#11: Academic Advising with Max Vasapoli

Please welcome Jo Rowan and Associate Dean Melanie Shelley from my Alma Mater!
Both inspirations to me and my growth as a dancer, I am excited to share their expertise and values at OCU. Jo is the head of the dance department and has been since 1981. Dean Melanie attended school their shortly after and they have been a team ever since.
Melanie Shelley, Associate Dean and Professor of Arts Management, has served the Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Arts Management in many capacities over three decades. She enjoys working with dance and entertainment business students as the Student Success Coordinator and preparing students for professional careers. Dean Shelley serves as Costume Consultant, choreographer, company manager, and professor at OCU. Her choreography has been performed both in the United States and internationally, in Beijing and Taipei, China and her costume designs have been included in the New York City Toy Show. Dean Shelley has been named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers for multiple years, was named Oklahoma City University’s Exemplary Teacher of the Year for 2000, and served as Faculty Fellow and Interim Chair of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for Oklahoma City University’s Academic Affairs Office in 2006-2007.
-------------------------------------------
Jo Rowan is a nationally known master ballet teacher and performer and is professor of dance and chairman of the Dance Department within Oklahoma City University’s Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment.

Rowan, who was trained at the School of American Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, holds degrees in design and dance from University of Cincinnati and has performed with Cincinnati Ballet, Dallas Ballet, Garden State Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Dallas Opera, Philadelphia Opera, Tulsa Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and as a soloist at Radio City Music Hall. She has been a guest artist with the Baltimore Symphony, Kansas City Philharmonic, and Cincinnati Symphony orchestras. A member of Actors’ Equity Association, Rowan has appeared in more than 60 musicals. She has performed in New York City, as well as at Actors Theatre in Louisville, Maine State Theatre, Playhouse in the Park, Kansas City Civic Center, and Kansas City Starlight Theatre, to name a few. She has also appeared in numerous television commercials and was a regular on the PBS TV show, Consumer Survival Kit. Rowan performed at Lyric Theatre in Grand Hotel as ballerina Grushinskaya and recently choreographed the Dream Ballet in Lyric’s production of Oklahoma!. She was the chief researcher for How To Make It In Musicals, Michael Allen’s authoritative book on developing a successful career as a musical theatre performer.

Formerly ballet mistress of Dallas Ballet, Rowan has taught for all major dance organizations in the United States and has been invited to serve as an Artist-in-Residence for Oklahoma. She has conducted master classes at the St. Louis and Detroit Tap Festivals, has toured America as a ballerina with Dance Olympus, has taught for Dance America and Boston Ballet, and has adjudicated for the North American Ballet Festival Competition in Boston and the State of Tennessee’s Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Dance-Choreography.

In both 2018 and 2019 Rowan was selected as one of the Journal Record's 50 Making a Difference during "The Woman of the Year" event. In April of this year, Rowan received The Governor's Arts Award in recognition of her longtime leadership and significant contributions to the arts acro

Support the show

Got a question or story you'd like to share? Message me HERE, and your submission might even be featured in an upcoming episode!