Profile

Donna Faye was appointed professor and director for the School of Dance at the University of the Arts in 2010. She currently serves on the Dance USA Philadelphia Advisory Board and will serve as a co-chair for the national conference for Dance USA hosted in Philadelphia in the summer of 2013. In March of 2012, she served as one of the festival coordinators for the National High School Dance Festival that brought 1500 high school dance students and teachers from around the world to UArts. In June 2012, the School of Dance will host the Society for Dance History Scholars conference: Dance and the Social City. Donna Faye serves as co-coordinator and member of the planning committee for this important first time event for the city.

Before arriving at UArts, she served as dean at the world renowned American Dance Festival (ADF). In 2011, upon her departure from the festival after 28 years, she was awarded the distingued Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching. While at the ADF, she designed, developed and managed the curriculum, all international students exchange programs, hired and recruited festival faculty, developed and lead the school recruitment efforts both within the U.S. and abroad, developed and directed the ADF NY Intensive, and taught a multitude of courses. Also as the ADF dean and associate dean, she represented the U.S. at numerous international education platforms and conferences including Dance Theater Workshop's “University Project” and Festival de Danse Cannes.

As professor of Dance at Hollins University (HU) from 1993 to 2010, she developed and directed the international HU/ADF MFA program, the Post-Baccalaureate and combined BA/BFA programs in collaboration with the ADF. These programs were the first of their kind to merge an academic university with a festival environment and combine low residency, returning professional students with younger, emerging dance artists.

In 2006, she was awarded the North Carolina School for the Arts Outstanding Teacher in Performance for contributions to the dance program at NCSA as well as the state of North Carolina. She has served on a multitude of panels and organizations around the globe in support of dance and the arts throughout her career. In depth study and teaching of dance in countries around the world include Tunisia, Italy, China, Hong Kong, England, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Cuba. She managed, designed, curated the teaching platforms, and taught for the ADF International Linkages in Moscow, Seoul and Shanghai. Ms. Burchfield holds a BFA and MFA from Texas Christian University where she studied with Jerry Bywaters Cochran.