The Greenville Dance Festival was held at the Fine Arts Center and the FAC dancers were again privileged to have another master class with Gerri Houlihan who was the special guest artist at the Greenville Dance Festival on October 11th. The main purpose of the festival was to bring guest artists to teach a variety of dance styles in an effort to broaden the breadth of understanding in our dancers and community.

Dance classes in the traditional techniques of Classical Ballet and Modern/Contemporary Dance as well as dance from other cultures were offered. Besides Gerri Houlihan, other guest artists were Sybil Huskey, Professor of Dance and former Chair of the Department of Dance and Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Stephanie Milling, Assistant Professor of Dance Education at Winthrop University; Wanda Ebright, Associate Professor of Dance at Coker College; Krishna Kumar Venkataraman and Sivakami Bhavnandnan (“Sivi”), trained at the world renowned Dhananjayans and Padmashri Adyar Lakshman of Madras, India. Donald Shabkie accompanied Gerri Houlihan’s class.

Adam Maalouf (FAC Jazz student) accompanied Gerri Houlihan’s master classes during the Greenville Dance Festival and two dance alumnae were guest teachers, Jennifer Becker (Dance 2006) and Kaitlyn Martinez (Dance 2008) each taught two classes.

Fine Arts Center Dance Residency with Master Teacher and Guest Artist Gerri Houlihan
Gerri Houlihan was in residence for two days teaching master classes to the dance students at the Fine Arts Center. Ms. Houlihan is Associate Professor of Dance at Florida State University, on the faculty at the American Dance Festival and is currently the international representative for the American Dance Festival having participated in fifteen international residencies. She trained at Juilliard, earned an M.F.A. in dance from Hollins University and has danced professionally with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Don Shabkie accompanied the classes on the piano. Funding for her residency was made possible in part by a grant from the Metropolitan Arts Council, which receives funding from the City of Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Company, LLC, Michelin North America, Inc., and the South Carolina Arts Commission with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC.