In addition to the techniical benefits of an intensive dance program, the Governor's School experience is intended to:

1. Engage the inagination
2. Encourage intellectual curiosity and creative thinking
3. Improve self-discipline
4. Enhance decision making particularly with regard to career choices

Governor's School students learn that dance is inherent to our heritage and world and that of others around us. Students are encouraged to perceive, evaluate, and understand dance as a conveyor of culture. The program strives to integrate and enrich the balanced development of the whole person.

Laurie Merriman, Professor of Dance and Assistant Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Illinois State University, earned her B.F.A. (double major) in Ballet & Modern Dance from Texas Christian University and her M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She began her professional training at The National Academy of Dance in Champaign as a young ballet dancer and eventually became a scholarship student with the Joffery Ballet School and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Laurie’s dual respect and love for both ballet and contemporary dance has afforded her the opportunity to perform and learn the works of many great artists in the field such as Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Bebe Miller, Dwight Rhoden, Stephen Koester, Jose Limon, Doris Humphrey, Vaslav Nijinsky, Michel Fokine, Marius Petipa, Robert North, and Frederick Ashton (among many others). Laurie has been the recipient of various grants and fellowships for her work in choreography, teaching, and research. Her choreographic work has been performed by the Columbus Dance Theatre, Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre, the University of Minnesota at Duluth, and presented at the Southwest Regional Ballet Festival, the Harold Washington Library Theatre in Chicago, Illinois State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Winona State University, the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, several American College Dance Festivals, and beyond. Since 1988, Laurie"s teaching focus at Illinois State University has been in the areas of ballet and modern dance technique, Improvisation, dance composition, and dance pedagogy. Laurie has also served as Artistic Director for Illinois State Dance Theatre for the past 20 years and remains teaching at the high school level for University High School in the area of dance. She has served on the National Board of the American College Dance Festival, Illinois State Board of Education Dance Content Advisory Committee, adjudicator for the Springfield Area Arts Council, panelist for a variety of learning symposiums in the arts and in general education, ballet mistress for Twin Cities Ballet, Executive Director of Illinois Summer School for the Arts, Chair of the Illinois Dance Association, adjudicator for Beloit College, panelist for the Illinois Arts Council Artist-In-Residency program, and the Dance Chair for Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts.

Marsha Barsky has worked both nationally and internationally as a performer, choreographer and administrator. Her choreography has been presented at venues throughout the US, and at the Pavillon Noir in Aix-en-Provence, France. She has performed with the Desert Dance Theatre, Contemporary Dance Exchange and Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre, and in works by Kim Neal Nofsinger, Gabriel Masson, Sean Curran, Pat Graney, Bill Evans, Ana Baer, and Ivan Pulinkala. She received her BFA in Dance from Arizona State University and her MFA in Performance, Choreography and Somatics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has studies with an arrany of renowned choreographers and companies, including the Joe Goode Performance Group, Ballet Preljocaj, the Jose Limon Company, David Dorfman, and the Merce Cunningham Company. She has taught dance history at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and modern dance technique at the University of Colorado, Western Kentucky University, Vanderbilt Dance Program, St. Mary’s High School, the Harpeth Hall School, the University School of Nashville and the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts. She served as the Director for the Vanderbilt Dance Program from 2003 – 2007 where she divided her time between teaching and administration. She is the Artistic Director for Company Rose, a Nashville based contemporary dance company. Additionally, she is a certified yoga instructor and is currently training to become an Alexander Technique Teacher.

