MFA, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Charleston has enjoyed working for many years in dance as a performer, teacher, choreographer and rehearsal director. She is currently dancing with Baye & Asa, Christopher Williams, Douglas Dunn, and Taylor Stanley/Alec Knight. Charleston danced with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company for many years and performed in the 1992 world tour of Einstein on the Beach. Other artists she has worked with include Chamecki/Lerner, Kota Yamazaki, David Parker, RoseAnne Spradlin, Stephen Koester, and June Finch. Invited by Merce Cunningham to teach at his studio in 2001, she currently teaches for the Cunningham Trust and independently, and is on faculty for the Cunningham Technique Teacher Training Program. Other teaching engagements have included Sarah Lawrence College, Barnard College, SUNY Purchase, the Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Program, SEAD (Salzburg, Austria), and El Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico City). Charleston has also taught yoga and movement for children and the elderly. Her work has been presented at venues in New York City, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Arizona, and South America. A Fulbright Scholar in Santiago, Chile in 2008, she subsequently served as Peer Reviewer in Dance for the Fulbright organization. SLC, 2019–
Undergraduate Courses 2024-2025
Dance
Movement Studio Practice (Level 2)
Advanced, Component—Fall and Spring
DNCE 5503
These classes will emphasize the steady development of movement skills, energy use, strength, and articulation relevant to each teacher's technical and aesthetic orientations. Instructors will change at either the end of each semester or midway through the semester, allowing students to experience present-day dance practice across diverse styles and cultural lineages. At all levels, attention will be given to sharpening each student’s awareness of time and energy and training rhythmically, precisely, and according to sound anatomical principles. Degrees of complexity in movement patterns will vary within the leveled class structure. All students will investigate sensory experience and the various demands of performance.
Faculty
- Jodi Melnick
- Janet Charleston
- Jessie Young
- Wendell Gray II
Graduate Courses 2024-2025
MFA Dance
Movement Studio Practice II
Component—Fall and Spring
5503
These classes will emphasize the steady development of movement skills, energy use, strength, and articulation relevant to each teacher's technical and aesthetic orientations. Instructors will change at either the end of each semester or midway through the semester, allowing students to experience present-day dance practice across diverse styles and cultural lineages. At all levels, attention will be given to sharpening each student’s awareness of time and energy and training rhythmically, precisely, and according to sound anatomical principles. Degrees of complexity in movement patterns will vary within the leveled class structure. All students will investigate sensory experience and the various demands of performance.
Faculty
- Jodi Melnick
- Janet Charleston
- Jessie Young
- Wendell Gray II
Previous Courses
Dance
Movement Studio Practice
Component—Year
In these classes, emphasis will be on the steady development of movement skills, energy use, strength, and articulation relevant to the technical and aesthetic orientations of each teacher. At all levels, attention will be given to sharpening each student’s awareness of time and energy and to training rhythmically, precisely, and in accordance with sound anatomical principles. Degrees of complexity in movement patterns will vary within the leveled class structure. All students will investigate sensory experience and the various demands of performance.
Faculty
- Peggy Gould
- Jodi Melnick
- Lacina Coulibaly
- Jennifer Nugent
- Janet Charleston
- Jordan Demetrius Lloyd
MFA Dance
Contemporary Dance Practices
Component—Year
In these classes, emphasis will be on the continued development of basic skills, energy use, strength, and control relevant to the particular style of each teacher. At all levels, attention will be given to sharpening each student’s awareness of time and energy and to disciplining the body to move rhythmically, precisely, and in accordance with sound anatomical principles. Students will study complex movement patterns, investigate somatic use, and concentrate on the demands of performance.
Faculty
- Jodi Melnick
- Paul Singh
- Jennifer Nugent
- Stuart Shugg
- Angie Pittman
- Janet Charleston