Professor receives 2022-23 Provost's Award

Heather Trommer-Beardslee, MFA, is a recipient of the 2022-23 Provost's Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity. Trommer-Beardslee is the Coordinator of the CMU Dance Program in the Department of Theatre and Dance and Artistic Director of the University Theatre Dance Company. 

Trommer-Beardslee’s recent publications in 2022 include: 

• “A Model for Interprofessional Learning: Dance and Physical Therapy Students’ Collaboration on Classes for People with Parkinson’s Disease” 

• “Movement Breaks for Classroom and Online Learning: An Outreach Project Connecting University and Elementary School Students” 

• “Removing Educational Silos: Models of Interdisciplinary and Multi-disciplinary Education” 

Trommer-Beardslee’s concert dance works have been performed nationally and internationally. Recent choreographic projects include jazz and tap dance for a performance in Nagoya, Japan with the Mishiro Dance Company, interdisciplinary projects bridging the gap between biology and the performing arts with biologist Wiline Pangle, and an educational opera based on the anatomy of the human vocal folds with CMU colleagues and faculty from Columbus State University, GA. 

Her choreography has been featured in films that have been screened nationally and internationally including “Slipping By,” directed by Eric Limarenko, “Rising,” directed by Keeley Stanley-Bohn and  “To Persuade Darkness,” co-directed by Trommer-Beardslee and CMU students Alynne Welch, and Rachel Napier. 

Trommer-Beardslee is in the process of co-authoring a book with Elaine DiFalco Daugherty titled, “Consent Practices in Performing Arts Education.” She also is in the beginning stages of creating a new dance film in collaboration with CMU faculty Eric Limarenko, Paul Collins, Ann Dasen and Jay Batzner.