School : Teacher Bios

	Nanette Robinson, choreographer, educator and dancer is ZUZI! Co-Founder and Artistic Director, holds a BFA in Dance from Temple University and is an introductory and ongoing certified instructor of Skinner Releasing. She has travelled internationally teaching and performing and has extensive experience as an aerial dancer and teacher having worked with Robert Davidson and Terry Sendgraff. Nanette’s choreography has been showcased locally with O-T-O, Zenith Dance Collective, Arts for All, University of Arizona Dance Department, Rick Wamer, “Mythos” Project, NEW ARTiculations, Funhouse Movement Theater, The Tucson Poetry Festival, the ADAA Showcase and the Flagstaff Summer Dance Festival. Nanette is currently teaching at Paolo Freire School, with Mirasol Recovery Treatment Program and ZUZI! School. She is thrilled to be a part of ZUZI!. It has been her home and artistic toolbox for creating dances, flying, teaching and working with all levels and ages of dance lovers.
	Beth Braun ZUZI! Associate Artistic Director has been performing professionally and teaching since 1982 in Tucson, throughout Arizona, in New York, California, and internationally. Originally from New York, Beth received her MA Degree in Dance from State University of New York at Brockport and has studied at the Alvin Ailey Contemporary Dance Center. Beth has worked with just about every modern company in Tucson, starting back with Territory Dance Theatre, and while in NY she worked with Randy James Danceworks for their first season. She has taught every age student from 13 month old babies to 60 year old differently abled adults. Currently Beth directs the dance program at Rincon/University High School. Beside her work with ZUZI!, Beth created and produced her own work with musician/composer/husband, Arthur Miscione. Beth was the 2005 recipient of the Buffalo Exchange Arts Award.

	Melissa Buckheit is a poet, dancer/Dance teacher, choreographer, English professor, photographer, and massage therapist. She began dancing at the age of 5, studying primarily classical French and Russian Ballet/Pointe, until she became an undergraduate at Brandeis University, and discovered Modern Dance and Martha Graham. Melissa has continued her study of multiple dance/movement modalities, studying Modern Dance, Choreography, Aerial Trapeze, Contact Improvisation, Mind-Body Centering, Dance Therapy, Hakomi, Authentic Movement and Skinner Releasing Technique. She holds a B.A. in Dance/Theatre, English & American Literature/Creative Writing and French from Brandeis University and an M.F.A. in Poetry from Naropa University. Melissa has danced and performed her original choreography in Boston, Boulder and Tucson, as a member of Brandeis Dance Collective in Boston, with Zuzi! Dance Company and through New Articulations Dance Theatre. Recent work includes, Maitri with Karen Reim, Dos Bracos with Maria Villa, when it is night, an island, Fall (repertory by Susan Dibble of Susan Dibble Dance Theatre), and This or That Life, an Aerial solo. She is a recipient of a 2007 Tucson-Pima Arts Council grant in Dance, has served on the TPAC Dance Grant panel for the last couple years, and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, a Best of the Net Award, and a Best of the Web Award through Sundress Press, for her poetry. Her poems, photography, and other writing have appeared or are forthcoming in nth position, Blue Fifth Review, The Drunken Boat, Taiga, Cutthroat, Pirene’s Fountain, Bombay Gin, and Sonora Review, among others. Her first manuscript, On the Back of the Animal Is the Mouth of the Vase, has been a finalist for several prizes and her chapbook, Arc, was published online through The Drunken Boat in 2007. Melissa has taught Creative Writing and Modern Dance at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Writing at The Art Center Design College and currently teaches Literature, Writing and Creative Writing at Pima College and Aerial Trapeze, Creative Movement and Creative Writing at Zuzi. She also founded and curates the Edge Reading Series for Younger and Emerging Writers, through Casa Libre, in Tucson.
	Jillian Courtney is a professional actor and performer. She has worked in New York CIty, Boston, Phoenix, Tucson, and LA. She has her BFA from Boston University and has pursued post-graduate study with the Southwest Shakespeare Institute and the American Conservatory Theatre. Jillian has taught acting and movement based theatre classes to all ages from pre-kindergardeners through adults and seniors. She also teaches full contact hoola hooping and other performance and acting related classes as well as private coaching.
	Aja Knaub is the assistant school director for O-T-O Dance and has been teaching and performing with them for four years. She started her performance training in the theatre arts and moved to dance when she discovered the aerial apparatus, flying and suspending movement in the air. She began 9 years ago on the low flying trapeze under the tutelage of Patti Lopez and the Arivaca Arts Council. In Tucson she expanded this skill with Annie Bunker, Charles Thompson and Nate Dryden. She has taken workshops with Robert Davidson, Nancy Smith of Frequent Flyers Productions, Terry Sendgraff, the trapeze twins Elsie and Serenity Smith, and French aerialists Jacques Bertrand and Frédérique Debitte. She is excited to be teaching for Zuzi!
