Dance Lecturer Ann Biddle Earns Top Leadership Award from the National Dance Education Organization

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Ann Biddle, lecturer in the Department of Music and Dance, recently received the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) 2023 Outstanding Leadership in Dance Education PK-12 Award.

"I feel so fortunate to have received this award and am thrilled to be able to bring my passion for dance education to UMass Amherst students in my dance education courses," Biddle says. 

Biddle's achievement was celebrated at the annual NDEO conference in Denver held at the end of September.

Biddle, a Fulbright Scholar, has been a dance educator, staff developer, curriculum consultant, writer, and choreographer for the past 30 years. She is currently the Director of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) Institute for Professional Learning and Advancement and the Director of DEL at Jacob’s Pillow. In addition to working as a dance lecturer at UMass Amherst, she has also taught at Mount Holyoke College and Skidmore College, as well as overseas.

Biddle has trained thousands of dance educators and worked with many dance companies including Flamenco Vivo, Limón Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, UBW, HT Chen, Jonah Bokaer, and Dorrance Dance. Her curricula include New York Export: Opus Jazz, Jerome Robbins: The Essence of Cool, Dance Making & Langston Hughes, The Essence of Pearl Primus, Into Sunlight – A Teacher’s Guide, Re-imagining D-Man in the Waters, and the DEL Facilitators Manual.

Biddle was an advisor to the NYC Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance and was a NYCDOE facilitator since 2005. She is the Director of the DEL PVPA dance mentorship program featured in the recent documentary, PS Dance! The Next Generation (2022). As a student in the Ed.D program in Dance Education at TC, Columbia University, Biddle’s research focuses on transformative adult learning and leadership.