Bio
Amy Ernst began her professional career touring internationally with the Lewitzky Dance Company for ten years as a principal dancer and master teacher. She joined the University of Arizona dance faculty in 1995 following two years as an assistant professor with the Dance Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Associate professor Ernst teaches all levels of Modern Dance Technique and Choreography, Dance Injury Prevention, Dance Kinesiology, and Biomechanics for Dance. With fellow members of the School of Dance faculty she team-teaches Looking at Dance, Dance History, Teaching Methods for Dance, and Graduate Forum. She also serves as a Graduate Advisor for the School.
In recognition of her teaching at the University Ms. Ernst received consecutive (1998,1999) College of Fine Arts Awards for Teaching Excellence. She was also awarded the Dean’s Commendation for Special Achievement in Teaching for 2001-2002. Most recently she was selected as the 2003-04 recipient of the College’s Charles and Irene Putnam Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her research in Dance Injury Prevention has been invited for presentation at several dance science conferences including the 1994 International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) Conference in San Francisco, California, and the 1997 International Council for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, *Sport and Dance (ICHPER*SD) World Congress in Seoul, Korea.
Most recently Ms. Ernst traveled to the 2006 Hong Kong Dance Festival as an invited guest teacher and choreographer, and during the same summer she was invited to premiere work in the seventh annual Los Angeles Dance Invitational. In March 2007 she will be an adjudicator for the American College Dance Festival Association, Central Region.
Ms. Ernst’s choreography can currently be seen in the repertoire of several professional dance companies including Dallas Repertoire Ballet , Thodos Dance Chicago , and Fusion Dance (San Diego). She was a Professional Category winner of the Arizona Choreography Competition for 2001, 2002, and 2006. She was also chosen as a finalist in both the 2002 and 2004 Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival (Professional Division Competition), held annually in Palm Desert, California. She has been invited as a guest choreographer to both the 1998 and 2004 National AAHPERD Conventions. In 2000 she was invited to guest teach for the Dance Programme at Telford College in Edinburgh, Scotland. During the same year her choreography was chosen to represent the Southwest Region in the 2000 National Gala Concert of the American College Dance Festival Association. In 1997 she participated as a guest teacher and choreographer in the International Theaterschool Festival in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
