Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment

Solid color loose fitting athletic clothing. No writing on clothing. Black jazz shoes or black jazz sneakers. No street shoes, tennis shoes or boots.

A tight, white T-shirt or tank (no writing), black sweatpants or black jazz pants, black socks, and black oxford tap shoes are required. Hair must be short or secured away from the face.

A tight, white T-shirt or tank (no writing), black sweatpants, black socks, and black slip on jazz shoes are required for boys up to age 12. Black jazz pants and a dance belt are required instead of sweatpants for 13 and older. Hair must be short or secured away from the face.

A tight, white T-shirt or tank (no writing), black sweatpants, black socks, and black ballet shoes are required for boys up to age 12. Thick, black tights and a dance belt are required instead of sweatpants for 13 and older. Hair must be short or secured away from the face.

A high-energy class that uses the latest sounds in rap, R&B, and pop music together with movements influenced by some of today's hottest choreographers. Hip hop encompasses movement with elements of poppin', locking, and breaking as well as freestyle movement to allow students to develop their own sense of style.

Our jazz program emphasizes the use of body lines, which require a highly flexible torso, a strong center, and the ability to master fast and accurate footwork. Because the basic steps of jazz are modeled after ballet, we highly recommend that the student enrolls in an additional ballet technique class. This class will include a variety of turns, leaps, floor work, sharp movements, and numerous combinations.

Ballet is the foundation for all types of dancing; we strongly recommend ballet as a pre-requisite for any other type of dance. This class will include terminology, positions, turnout, barre, center exercises, port de bras, and combinations.

Our tap program focuses on rhythm, sound separation, and body placement. These classes will include a progression of basic steps through advanced combinations.

These classes cover a basis of movement found in all dance forms. The goals of the combination classes are to foster creativity, freedom, and expression in movement. But most importantly, a love for dance. The class introduces technique ideas that will benefit each student as they grow as dancers. The concepts will prepare the students for when they graduate to the next level of dance classes. These students will learn basic dance and motor skills through a core curriculum. The tap portion will concentrate on basic sounds and body awareness. Ballet will include upper and lower body movement, the basic ballet positions, and rhythm; creative or free components are integrated within each class. By the end of the year, the students can dance set work independent of the teacher, memorize simple exercises and sequences, and start understanding musicality.

The Community Dance Academy offers dance classes to students of all ages. We offer classes in tap, jazz, ballet, and hip-hop. Our small classes, 7-12 students, present students with personal attention, which helps them improve and gain confidence.

Theatrical dance combining Broadway movement, acting, and singing.

Ballet ranging from classical to lyrical and contemporary.

Tap ranging from Broadway to rhythm tap.

Jazz dance ranging from Broadway to commercial, hip hop, contemporary, and precision line.

Our career-oriented program offers the opportunity to study tap, jazz, and ballet with an emphasis in theater dance, while working toward a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Dance Performance, a Bachelor of Science in Dance Management or a Bachelor of Science in American Dance Pedagogy degree.

Oklahoma City University, with the guidance of John Bedford and Jo Rowan, has become the premiere dance school in the world because of its recognition of the American art forms tap and jazz.

Oklahoma City University's School of American Dance and Entertainment presents Honorary Doctor of Performing Arts in American Dance degrees to dancers who have contributed significantly to the creation, development, preservation, and promotion of the American art form of tap.

It is through the diligence and dedication of these committed supporters that American dance remains in the hearts and minds of the American public and the world.

The Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment continues the recognition of those who have nurtured and supported American dance through their advocacy.

The Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment has honored individuals who have contributed significantly to American dance and dance education through its Living Treasure in American Dance awards.

The new facility includes: 8 dance studios Permanent barres outside of studios for stretching Locker rooms with showers Student lounges with televisions Classrooms with flexible audio/visual technology Atrium with natural light and indoor foliage Wi-Fi throughout the three-story facility

The new facility for dance and arts management instruction was revalued at $28 million and was declared in the dance press as possibly the finest facility for dance in higher education in the world.

The Bachelor of Science in Dance Management degree which now averages around 70 majors.

Professor Rowan designed a degree which, with Dean John Bedford, has been refined over the years to give thorough preparation to students wanting dance performance careers in the American entertainment industry.

Few, if any, dance programs required majors to study tap and jazz; and none offered specialization in tap and jazz leading to a bachelor's degree.

At that time, university and college dance programs uniformly focused on ballet and modern dance. Few, if any, dance programs required majors to study tap and jazz; and none offered specialization in tap and jazz leading to a bachelor's degree.

Oklahoma City University, under the leadership of Professor Jo Rowan, founded an American musical theatre dance program to educate and train performers for careers in the American entertainment industry. The program was also created to recognize the legitimacy of the American dance art forms of tap, jazz, and theater dance.

