Jan Erkert
Department Head, Professor
Jan Erkert, is a dance-maker, teacher, autho
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Head of the
Department of Dance at University of Illinois. As Artistic Director of Jan Erkert & Dancers from 1979 – 2000, she created over 70 works, critically acclaimed for their lush, evocative imagery. Ms. Erkert’s work has been seen throughout the United States as well as in Germany, Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, Uruguay and Israel. Ms. Erkert and the company have been honored with numerous awards including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council, and Ruth Page Awards for choreography and performance. She has received two Fulbright Scholar Awards and served on the Fulbright panel. Throughout her career she has devoted much of her energy to advancing teaching and learning. She authored Harnessing the Wind: The Art of Teaching Modern Dance, which was published in 2003 by Human Kinetics and she has been a master teacher at universities and colleges throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia. As a professor of dance at Columbia College Chicago from 1990-2006, she garnered many awards including the 1999 Excellence in Teaching Award, and a nominee for the U.S. Professor of the Year sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation. Her political and community work includes partnerships with the Kovler Center for Survivors of Torture, The Peace Museum and Amnesty International. She recently traveled around the world to study perceptions of the body and gender as experienced in communal bathing. She is currently writing a screenplay for television about these experiences.
Phone: 244-3129
