Faculty
Renay Aumiller
Renay Aumiller is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Elon University. She is an artist and scholar specializing in contemporary modern dance technique and the creative process. Her research interests explore the intersection of technical vocabularies, performance, and movement invention with The Franklin Method somatic education. She crafts her choreography to research the human experience, specifically learned human behavior and its effects on locality, collaboration and association. She recently presented her choreography in various festivals including the American Dance Festival, Charlotte Dance Festival, WAXworks in Brooklyn, North Carolina Dance Festival, and the National College Dance Association Conference at the Kennedy center. This past academic year, she enjoyed guest residencies at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, North Carolina State University, The Dance Project: The School at City Arts, Arts Together, the Southeast Regional Ballet Association (SERBA), and led workshops at the American College Dance Association Conference at West Virginia University. She will be spending the summer of 2016 researching contemporary dance trends in choreography at the Spoleto Festival USA, Jacob’s Pillow, Vancouver, Canada, and the American Dance Festival. She continues researching the creative process through her dance company, RAD | Renay Aumiller Dances. Aumiller is currently exploring the integration of the Franklin Method technique into her movement invention for her next choreography project. This evening length dance will premiere in the summer of 2017. Aumiller has received several grants and fellowships to support her artistic and scholarly research. She has received an Elon Faculty Research and Development Grant to pursue her scholastic research in choreographic development, a New Faculty Summer Fellowship to earn her Franklin Method Level 1 teaching certification, and a CATL travel grant in 2013 and 2014 to support her attendance at the American College Dance Festival and to participate in Body, Mind, Centering (BMC) Somatic Movement Educator certification workshops, respectively. She has received the prestigious Ella Pratt Emerging Artist Grant through the Durham Arts Council, a mini-grant to pursue her BMC studies from the North Carolina Dance Alliance, with whom she received the North Carolina Choreography Fellowship.
E.E. Balcos
E.E. Balcos, originally from Minneapolis, is an Associate Professor of Dance and has been a professional dancer and choreographer for over 30 years. At the age of 18, he began studying dance with modern dance pioneer Hanya Holm at the Colorado College in Colorado Springs. His research and teaching interests include somatic movement education and experiential anatomy, choreography, dance technique and performance, improvisation and contact improvisation.
For the stage, he has choreographed over 50 professional works and 30 works for dance students. From 2006 - 2013, his dance company, E.E.MOTION, was featured with North Carolina Dance Festival, Charlotte Dance Festival, ADF’s Acts to Follow Series, Piccolo Spoleto’s Dance at Noon Series in Charleston, SC, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis. His choreographic works have been presented in such well-known venues as Walker Art Center and Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, Joyce/Soho and St. Mark’s Church in New York City, Folly Theatre in Kansas City, Lawrence Art Center, and at numerous dance festivals, and universities nationally. Balcos’ collaborative work with composer John Allemeier, Deep Water: The Murder Ballads, an evening-length dance-theatre piece was premiered at the Knight Theatre in Charlotte in 2013.
As a performer, Balcos toured nationally and internationally with Shapiro & Smith Dance (NYC), Demetrius Klein Dance Company (FL), Zenon Dance Company, (MPLS) and worked with renowned choreographers including Danny Buraczeski, Ping Chong, Sam Costa, Sean Curran, David Dorfman, Joe Goode, Daniel Gwirtzman, Dwight Rhoden, David Rousseve, Stephanie Skura, Jan Van Dyke, and Bill Young. He performed and presented work throughout the U.S. and in Italy, Uzbekistan, and the Philippines.
Balcos received grants from Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, Asian American Renaissance, Missouri State University, COAS at UNCC, Mecklenburg County Arts & Science Council, and Faculty Research Grants from UNC Charlotte. He holds a BA in Music from The Colorado College and an MFA in Choreography from The University of Iowa. He has been on faculty at Charlotte Ballet. He was also an Artist-in-Residence with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in Washington, DC and at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2009.
Dr. Mila Parrish
Dr. Mila Parrish is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro where she is the Director of Dance Education teaching undergraduate and graduate dance education courses as well as Laban Movement Analysis and Pilates.
An active scholar, Dr. Parrish’s research has established new trends in movement technology, curricula design and teacher training in the digital arena. Her publications appear in the Journal of Dance Education, Research in Dance Education, Arts Education Policy Review, Journal for Learning through the Arts, the book series, Dance: Current Selected Research and the International Handbook of Research in Arts Education.
Dr. Parrish currently serves on the the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Dance Education Organization (NCDEO) as founding President; the Dance and the Child International (DaCi) as the Newsletter Editor, the Journal for Learning in the Arts (JLTA) and the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) as the Director of Research. Additionally, she serves as Special Guest Faculty with the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92Y Harkness Dance Center in New York and American Dance Festival (ADF).
Prior to her career in higher education, Parrish was a professional dancer and choreographer in NYC, performing with modern, ballet and theatre companies, most notably, The Jean Erdman Theater of Dance, with whom she toured nationally. Her company, Koshin Dance Theater has presented works at various NYC venues including DIA Center for the Arts, P.S. 122, the Morningside Dance Festival and St. Mark’s Church. Mila has been employed in public and private schools as a Program Director, Teaching-Artist and Teacher-Collaborator for BOCES Arts, Creative Arts Laboratory, ArtsBridge America, and the ABC Schools program.
Dr. Parrish received a BFA in choreography and performance and K-12 Teachers Certification from the University of Michigan; an MA in Dance Education from Columbia University in New York and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. She is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in NYC and is a comprehensively certified Pilates instructor with Balanced Body and is a member of the Pilates Method Alliance. Mila began her studies in the Pilates method with first generation master teacher and elder Romana Kryzanowska and has been practicing and teaching ever since. She has trained with Master teachers Martha Eddy, Anne Green Gilbert, Ann Kipling Brown, Ann Hutchenson Guest, Kellee Stokes, Anna Jones, Melissa Kakavas, Chantel Lopez, and Eric Franklin. Her publications on Labanotation, Motif Writing and enhanced movement cognition support her deep interest helping dancers develop body awareness and creative skills, strength, balance, and freedom.
Dr. Parrish is nationally and internationally recognized for her work in dance pedagogy, educational technology and interdisciplinary instruction. A leader in the dance education community, Parrish has offering over 100 professional development courses, seminars and workshops thought the US and in Canada, China, Finland, Brazil, Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands. Mila as established numerous service and community engagement initiatives including; Dancers Connect a free community dance program, iDance AZ and iDance SC a standards-based curriculum delivery system of dance instruction using videoconferenced technologies, Embodied History reconstruction initiatives, Magellan undergraduate scholarship, as well as spearheading professional development programs: Hip Hop for Hope, Jazz it Up, Evolving Dance through Connectivity, Movement of Inspired Minds.
Dr. Parrish is the 2011 recipient of the Dance Advocacy Award from the South Carolina Dance Association and the 2012 Faculty Advisor Award from the University of South Carolina and the 2015 Leadership Award for her community initiatives and scholarly work from the National Dance Education Organization and the 2016 Faculty Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award for her research in service learning and community partnerships from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