Jennifer Harwell is the Artistic Director for Nashville In Motion, Nashville's first professional contemporary company. Jennifer is a Nashville native; her training beginning with Nashville Ballet. Dance training includes Boston Ballet, Indiana University Ballet Theater, Indianapolis Ballet, and Chautauqua Ballet. She has also attended many workshops by audition only with Gus Giordano, Frank Hatchett, Michael Owens, Desmond Richardson, and Dwight Rhoden. Principal roles include the ballets The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Who Cares?, Concerto Barocco and numerous original works by Jean- Pierre Bonnefoux, Patricia McBride, and Jacques Cesbron. Opera and Musical Theater credits include Faust, La Traviata, Oklahoma!, West Side Story, Cats, Chicago and Evita. As a choreographer, she won her first two awards this year for contemporary jazz solo and group pieces. Other choreography credits include ballet and jazz pieces for many studios including Nashville Ballet, Tennessee Governor's School of the Arts, Harpeth Hall, and Vanderbilt Dance Group.

Christopher Mohnani, Artistic Director /Founder of Dance Theatre of Tennessee, is originally from Makati City in the Philippines. He was a soloist and principal dancer with Ballet Manila, Krasnoyarsk State Opera and Ballet Theater of Russia and for almost 10 seasons, as the top male Principal Danseur at Nashville Ballet.During the course of his dance career, he has had the privilege of dancing a wide range of soloist and principal roles, most notable of which are Romeo in the world premiere of Nashville Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet, Snow King in the World Premiere of Tennessee’s brand new full-length Nutcracker, Conrad in the Asian premiere of Le Corsaire, Dracula in the Asian premiere of Dracula, Prince Desire in the Tennessee premiere of a full-length The Sleeping Beauty, Albrecht in the full-length Giselle and Young Warrior and Faun in the Nashville premieres of The Rite of Spring and Afternoon of a Faun. He also was the Waltz Boy in Serenade,

Matthew Frazier-Smith is a senior majoring in Theatre with a minor in Dance at Middle Tennessee State University. Matthew has performed in several productions with MTSU’s Theatre and Dance department including Seussical the Musical, Romeo and Juliet, and This is Family Money, as well as receiving Irene Ryan Award Nominations for his work in Underwear: the Musical and Kid Icarus. Matthew has been an active member of MTSU Dance Theatre since 2007, and has performed in six of the company’s concerts including Freed Voices-- a concert aimed toward investigating gender, ethnic, and cultural boundaries. His professional work includes Lend Me a Tenor at Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre, I’ll Be Seeing You at Millworks Theatre, and It‘s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre. He has also been fortunate enough to perform abroad. In the summers of 2008 and 2009, Matthew worked in Germany, where he performed in a musical review entitled Die Amerikana Musikshow. In May of 2009, he traveled Honduras where he toured a collaboratively written, original work entitled A Better Way, which focused primarily on the use of rhythm and physicality as tools for breaking down language barriers. Currently, he is accompanying modern dance classes at MTSU and will be graduating in May, 2010. Matthew was recently invited to become a company member of Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre and will be performing in the Minneapolis Fringe Festival in August.

Nikki (Nicole) Taylor is a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi getting her BFA in Dance, Performance and Choreography. She is from Memphis, Tennessee and received her training from Jerrie Leatherwoods School of Dance and Ballet Memphis. In the summer of 2006 she trained here with TN Governors School for the Arts. During her training at Ballet Memphis, she was a member of their junior company. She is currently a member of The University of Southern Mississippi Repertory Dance Company. As a member of the Repertory Dance Company, she has performed in many pieces and last year had the opportunity to choreograph a piece on members of the company. Last summer, Nikki returned to Governors School as the dance counselor, and returns again this year with the same position. She will graduate in May, 2011 as an aspiring performer and choreographer.

Lindsay McNeal Ison, PT, MS, OSC, is a physical therapist at Susan Underwood Physical Therapy in Nashville, TN, the official physical therapy provider to Nashville Ballet.She is a Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopaedics.

Applicants will participate in a two-hour dance class -- including ballet and modern dance -- as their audition. Girls should bring pink tights, pink ballet shoes, and point shoes. The modern section of the class will be in bare feet, so wear tights that can be adjusted for this part of the audition. Hair should be properly secured off the neck, preferably in a bun. No leg warmers, sweatshirts, or baggy plastic pants. Boys should bring white t-shirts, black tights, and appropriate dance shoes. Students must perform at an intermediate or advanced level, and must demonstrate a high level of sustained interest and involvement in dance.

