Prairie Wind Dancers performs March 9 for
Lecture~Concert Series at Fowler Center

Feb. 23, 2005--The Prairie Wind Dancers will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 9, at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro at the Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive.

The group’s performance will be the fifth event of the 2004-05 Lecture~Concert Series and is free and open to the public.

The Prairie Wind Dancers, a six-member contemporary dance company, utilize music and speech in concert performances that range from prairie themes to today’s issues. Formed in 1987, the group is based out of the Lawrence Arts Center in Kansas. The Prairie Wind Dancers use dance as a medium to express ideas, moods, feeling and to tell stories about life.

The group was founded by Candi Baker, who served as artistic director until June 2003. The current artistic director, Susan Warren, and ballet trainer Deborah Bettinger currently choreograph the performances of the Prairie Wind Dancers.

The six members of the dance company, Bridget Bartholome, Whitney Boomer, Malinda Crump, Tuesday Faust, Beau Hancock and Amanda January, have all studied dance extensively.

Bartholome began her training at Houston Ballet Academy and went on to study at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Evanston Ballet, Westport Ballet and the University of Arizona, where she received a degree in cultural anthropology. She was a company member of the New Orleans Dance Collective for three seasons and has been the dance critic for “Review Magazine” for more than three years.

Boomer holds a bachelor’s degree in dance from Kansas State University, where she performed with the University's Repertory Company. She started her dance study at the age of four at Washington Dance Studio in Manhattan, Kan., and since 1998 she has taught ballet and jazz.

Crump is a graduate of Webster University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in dance and a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She danced with aha! dance theatre for two years before joining the Prairie Wind Dancers this past year. Her choreography has been performed by the City in Motion Apprentice Company and Ballet North. She currently teaches at the City in Motion School of Dance and the Classical Ballet School.

Faust recently joined the Prairie Wind Dancers after a yearlong sabbatical in Amsterdam. During her year abroad she participated in several dance projects. Previously, she was a dancer/choreographer with aha! dance theatre and City in Motion Dance Theatre. She received her bachelor’s degree in modern dance from Texas Christian University.

Hancock is currently a student at the University of Kansas, where he is a candidate for May 2005 commencement with bachelor’s degree in dance and American studies. He is a founding member of the Bowery Dancers, a Lawrence-based, experimental dance company. In addition to the Bowery Dancers, he has performed with Cohan/ Suzeau Dance Company and University Dance Company.

January graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory with a bachelor’s degree in dance. She has attended summer intensive programs by Mark Morris and Alvin Ailey, and trained at American Dance Center for two years.

The next Lecture~Concert Series event will be on Thursday, March 24, with a performance by Sotavento, a Latin American folk group.

The Lecture~Concert Series presents diverse programs to enrich the cultural life of the campus, community and region.

For more information, please contact Dr. Gil Fowler, interim Dean of The Honors College, at 870-972-2308 or via email him at gfowler@astate.edu. 

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