Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award 2012 - Dianne Ruth McIntyre

(BFA, dance, 1969), choreographer, dancer, director, and scholar, is a Cleveland, Ohio native who resided in New York City as a dance artist for more than 30 years. McIntyre has performed virtually around the world, from Hollywood to Broadway to Europe and back, on big stages, dance floors, film sets, and concert halls.

A 2007 John S. Guggenheim Fellow for Choreography, McIntyre founded Harlem's legendary dance/music ensemble, Sounds in Motion, operated a popular dance studio, and mentored hundreds of young aspiring dancers who have gone on to exemplary careers. 2012 is the 40th anniversary of the founding of Sounds in Motion. She has choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Dallas Black Dance, as well as college dance groups.

McIntyre's work in theatre has been for Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional productions and London, England. Her theatre choreography credits of more than thirty plays include Mule Bone, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Spell #7, Crowns and Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha. For film, McIntyre's work appears in Beloved and for television, for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper and Miss Evers' Boys, for which she received an Emmy nomination.

McIntyre continues to enjoy a busy career in dance -- in teaching and choreographic residencies for university dance departments; for choreography for theatre -- regional US and Broadway; choreography for professional dance companies nationally, producing her own ensembles in dance-theatre works, and even performing. She continues to mentor young dance artists from around the country. She is now seen as a pioneer in her own right. This fall she will be honored by American Dance Guild in New York City.

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