	Adair Landborn is a dance performer, choreographer, scholar and educator in both contemporary modern dance and Spanish flamenco dance genres. Adair’s professional career includes extensive national and international achievements. Adair is a certified Laban movement analyst and incorporates Bartenieff movement fundamentals and Laban theories in all of her classes. An accomplished movement improviser and movement play specialist, Adair holds advanced degrees in dance, including an MFA from the University of Arizona and an interdisciplinary doctorate in the anthropology of dance and somatic studies from Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Currently, Adair is the Artistic Director of the Peña Flamenca de Tucson; serves on the board of directors for Cross-Cultural Dance Resources in Phoenix and Flagstaff; is a lecturer/scholar with the Arizona Humanities Council; and provides movement therapy for private clients. Visit (www.landborn.com) the Landborn Living Arts website for more info about her creative art furniture, public presentations, and movement classes. DeAnna Murray has taught and performed bellydance for 25 years. She also holds certifications in Yoga, RYT (2003), Yamuna Body Rolling and Foot Fitness (2006), Pilates (2000), Gyrotinic, (2001), and Gyrokinesis (2002).
	Carie Schneider discovered her lifelong passion for dance in a creative movement class at age 5, and has been dancing anywhere and in any way she can ever since. She first encountered aerial dance when ZUZI! dancers visited her high school in 1999. Since 2001, Carie has worked with ZUZI! in many capacities, as a teacher, company member, theater manager, marketing coordinator and more. Currently Carie works intermittently with Movement Salon, a compositional improvisation group, and she has just begun studies toward her PhD in English Literature at the University of Arizona.
	Sara Anderson Stewart graduated summa cum laude at Arizona State University in 2004 and was the recipient of the Herberger College of Fine Arts Distinguished Graduate Award and the Outstanding Dance Educator Award. At ASU Sara performed with Dance Arizona Repertory Theater (DART), and in over a dozen works choreographed by ASU faculty, students, and guest artists Vicki Schick and Yvonne Rainer. Apart from ASU Sara performed in Phoenix and Minneapolis with GGG Dance Company. Upon graduation, Sara directed the dance program at Skyline High School. In 2008 she made the move to Tucson, to pursue a career teaching with the Opening Minds through the Arts (OMA) program as an Arts Integration Specialist (AIS). Among many music AIS, Sara was the first OMA AIS with a dance background, pioneering the way for other dance educators. As an OMA AIS, Sara collaborates with classroom teachers to develop lesson plans that use the performing and visual arts to teach, support and reinforce academic objectives. Sara is a former teacher at ZUZI!, but is regretfully taking a hiatus to pursue her graduate degree with the Language, Reading, and Culture program at the University of Arizona. However, during most nights Sara can still be found at ZUZI! Dance Company, where she attends class, performs, choreographs, and also directs with Apprentice Company--that goodness for late-night rehearsals!
	Susannah "Sukie" Keita is a versatile dance artist who has performed in ballet, musical theater, modern and jazz dance companies. Since residing in Tucson, Arizona, she has been a member of OTO Dance Theatre and has appeared with local contemporary dance companies including ZUZI! Move It! Dance Company, Funhouse Movement Theatre, Flam Chen, Thom Lewis Dance, and New Articulations. A graduate of the University of Arizona Dance Department, Sukie earned her M.F.A. in 2003. Sukie is dedicated to passing on her love of dance and has forged a career in dance education, teaching young people of diverse backgrounds in K-12 public schools and private dance studio settings for the past 10 years. She is currently the director of the dance program at Amphitheater Middle School in Tucson, Arizona, and has taught dance in over 20 schools in the United States. http://sukiekeita.com
	Hailey Sounart first came to ZUZI! when she took the High Flying Arts Camp and afterwards, she started taking trapeze classes. She joined the Many Limbs Youth Company and has been dancing at ZUZI! for nine years. She is currently in ZUZI! Apprentice Company, part of ZUZI!'s modern Dance Company. Hailey attentds Catalina Foothills High School, which unfortunatly doesn't have a dance program. Hailey is mainly an aerial and modern dancer, but is now broadening her horizons with ballet, jazz, lyrical, and hip hop. Hailey started assisting trapeze classes a few years ago, and will now be teaching her own aerial classes.