skip to main content
UTRGV

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Main Menu
Donate Now Directory myUTRGV

You are here:

Faculty

Dance Department College of Fine Arts

  • Home
  • About
    • History and Mission
    • Department Profile
    • Facilities
  • Degree Plans
    • Student Resources
  • Faculty
    • Faculty Resources - Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost
  • UTRGV Dance Companies
    • Ballet Company
    • Ballet Folklórico
    • Dance Ensemble
    • Ballet Español
  • Performances & Events
    • Videos
  • Contact Us

Faculty - Related Links

  • Faculty Resources - Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost

Contact Us

Michael Weaver
Interim Director of Dance 
Dance Department
EHPE II, Room 115
Email: michael.weaver@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 665-2230
Fax: (956) 665-8728
Facebook

Faculty

Fred Darsow, MFA

Associate Professor
Phone: 956-665-2315
Email: frederick.darsow@utrgv.edu
Read More

Fred Darsow, MFA

FRED DARSOW is a choreographer whose work has been presented by Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s, The Kitchen, Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival, Expo ‘98/Lisboa, Nuyorican Poets’ Café, Lincoln Center Institute, Central Park Summerstage, DIA Art Foundation, Dixon Place, Movement Research, The Flea, among other venues in and around New York. His company has toured throughout the U.S. and in Portugal.

The FRED DARSOW DANCE COMPANY was formed in 1986 directly after Darsow graduated with a BALA in Choreography and Literature from SUNY Purchase. Since that time, Darsow has choreographed over thirty completed works with his company. He has received a number of grants including from the Joyce Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Harkness Foundations for Dance, Dance Theater Workshop’s Suitcase Fund, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Dance Ink, Travelers’ Grant, Patricia Harris Fellowship, the Patty Foresman Fund, and commissioning support from DTW’s First Light Project and Danspace Project’s Commissioning Initiative. From 1995-98 on a complete fellowship, he received an MFA in Dance from Arizona State University.

Darsow has performed and/or choreographed with other dance artists among them Wendy Perron, Tour de Fuerza, Carlota Santana Spanish Arts, Los Canasteros, La Meira, Patricia Hoffbauer, Doug Elkins, Susan Rethorst, Stephanie Skura, Ann Ludwig, Lola Montes, Polygram Videos, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He has been the dance artist in residence at Denison University, Wesleyan University, and Stephens College. He has also taught workshops/master classes at the Trisha Brown Studios, the New York Dance Intensive, and at Fazil’s Dance Studio in NYC as well as at NYU, ASU, OSU, Trinity College, Bucknell University and other universities throughout the country. In the summer of 2000, he taught at several studios in and around Mumbai, India. In 2002, He assisted Trisha Brown in the reconstruction of Luci, mie traditrici for the Opera de Rouen in France. Recently, he showed work in Colombia and Scotland. He created and showed 3 films at University of Utah/SLC and Victoria Island, Canada. Last spring, he was a guest artist for the Attakkalari Movements Arts Center in Bangalore, India. He is currently an Associate Professor at U. of Texas/Pan American where he teaches flamenco, choreography, and modern dance.

Darsow has studied modern dance on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown studios. He has studied at the Limon Studio among others. Flamenco studies included—in Spain with Manolete, Ciro, El Guito, Ana Lopez, Concha Vargas, Maria Magdalena, and La China; and in the USA with Jose Molina, La Meira, La Conja, Alejandro Granados, Antonio Canales, Chuni Amaya, Carmela Greco, El Junco, and Roberto Amaral. He has studied choreography with Bessie Schoenberg, Sara Stackhouse, Sara Rudner, and Kazuko Hirabayashi.

Curriculum Vitae


Associate Professor
Dance Department
Email: frederick.darsow@utrgv.edu
Edinburg, HPE II, Room 110
Phone: 956-665-2315

Min Kim, MFA

Associate Professor
Phone: 956-665-2317
Email: min.kim@utrgv.edu
Read More

Min Kim, MFA

Min Kim is a performer, choreographer and filmmaker working in interdisciplinary performance. Prior to joining the faculty at UTRGV, she served on the faculty of Arizona State University and Kennesaw State University. She teaches courses in choreography, dance technique and performance at UTRGV.

Kim started her dance training in classical ballet, and performed in classical and contemporary repertoire as well as Asian dance forms both in the U.S. and her native Korea. As a researcher and choreographer, she has presented her work in Brazil, Spain, England, Japan, Korea, and throughout the United States. She has been a guest artist and guest teacher at numerous institutions and dance festivals including Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction, Michigan State University, Arizona State University, Stephen F. Austin State University, Paradise Valley College, Happendance Company, Desert Dance Theatre, Bailando Dance Festival, and the Beijing International Dance Festival in China. In addition to teaching and creating work, she has been involved in various community projects in the Rio Grande Valley. For her recent community project "Engaging the Rio Grande Valley Through Dance," she received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Texas Commission on the Arts. Kim holds an M.F.A. in Dance from Arizona State University.


