Dr. Hannah Park joined the Fine and Performing Arts department this fall as Iona’s new dance program director, making her the first new dance director in over 30 years. She enters the position that was held by long-time faculty member Catherine Mapp, who died in December 2014.

Park brings her experience in dance from throughout the world from places like Jamaica, Taiwan, London and most recently from Denmark, where she was the guest presenter for the Dance and the Child international conference held in Copenhagen in July.

Born in South Korea, Park grew up in Minnesota, where she lived until she moved to North Carolina to train at the North Carolina School of the Arts, a boarding high school where she pursued a career in professional dance.

After graduating, she accepted an offer to go to SUNY Purchase College in Purchase, N.Y., participating in an undergraduate program geared towards training professional dancers.

She found she was interested in the creative processes and wanted to tap into the creative practices, so she pursued a master’s degree in fine arts at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Along the way, she became interested in the student-teacher dynamic. In her doctoral work at Temple University, Park focused on dance education, curriculum development and teaching in diverse settings, particularly in underserved populations.

Park wrote her dissertation on her accumulated work in inner-city elementary school dance programs, where she helped develop curricula with a focus on exploring identity through dance.

The children she helped at these schools were second graders who came from a disadvantaged family background.

Concerned for her students’ holistic education, her research consisted of ways to educate students on how to use certain methods of dance as a way to keep a sound body and mind.

She was then asked to join a research program at the University of Utah’s creative dance program where she was a researcher and specialist for the Tanner Dance program.

Some groups that she has worked with include students ranging from ages 2-55, trained dancers and people with disabilities. She also worked as a dance specialist in public K-12 schools, working more closely with children at the elementary level.

Prior to taking over as director of the dance program, she worked for five years at Temple University. She taught courses that ranged from dance technique to general education.

Most recently, she taught at Lander University in South Carolina, where she served as the dance program coordinator, and as the university’s dance program director.

To Park, diversity in dance is the most important aspect in her routines.

“I am a believer in inclusivity and diversity when it comes to creative practices,” she said. “In all the classes that I teach, the diversity and creativity and individuality is important.”

While she creates her own routines, the people she works with often impact the choreography that she uses in each piece.

“Often times my creative process and my choreographic process are collaborative,” she said. “I might have a clear agenda or objective and more of a broader theme, but within that theme there are a lot of details that come from whomever I am working with, and that makes each choreography unique and different.”