Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Colleen Callahan- Russell Season 2 Episode 29

A St. Paul native and tap and jazz dancer through high school,
Colleen went to Utah and
majored in dance. She came back to the Twin Cities on fire with
the idea of performing and
choreographing and teaching dance in the schools. While in Utah,
she was exposed to and
embraced for the first time “modern dance”.  She came back
to Minnesota in 1979 with a
renewed idea of how deep and wide dance could be and became an
apprentice with the Nancy Hauser Dance Company and a member of
Loon on a Log Dance Company with Joan Sloss.

Colleen received a Mcknight Choreographic Fellowship award, a
State Arts Board Award, a Dancer Pool Award and co-produced many
of her own concerts as well as being produced by The Minnesota
Dance Alliance’ Summer Dance series. Her work was also featured
in the Walker Art Center's  “Choreographer’s Evenings”
multiple times through the 1980’s and 90’s. 

At the same time, she was teaching dance at Minneapolis North
High for 15 years and finally at Minneapolis Southwest High for
20 years; she also began and has sustained the Dance Educator’s
Coalition since 1986 who’s mission is to increase the quantity
and quality of dance K-College throughout the state. She is a
recipient of the 2007 Sage Award for Minnesota Dance Educator,
the 2011 National Dance Educator of the Year award through the
National Dance Education Organization and 2014 Dance USA’s
“Inspiration Award”.