography, movement and dance instruction that includes modern techniques, creative movement, ballet, hip hop, improvisation, jazz and theater dance. Stacy received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance and Composition from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 2001, where she also received her high school diploma. During the pursuit of her degree, Stacy studied at the Laban Center for Movement and Dance Research in London as a recipient of the Semans Art Fund. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Montana. In the summer months, Stacy works for Glacier National Park managing the collection of native plant seed materials for the park’s restoration program. As a field botanist, she has spent many years teaching environmental education, horticulture, and plant biology to school children and volunteers of all ages. Stacy is honored and proud to be teaching for Montana’s CoMotion Dance Project.
	Joy French has happily returned to Missoula after completing her Masters of Fine Arts the University of Colorado-Boulder. Joy has a broad background in multiple dance forms (from jazz, to African, to ballet) and integrates them all into her dynamic teaching style. As both an award winning filmmaker and choreographer, her creative work lives both on film and stage. Joy is honored to be teaching again for MoDE as well as at the Univ. of Montana and the Missoula's Downtown Dance Collective. For more information, find Joy at www.joyfrench.com.
	Jen Stearns DeLong In college Jen competed as a collegiate athlete and fell into her first "official" dance class in fourth year of college. Since then she has vigorously studied it over the last 9 years. She completed a minor in dance at The University of Montana in 2008. She has been able to present choreography and perform at the American College Dance Festival, and has studied under renowned dance instructors in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in Seattle, Washington. For the past five years Jen has been teaching dance throughout Missoula. She particularly loves teaching contemporary dance, composition and choreography, and improvisation.