Dance Alumni

Featured Dance Alumni

erica.lohman.headshot.jpg

Erica Lohman (BFA, ‘21)

Erica began her career right after graduation at the Dela Dance Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is currently an apprentice at the American Midwest Ballet. She is also the Assistant Director of the American Midwest Ballet School's Ensemble and Solo Programs and is a Guest Choreographer for Ballet INitiative in Carmel, Ind.

branson_bice-004.jpg

Branson Bice (BFA, '15)

Branson recently toured simultaneously with "An American in Paris," in the leading role of Jerry Mulligan, and as Abner in "South Pacific," where he danced, sang and acted. After graduation, Branson performed with The Ballet Quad Cities and The Minnesota Ballet. He is currently working out of New York City as a freelance performing artist.

Headshot of Jawole Willa Jo Zollars taken by Crush Boone.

Jawole Willa Jo Zollars (B.A. Dance, '75) 

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar earned her B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and in 2014 was named its Alumna of the Year. She earned her M.F.A. in dance from Florida State University. In 1984, Zollar founded Urban Bush Women (UBW) as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. She serves as director of UBW’s Summer Leadership Institute and is the Nancy Smith Fichter Professor of Dance and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.

Jawole has received fellowships from United States Artists (2008), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2009), and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2021). She received the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and honorary degrees from Columbia College, Chicago, Tufts University, Rutgers University, and Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. Jawole received the Dance Magazine Award (2015), the Dance/USA Honor Award (2016), and the Bessie Lifetime Achievement in Dance Award (2017). In 2020, The Ford Foundation awarded Urban Bush Women as one of America’s Cultural Treasures. In 2021, Jawole received the DanceTeacher Award of Distinction and the 2022 APAP Honors Award of Merit and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and most recently the recipient of the 2024 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Lifetime Achievement Award.