Professor Emeritus, School of Dance, University of Utah
Donna M. White served on the Modern Dance faculty at the University of Utah from 1996-2016, and as Chair of the Department of Modern Dance for 8 years, from 2002 2010. She stepped down from that role to accept the appointment of Associate Dean of the Graduate School, beginning July 1, 2010. She retired from the University in 2016, and was named a Professor Emeritus.
A native of Phoenix, Arizona Donna trained in ballet and modern dance in New York City and later received both her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Utah. She is also a Certified Laban Movement Analyst (CLMA) and has completed PhD course work in Performance Psychology in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of Utah.
As a professional performer and choreographer, she danced and toured extensively, both nationally and internationally, with the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company (Salt Lake City, UT) for twelve years, and she also danced with Tandy Beal and Company (Santa Cruz, CA) for many years. Donna has been the recipient of a National Endowment Individual Choreographer’s Fellowship and has choreographed for many dance departments, solo artists, and companies including, Ririe-Woodbury, Repertory Dance Theatre, Utah Ballet, and Performing Dance Company. Donna has been a guest teacher at numerous workshops and institutions including the University of Hawaii, Tulane University, the Beijing Dance Academy, and the Staatliche Ballettschule in Berlin, Germany.
While serving as Chairperson of the Department of Modern Dance, Donna became increasingly interested in academic administration. She has completed two leadership development courses at the University of Utah, completed the Management Development Program (MDP) at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in 2004, and attended the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) which advances women leaders in higher education.
Donna has presented papers on curriculum design and leadership at the International Dance Education Forum sponsored by the Beijing Dance Academy and at the Academic Chairpersons Conference in Orlando Florida. She has served as a dance panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and as President of the Council of Dance Administrators (CODA). In August 2010, she was invited back to Beijing to present at the 18th International Congress on Aesthetics at Peking University. As the Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Donna regularly attended the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS) annual meetings, and served a term on the WAGS Board of Directors.
Since moving to Kayenta in 2016, Donna has been a volunteer at the Kayenta Desert Arboretum and at Windhorse Relations (Kayenta Mustangs).