ANDREA TECZA SHEARER, Associate Professor of Dance, has been on the faculty at Kent State University since 1980, and has served as Director of the Dance Division since Fall 1996. Born and raised in northeastern New Jersey, she received her B.F.A. in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her M.A. from the University of Michigan. She has studied extensively in New York City at Robert Joffrey's American Ballet Center, Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham Schools and with the José Limón Company. While on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ms. Shearer studied ballet under guest artists Michael Maule, Jonathan Watts and William Carter; and performed with Dancecircus, Milwaukee's professional modern dance repertory company. In 1979, Ms. Shearer became ballet mistress to the Canton (Ohio) Civic Ballet. At Kent State University she has taught all levels of Ballet and Modern Technique, Dance Science, Dance Composition and Production. She is the Associate Director of the Leaven Dance Company, in residence at the Kent Newman Center, and teaches Jitterbug in her spare time. Named Kent's first "Outstanding Adviser" for her role with the Kent Dance Association, Professor Shearer has twice been nominated for the University's Distinguished Teaching Award.