The University of Arizona’s School of Dance is proud to announce the recent achievements of two of its graduate students, Arianna Aquino and Gabriel Speiller.
Arianna Aquino is a 2nd-year graduate student in the Dance program whose research focuses on choreography, pedagogy, DEI, and leadership. This past semester, Arianna received The University of Arizona’s 2022 Centennial Achievement Masters Award and the Creative Achievement Award from the College of Fine Arts. During the fall, she presented her DEI Gathering curriculum, which she developed in the School of Dance, both locally on our campus, internationally at the Dance Studies Association conference, and nationally at the National Dance Education conference. Arianna has been an active researcher and began one of her research projects, MissED UNDERSTOOD, in the fall semester 2021, and presented it at the Spanish Harlem Dance Festival in September 2022. Most recently, her dance theatre work, How I Responded, was performed in the Arise Student Spotlight in the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre.
Gabriel Speiller is a second-year graduate and teaching assistant for the School of Dance. In October, his work Chance Encounters was selected to be performed at Phoenix Ballet’s “Golden Swan Gala”. Performed by a cast of 11 University of Arizona Dance majors, the work shared the program with national and international professional dancers. Gabriel’s dance for camera work Authentically Me, featuring Arizona Dance major Azelle Chang, was selected to be presented at the Dance Studies Association conference in Vancouver, Canada.
On May 5th and 6th, Arianna Aquino, Cat Cogliandro, Gabriel Spieller, and Halston Strange will present their MFA graduate thesis projects, Loud Undertone, in the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre. These events will be a showcase of the students’ hard work and dedication over the past two years, and it will be an opportunity for the audience to experience their artistic voice and vision. If you want to attend this show you can buy your tickets at this link: https://am.ticketmaster.com/uacfa/buy?filterType=1