Ms. Rowan has over thirty nationally distributed dance instruction records, tapes, VHS, CD’s and DVD’s on the Statler, Hoctor, and Stepping Tones labels. She also has a nationally distributed teaching video, "Basic Essentials of a Barre", distributed by Statler Records.

Ms. Rowan toured nationally with Dance Caravan Red for two years. And she toured nationally with Dance Olympus for over twenty-five years and has taught at Dance Olympus Winter workshops. She was also a regular faculty member teaching ballet at Nilo Toledo's Summer Fine Arts Camp at Tampa, Florida, and Dance Camp America.

She was twice artist-in-residence at the University of Wyoming at Laramie and was guest artist at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. As guest artist and artist-in-residence at the Cincinnati School of Creative and Performing Arts, she choreographed her own critically acclaimed full-length version of A Midsummer Night's Dream for 63 dancers, that was uniquely set in the great American West.

She also provided original choreography for the Wichita Music Theatre's production of the 1930's musical, Babes in Arms. Other musicals for which she has provided choreography are On Your Toes, Bye Bye, Birdie, West Side Story, The Desert Song, Oklahoma!, The Most Happy Fella, and On the Town.

She also choreographed for productions of Carmen, Die Fledermaus, and The Tales of Hoffman. She has choreographed for PBS television programs and is known in many communities for her extraordinary ability and unorthodox methods of staging The Nutcracker ballet.

As a choreographer, Ms. Rowan has created numerous ballets of various lengths and has staged dance sequences for professional productions of Oklahoma!, Kismet and Threepenny Opera. Her choreography for the award-winning opera Medea received critical acclaim.

She appeared with Odetta in the Kansas City Performing Arts Foundation production of Long Hair, Short Hair, and has been a ballet soloist and guest artist with the Kansas City Philharmonic and the Baltimore and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras.

Ms. Rowan, former ballet mistress of the Dallas Ballet under the direction of George Skibine and Margorie Tallchief, has performed as ballet soloist with many of the nation's leading opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera, the Philadelphia Opera, the Dallas Civic Opera, the Cincinnati Summer Opera, and the Tulsa Civic Opera.

She was a regular performer on the PBS weekly television program Consumer Survival Kit and has appeared in television commercials. Ms. Rowan was a featured subject on PM Magazine and has appeared in a film, Oil History in Oklahoma, for use in Oklahoma public schools.

In 1975, Ms. Rowan received and accepted an invitation to study ballet at the Bolshoi School in Moscow, Russia. While on a leave-of-absence from Oklahoma City University during the fall 1989 semester, she studied ballet in Switzerland, France, and Italy.

Ms. Rowan received her ballet training in Cincinnati and at the School of American Ballet and the Ballet Theater School, both in New York. She has also studied ballet with Miguel Terekhov and Yvonne Chouteau in Oklahoma.

Those interested in our three dance degree programs and the entertainment business program housed in the Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment will be able to meet with Dean Melanie Shelley as schedules allow.

Oklahoma City University, with the guidance of John Bedford and Jo Rowan, has become the premiere dance school in the world because of its recognition of the American art forms tap and jazz.

Oklahoma City University's School of American Dance and Entertainment presents Honorary Doctor of Performing Arts in American Dance degrees to dancers who have contributed significantly to the creation, development, preservation, and promotion of the American art form of tap.

The Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment continues the recognition of those who have nurtured and supported American dance through their advocacy.

Lifetime Achievement in Dance Education Award Recipient: Melba Huber (1993)

Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment has honored individuals who have contributed significantly to American dance and dance education through its Living Treasure in American Dance awards.

In May 2001, Ms. Rowan and dancers traveled to Singapore to perform at the luxurious Meritus-Negara Hotel and to present American musical theater dance performances, lecture demonstrations, and American jazz dance workshops at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

In May 2001, Ms. Rowan and dancers traveled to Singapore to perform at the luxurious Meritus-Negara Hotel and to present American musical theater dance performances, lecture demonstrations, and American jazz dance workshops at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Professor Rowan and Dean Bedford were awarded the internationally prestigious Flo-Bert Award (“the Tony of tap”) in New York City in 2007 for their significant contributions to the revitalization and preservation of tap dance.

