PAMELA GEBER HANDMAN portrait
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies, Modern Dance Department
  • Advisor for Secondary Teaching, Modern Dance Department
  • Professor, School Of Dance
801-587-9806

Research Summary

RESEARCH – My research has evolved over the years,and most recently is focused on community-based projects (centered on disability and the arts), choreography, and scholarly writing (anatomy/somatics-based).

Education

  • Bachelor of Fine Arts, Dance, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (NY, NY)
  • Master of Fine Arts, Dance, University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
  • Music Education Certification, Carl Orff Teaching Pedagogy, Bloomingdale House of Music (NY, NY)

Biography

Pamela Geber Handman is currently a Full Professor in the School of Dance at the University of Utah. Among the array of courses she teaches: contemporary techniques, improvisation, choreography, anatomy for dance, experiential anatomy for dance, teaching methods/pedagogy, advanced principles of teaching, teaching methods and practice/special education and dance, and has served in a variety of School of Dance administrative/service roles over the years. Pamela has also taught in the Masters of Art Teaching Program on campus. Pamela has been on faculty at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Bennington College’s July program in Vermont and has taught both dance and music in several K-12 schools throughout New York City.  She holds an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle with an emphasis in dance science and education, a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with an emphasis in performance and choreography, and a certification in Carl Orff’s teaching pedagogy for dance and music from Bloomingdale House of Music in New York City.  She has performed professionally with Sara Rudner, Wendy Perron, David Gordon, Fred Darsow and in works by Stephen Koester, David Dorfman, Susan Marshall, Doug Varone, Mark Dendy, Zvi Gotheiner as well as reconstructions by Vaslav Nijinsky, Alwin Nikolais and Doris Humphrey.  Pamela has performed duet works with partner, Eric Handman, including original and commissioned choreography. 

Pamela has had an ongoing fascination with experiental anatomy and somatic areas of study. As one of the co-founders of the Dance Kinesiology Teachers’ Group in 2002 (later re-named the Dance Science and Somatics Educators) and a long-time member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) serving for awhile on the Education Committee, Pamela has organized and presented many sessions, published within IADMS’ journal, as well as hosted several conferences and workshops bringing together dance science and somatics educators to share educational ideas and resources for teaching dancers.  Pamela has also been a student of the Alexander Technique, Ideokinesis, Bartenieff Fundamentals and Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement, continuing to integrate somatic principles and practices within her own teaching. Most recently, Pamela completed her first 200-hour Yoga Teacher certification. 

Pamela has ongoing interest working with special needs populations and mixed ability communities, Pamela organized and co-taught (alongside local writer, Melissa Bond), a workshop entitled “Jump Start”: a dance and story-sharing workshop for individuals with Down Syndrome and their families for which a documentary film was created, funded by both the Utah’s State Office of Education and the Council for Dee Fellows. Pamela received another Council for Dee Fellows grant in collaboration with Professor Angela Smith, Professor Kristen Paul, and Utah Presents, co-developing a week-long series of workshops and discussions about disability and the arts and centered on Axis Dance Company, a professional dance company including members who are physically disabled. Pamela actively seeks out community collaborations, projects, and writes for grants in order to continue these types of projects linking the University community with off-campus organizations and schools.

 

Pamela Geber Handman

Professor, School of Dance

University of Utah

330 South 1500 East #106

Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0280

p.geber@utah.edu