Please refer to the application for more specific criteria.

Thomas Shoemaker was a principal dancer with companies including the Atlanta Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Louisville Ballet, Augusta Ballet, and Charleston Ballet Theatre in a professional career that spanned 25 years. As a guest artist and choreographer, he has worked with numerous dance and theatre companies throughout the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Shoemaker also served as ballet master for the Augusta ballet from 2001-2004. As a teacher, Thomas has worked with students in high schools, performing arts schools, colleges and at numerous summer programs and festivals. He received his training, starting at the age of 10, from Tommy Armour, Robert Pike and Judith Newman, in his home town of Miami, Florida. Mr Shoemaker now resides in Nashville, where he is currently teaching and choreographing for the Vanderbilt University Dance Program and co-directs the Ensworth School of Dance.

Kim Neal Nofsinger is the Artistic Director of Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre, which he founded in 2001. His choreography has been produced throughout the United States and abroad in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. In 2003, his evening's length work, "A Pure White Room," was selected as the Critics' Choice for Best Dance Production from a field of over 120 works at the Minnesota Fringe Festival and in 1999, his duet "Permission" was selected by the American Dance Guild as one of the outstanding works produced in the United States that year. Prior teaching appointments include Ohio University, University of Minnesota-Duluth, State University of New York-Geneseo, Illinois State University, Winona State University, and Connecticut College. Nofsinger is the artistic director of the MTSU Dance Theatre. He is also a dance instructor at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Camp at Interlochen Center for the Arts, MI. Nofsinger has a MFA in Performance and Choreography from Arizona State University where he holds the distinction of being the first graduate student to receive a grant from the Institute for Arts and Technology.

Gregory T. Merriman is a 1983 graduate of Texas Christian University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Classical Ballet performance.Of the many he has studied with, Fernando Shaffenburg, Claire Duncan, Clara Cravey, Bill Martin-Viscount and Maria Grandy have been the most influential. Gregory began his early dancing career in 1977 with the Houston Allegro Ballet under the direction of Emma Mae Horn and Glenda Brown. He was a scholarship student under the direction of Ben Stevenson at the Houston Ballet Academy and later became an apprentice to the Houston Ballet
Company. Offered the Brown and Nordan Scholarships at TCU, Gregory joined the Fort Worth Ballet, dancing many of the classics as a frequent partner to Karen Schaffenburg. He was also a principle dancer with the Fort Worth Opera Ballet, under the direction of Marina Svetlova and a regular guest artist with regional companies throughout the Southwest. As a senior in college, Gregory was hired by ABT II but quickly moved to study with the Joffrey II Company, with Meredith Baylis at the Joffrey School in New York City and with Christine Neubert and the Neubert Ballet Company. Gregory began his teaching career in 1986 with the Twin Cities School of Dance in Bloomington, Illinois and co-directed the Twin Cities Ballet Company with Alexander Bennett for ten years. He assumed the role of Resident Choreographer with the Barrington Youth Ballet Company in Chicago in 1997, setting their annual full length “Nutcracker” along with seasonal favorites “The Sleeping Beauty” and “Graduation Ball”. In his continuing role as resident choreographer, Gregory regularly works with professionals from dance companies like River North, Hubbard Street Dance and the Joffrey Ballet, integrating them into the cast of this strong regional company. Gregory is current faculty member at both Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington/Normal Illinois. He specializes in teaching classical ballet, pointe at all levels and Pas de Deux. He also directs his own company, The Bloomington Ballet, with a mission of taking classical ballet into area public schools. Gregory is a prolific choreographer, creating as many as fifteen original works very year and has created his own versions of “A Midsummer Nights Dream”, “Cinderella” and “Napoli” to name a few. Gregory is honored to have been nominated in both 2007 and 2008 for the Illinois State University Outstanding Teaching Award-category II.