By the time she finishes her tenure as the 2024-25 Penn State Laureate, dance professor Michele Dunleavy hopes everyone she’s had the chance to encounter will be dancing.
“Many people have preconceived notions about what dance is, or what a dancer is supposed to look like—or even who gets to dance,” Dunleavy says. “But everybody has a body, and every body is meant to dance. When people are moving together, they are in community, they feel connected to each other. Dance makes that connection in a way that other art forms and other physical activities don’t do.”
This is the message Dunleavy will convey on her tour of the commonwealth, through a series of participatory workshops designed to “get people moving, to engage people in the creative process either through choreography or by teaching them a pre-made dance, and to create something in the space together.”
Dunleavy’s vision is reinforced through her involvement with the For Good Performance Troupe, a group of performers with Down syndrome from across Centre County. For Good was founded by Krista Wilkinson, distinguished professor of communication sciences and disorders, with whom Dunleavy co-teaches CSD 240: Supporting Communication Through Performance. “I’d never worked with anyone with developmental disabilities,” Dunleavy says. “I was very nervous at first—like most people who think they are going to say or do the wrong thing. But I learned that none of that matters if you just walk in with an open heart and an open mind, and you treat everybody as they are, and meet everybody where they are.”
Dunleavy has been dancing since the age of 11—she started with jazz and tap, then found her niche in modern dance. After graduating from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, she worked as a choreographer, but she quickly discovered she had a passion for teaching. She taught in various studios and then at her alma mater, and in 2000, went back to school to get a graduate degree in choreography and performance from George Mason University’s modern dance program. She finished in 2004 and was immediately hired by Penn State to teach in its highly acclaimed musical theatre program. She also worked closely with students and faculty in the dance program until it was phased out in 2021.
Dunleavy has also choreographed through the years: In 2016, she created “Steel Valley Rhythms,” a dance production inspired by visiting the Carrie Blast Furnace near Pittsburgh.
Being named laureate, Dunleavy says, has inspired her to want to choreograph something new. “I’m leaning toward something that feels less like my hand as a choreographer and something that is more of an experience for the participants, who don’t have to be trained dancers.”
More about Dunleavy
Favorite dance form: Modern
Favorite genre of music: Jazz
Finds inspiration in: Live music, jazz in particular
Currently obsessed with: West African drumming
Favorite yoga pose: Downward-facing dog