The New York Committee to celebrate National Tap Dance wrote, “Once Oklahoma City University’s dance department began putting an emphasis on tap as a serious art form worthy of a degree, the other collages also developed courses of this kind. Rowan and Bedford’s efforts were a catalyst for resurrection of the American-created tap dance art, which up to that time seemed to be headed for disuse and oblivion. Thanks to Rowan and Bedford, tap is feeling better. Thank you.” March 20 2006

The St. Louis Tap Festival selected her and John Bedford, Dean of Oklahoma City University’s Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment, to receive the Festival’s first Tap Preservationist Award. The award presented on August 5, 2001, recognized their significant contribution to preserving and revitalizing American tap dance by establishing the first degree program in an institution of higher education based on the American dance styles of tap, jazz, and theater dance.

The dance program established by Ms. Rowan and Dean Bedford has become world famous for producing top dancers and managers for the entertainment industry.

Once Oklahoma City University’s dance department began putting an emphasis on tap as a serious art form worthy of a degree, the other collages also developed courses of this kind. Rowan and Bedford’s efforts were a catalyst for resurrection of the American-created tap dance art, which up to that time seemed to be headed for disuse and oblivion.

In addition to The American Spirit Dance Company, Ms. Rowan founded the Oklahoma City University Spirit of Grace Liturgical Dancers. The Spirit of Grace Liturgical Dancers performed in churches of all faiths as part of the worship services.

The dance program established by Professor Rowan and Dean Bedford has become world famous for producing top dancers and managers for the entertainment industry and is consistently rated by media in the #1, top three, top five, and top ten categories.

The St. Louis Tap Festival selected Dean Bedford and Jo Rowan to receive the Festival’s first Tap Preservationist Award. The award presented in 2001, recognized their significant contribution to preserving and revitalizing American tap dance by establishing the first degree program in an institution of higher education based on the American dance styles of tap, jazz, and theater dance.

The program was the first in higher education to provide a bachelor of performing arts emphasizing tap and jazz dance styles, and ballet as used in musical theatre.

The American Spirit Dance Company was dedicated to developing and promoting an appreciation of American musical theater dance, tap, and jazz while providing performance and management experiences for dance and arts management majors.

Their decision to make OCU a destination not only for ballet, but also for tap, jazz, and musical theatre dance, put our university on a pedestal in the dance world.

The program was also created to recognize the legitimacy of the American dance art forms of tap, jazz, and theater dance. At that time, university and college dance programs uniformly focused on ballet and modern dance. Few, if any, dance programs required majors to study tap and jazz; and none offered specialization in tap and jazz leading to a bachelor's degree.

Oklahoma City University, under the leadership of Professor Jo Rowan, founded an American musical theatre dance program to educate and train performers for careers in the American entertainment industry. The program was also created to recognize the legitimacy of the American dance art forms of tap, jazz, and theater dance.

The Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment is not just about teaching performers, managers and teachers – we are here to instill character that will serve graduates in their professional careers and personal lives.

The American Spirit Dance Company is a performance group associated with Oklahoma City University's Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment, likely offering opportunities for advanced students to train and perform.

Dance performance majors, such as Kyra Birkner, choreograph pieces that are brought to life by hired dancers. This role involves collaboration with composers and the tech team to ensure the musical ideas are effectively translated into physical form.

Choreographers from the Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment pitch their visions for how musical pieces can be interpreted through dance. This crucial step teaches students how to articulate their ideas and sell their creative concepts, a professional skill vital for success.

Students from the Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment collaborate with music composition students on an immersive, real-world project. This hands-on learning experience mirrors the professional performing arts industry, focusing on collaboration, communication, and compromise.

The Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment will present “Holiday Spectacular,” a performance of the Star Dance Company, from Dec. 11-14 in the Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center auditorium. More than 120 dynamic dancers will spread Yuletide magic with holiday favorites, new and exciting pieces, and vivid costumes, offering a graceful and entertaining reminder of the reason for the Christmas season.

The dance workshop includes classes in tap technique, jazz technique, ballet technique, and theatre dance, taught by OCU's nationally recognized faculty. Class sizes are kept small to ensure personal attention and a unique OCU dance experience.

Star Dance Company presents Holiday Spectacular: December 11-14.

The dance workshop includes classes in tap technique, jazz technique, ballet technique, and theatre dance, taught by OCU's nationally recognized faculty. Class sizes are kept small to ensure personal attention and a unique OCU dance experience.

The dance workshop includes classes in tap technique, jazz technique, ballet technique, and theatre dance, taught by OCU's nationally recognized faculty. Class sizes are kept small to ensure personal attention and a unique OCU dance experience.

The dance workshop includes classes in tap technique, jazz technique, ballet technique, and theatre dance, taught by OCU's nationally recognized faculty. Class sizes are kept small to ensure personal attention and a unique OCU dance experience.

January Audition & Workshop - Dance and Entertainment.

Star Dance Company presents MOVE! Dance for the World of Entertainment: March 12-14.

March Audition & Workshop - Dance and Entertainment.