Associate Professor
Dance Department
Email: min.kim@utrgv.edu
Edinburg, Portable 9 1.102A
Phone: 956-665-2317

Dana Shackelford, MFA

Associate Professor
Phone: 956-665-2880
Email: dana.shackelford@utrgv.edu
Read More

Dana Shackelford, MFA

Dana Shackelford is a choreographer and educator with a special interest in the study of dance kinesiology.  She earned her undergraduate degree in Dance from Texas Woman's University and MFA in Dance from Arizona State University. Dana has a combined total of twelve years of experience teaching dance in two public high schools in El Paso, Texas which provided her with invaluable experience as a dance educator that serves her well as the director of UTRGV's Teacher Certification degree program.  Dana was also a principal dancer, choreographer, and teacher with the El Paso Contemporary Dance Theatre (EPCDT) where she performed several lead roles in the works of Bill Evans, Joan Laage, Wade Madsen, Nancy Cranbourne, Lisa Smith, and others.  She supplemented her early dance training with summer intensives with Bill Evans at the University of New Mexico, Utah's Repertory Dance Theatre in Snowbird, Utah, the José Limón Summer Intensive in NYC, and the Harvard Summer Dance Intensive in Cambridge, MA.  Her performing experience also includes several performances in summer concerts with Boulder, Colorado's Interweave Dance Theatre from 1993 - 2001.  She has served as a guest choreographer for the Arizona School of Ballet, the UTEP Department of Theatre and Dance, and the Rio Grande Valley's local company, Conceptos Entidad Dancistica. Currently, Dana is an Associate Professor in UTRGV's Dance Department and is proud to be an original faculty member from the inception of Dance as a degreed program at UTRGV's legacy campus, UTPA . She teaches modern dance technique, Dance History, Dance Science, Dance Theory, and choreographs for the Dance Ensemble. Dana continues to pursue her research in the area of dance science with presentations on Somatic based training to promote the longevity of active dancing years for dancers at conferences of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) and at American College Dance Association (ACDA) regional conferences. 

Curriculum Vitae


Associate Professor
Dance Department
Email: dana.shackelford@utrgv.edu
Edinburg, HPE II, Room 111
Phone: 956-665-2880

Miguel Pena, MFA

Assistant Professor
Phone: 956-665-2679
Email: miguel.pena@utrgv.edu
Read More

Miguel Pena, MFA

Miguel Peña, originally from Reynosa Mexico, is a graduate from the University of Texas-Pan American where he got his bachelor’s and master’s in Electrical Engineering. Miguel was the first recipient of a full scholarship awarded by the UT-Pan American Dance Department. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

A professional dancer and choreographer, Miguel worked as a dancer with “Espectaculo Jarocho” under the direction of Richard O’Neal, where he was part of the ensemble for more than 5 years. He has worked nationally and internationally setting choreographic works for different dance companies such as BYU folk dance ensemble, Ballet Folklorico Nacional de Milwaukee, and several Rio Grande Valley folklorico groups. He has choreographed special performances throughout the nation for important artists such as Paquita la del Barrio, Vikki Carr, and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. Miguel has studied with renowned choreographers such as: Viviana Basanta, Carlos Antunez, Julio Flores, Jairo Heli, Roberto Martinez, Merrina Nuñez, Ariadna Garcia, among others. In 2016, Miguel provided a master class in the American Dance College Association south conference in Hattisburg, Mississippi. Also, in 2016, the UTRGV Ballet Folklorico received national recognition at the National conference of the American Dance College Association under his artistic direction.

Curriculum Vitae


Assistant Professor
Dance Department
Email: miguel.pena@utrgv.edu
Edinburg, Portable 9 1.102B
Phone: 956-665-2679

Sonia Chapa, MFA

Lecturer II
Phone: 956-665-4555
Email: sonia.chapa@utrgv.edu
Read More

Sonia Chapa, MFA

Sonia Chapa is a professional dancer, choreographer, and instructor. Began her formal training at the age of three under Denmark native Grethe Sullivan in McAllen, Texas where she trained in classical ballet, jazz, tap, Mexican folklorico, ballroom, bellydance, flamenco, contemporary, modern dance and gymnastics. Her extensive dance training led her to travel, perform throughout U.S., Mexico and Spain and continue with intensive training in all genres. Her love of dance and teaching led her to open dance studios in McAllen, and Mission Texas where she taught all ages of students and levels, formed her own professional dance company with her elite students , and served the Rio Grande Valley for 25 years. Sonia was immediately noticed and was invited to join Boston Flamenco Ballet and toured the U.S. for two years. Soon after, she was invited to be a soloist  for the Festival de Tamaulipas performing the operas “La Traviata” and “Carmen” for two consecutive tours. Her desire to continue learning has consecutively led her to Madrid, Spain where she has been training, performing professionally with numerous flamenco masters at the “Amor de Dios “ flamenco studios.

Clearly, a successful dancer, Sonia has had the opportunity to work with many major flamenco artists such as Cristobal Reyes, Timo Lozano, Matilde Coral, Antonio el Pipa, Concha Jareno to name a few. In the U.S., Mexico and Canada,  she has worked with major artists in  ballet, bellydance, modern dance, ballroom such as, ballet master Agusto de Varona of Cuba, Farida Meguid of Egypt, Bill Evans of U.S. and Fred Astaire teachers in the U.S., among others. In addition, she has a Master of Arts in Communications and held a UTPA lecturer position in speech communications for six years and as an adjunct lecturer position for the UTPA Physical Education Department for three years teaching dance. Sonia currently serves as a Lecturer of dance at UTRGV College of  Fine Arts Dance Program where she teaches dance performance and technique.

Curriculum Vitae


Lecturer II
Dance Department
Email: sonia.chapa@utrgv.edu
Edinburg, Portable 9 1.102D
Phone: 956-665-4555
Jump to Top
Give to UTRGV

UTRGV

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • CARES, CRRSAA and ARP Reporting
  • Site Policies
  • Contact UTRGV
  • Required Links
  • Fraud Reporting
  • Senate Bill 18 Reporting
  • UTRGV Careers
  • Clery Act Reports
  • Web Accessibility
  • Mental Health Resources
  • Sexual Misconduct Policy
  • Reporting Sexual Misconduct