YU NAMED PRESIDENT OF WORLD DANCE ALLIANCE-AMERICAS

Jin-Wen Yu, professor and chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Program, was elected president of the World Dance Alliance – Americas (WDAA) this past week at WDAA's General Assembly conference. More than 300 artists, dancers and scholars from 17 countries gathered in Madison for this year’s annual conference and festival hosted by the Dance Program, May 28-31, 2009.

WDAA, one of three regional components of the global World Dance Alliance, is a primary voice for dance and dancers throughout the Americas. As a service organization, WDAA enhances dance in all its many forms by supporting, preserving and promoting the art form, encouraging collaboration, and facilitating international exchange. "I'm honored to assume this important role with WDAA," Yu says. "Our global vision - to enhance communication, collaboration, education and expression of dance and culture throughout the Americas and the world - can be realized in so many ways on campuses, in communities, and beyond country borders and continental boundaries."

Under Yu's leadership, the UW-Madison Dance Program has exemplified this by hosting a week-long, summer Intercontinental Dance Festival on campus for the past two years. In early June, Yu will lead a group of 14 dance students to Taipei, Taiwan for a two-week cultural exchange program. Students will join their international counterparts at the country's most prestigious dance school, Taipei National University of the Arts, for daily technique classes, rehearsals and a closing gala concert. *

"Our goals for the Dance Program are very much in sync with the global perspectives and vision of the university," Yu says. "We've been fortunate to receive encouragement and generous support from the UW-Madison, UW alums both here and in Taiwan, and numerous Taiwanese organizations and officials - all of whom have made this trip possible. It's a privilege to offer this once-in-a-lifetime experience to our students."

In addition to being elected WDAA's new president, Yu has been the recipient of several other prestigious awards this past year including a UW-Madison School of Education Faculty Achievement Award and the 2009 UW-Madison Arts Institute's Creative Arts Award. Funded by the Bassett and Evjue foundations, the Arts Institute award recognizes and honors extraordinary artistic projects and endeavors of the highest quality carried out by tenured members of the UW-Madison creative arts faculty.

* Watch for Dance Program students blog from Taipei: http://badgersabroad.wisc.edu/blog

For more information on this story, please contact Doreen Adamany, (608) 262-2353 .