Mary LaBianca
BA in Interdisciplinary Studies (dance, visual arts and theater), UNC-Asheville
MFA in Performance and Choreography,
Mills College
Bartenieff Instructor Certification, Laban Institute of Movement Studies
Mary is the Director of Dance Education at the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In addition to teaching dance at the university, she provides mentorship to pre-k through 12th grade educators with arts integration as a professional development model in her work with educators and artists. Previously she taught pre-k through adult learners in public and private settings in Pennsylvania. She received support as a choreographer and teaching artist from Philadelphia Dance Projects in Pennsylvania and has presented choreography in the San Francisco, Oakland, and Philadelphia communities.
Mary was a teaching assistant and full scholarship recipient for her graduate studies in California. Whilst living there she also taught in the Oakland/Berkeley early childhood education centers, public schools, studio settings and worked in nationwide professional development program for teaching artists and educators. Her interests in dance education and early childhood creative movement have provided opportunities for her to present workshops at the National Dance Education Organization, Tennessee Association for the Education of Young Children, East Tennessee State University, University of North Carolina at Asheville, and Tennessee Association of Dance. She is a 2010 graduate of Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga's Holmberg Arts Leadership program.
