SHARON GARBER, Associate Professor at Western Michigan University, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Ballet in 1976 from York University in Toronto, Ontario. She continued her dance training in New York City with Melissa Hayden, Finis Jhung, Wilhelm Burmann and David Howard. As a professional dancer, her 12-year career was with Maryland Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet, Des Moines Ballet, Fort Worth Ballet and Dallas Ballet plus appearances as a guest artist with numerous regional ballet companies. Ms. Garber has taught all levels of ballet at private studios, in private and public school systems and at the university level as well as guest residencies, master classes, festivals and workshops nationally and internationally (Taiwan and Canada). For five years, she was a member of the ballet faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. In 1992, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Ballet from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX and served there as an Occasional Member of the Graduate Dance Faculty and as Project Coordinator of the department’s outreach program, New CenturyDanscene. Ms. Garber joined the faculty of Western Michigan University’s Department of Dance in 1994 and became the Ballet Director in 1995. At Western Michigan, she has been the rehearsal director for the four ballets by George Balanchine that have been performed in the department’s Great Works Project under the authorization of the George Balanchine Trust. She has also restaged and adapted repertoire for the Great Works Project from the Romantic and Classical eras. Ms. Garber’s choreography has been performed through out the U.S and the island of Taiwan and has received adjudicated recognition at American College Dance Festival and Regional Dance America. Besides membership in numerous organizations and unions, Ms. Garber is a founding member of CORPS de Ballet International, an organization for ballet teachers in higher education, having served as President-Elect (1998-00), President (2000-02) and Past-President (2002-04). In 2005, the Board of Directors presented her with the organization’s Outstanding Service Award. She is presently serving on the Board of American College Dance Festival Association. Ms. Garber served as an adjudicator in 2001 for the Ohio Dance Festival and in 2004 as the international member of the Peer Review Team evaluating Ryerson University’s Theatre School in Toronto, Ontario. She has presented her research nationally at conferences in San Francisco and internationally in Toronto and Edinburgh, Scotland. Her research has been published in an article for Dance Teacher magazine and in the refereed International Journal of the Arts in Society. Sharon Garber is married to David Curwen, also a ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. They have two daughters, Shelby and Darci, and live in Kalamazoo, MI.