Jill Flanders Crosby

 Jill Flanders Crosby moved to Alaska when she was 21 in the fall of 1975. She began her Anchorage dance career by appearing in a performance of the Anchorage Community Theatre production of Cabaret in 1975 followed that spring by teaching a dance class at what was then known as Alaska Methodist University in their second-floor library. In 1976, she began her career in the University of Alaska system as an adjunct teacher in the Humanities Division of the Anchorage Community College before being hired in 1985 as the first full-time professor of dance in Alaska. During the 1987 merger of the Anchorage Community College and the University of Alaska, Anchorage, she was moved into what was to become UAA’s Department of Theatre and Dance and guided the UAA dance program to create the first and only dance degree program ((dance minor) in the State of Alaska. She was a co-founding director of Moving Company North in the late 70’s beside Christina Kautzky as well as a company performer and choreographer. Jill was also a performer and choreographer with Alaska Contemporary Dance Company in the1980’s and she performed in many of Alaska Dance Theatre’s Mobius Concerts beginning in 1985, and into 2003.

She also performed for the Morningside Dance Festival in New York City in 1991. She retired from UAA July 1, 2023. Throughout her career, Jill dedicated herself to inspiring the efficacy of dance performance and scholarship in the Anchorage community as well as at UAA. She became the face of UAA for many Anchorage performing arts organizations, receiving an award for her efforts in 2002 as the Community Arts Educator of the Year from the Anchorage Concert Association. In 2003, she was honored by the Anchorage Daily News Arts Editor with the All-Around Visionary Award for the “Look Again” site-specific statewide performance project beside colleague Brian Jeffery. Community collaboration remained central to Jill’s career. She spearheaded and organized fully produced concerts at the UAA that invited community dance companies’ participation as choreographers and performers. She later worked with local dance organizations from Anchorage such Alaska Dance Theatre, Momentum Dance Collective, the East and West High School dance programs and with dance organizations on the Kenai Peninsula and Homer to offer them access to visiting artists that she brought to the University for guest artist residencies. She collaborated with the Anchorage Museum, Bunnell Street Arts Center and the Homer Council on the Arts for performances, guest artist lectures, site specific performance and multi-media art installation. She facilitated multiple guest artist residencies at UAA which allowed resident dancers and companies to share the performance stage with these professionals. Jill was also a guest artist with the Chicago-based XSIGHT! Performance Group during two of their Alaska residencies. As well, she performed with nationally recognized dance artists Heather Cornell and Jeannie Hill of Manhattan Tap and solo artist Katherine Kramer for multiple UAA Jazz Week Performances. Jill is responsible for introducing the style of music-based jazz in Anchorage as a teacher, choreographer, and performer.

Her commitment to diversity and scholarship is at the heart of her artistic and academic contributions. She did extensive fieldwork arts and dance-based research in New York City, Ghana and Togo West Africa, Cuba, and the Cook Islands investigating topics from the West African roots of jazz dance and the relationship of traditional religious dance forms as they were relocated across continents through the forced relocation of West African enslaved peoples to Cuba. Her Cook Islands work involved a multi-generational oral history project with dance makers and performers, composers, and other arts-based leaders. Her field work is archived, depending on the subject, at the Cuban Heritage Collection University of Miami Libraries, the Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound, University of Auckland, New Zealand, the State Library of New Zealand Alexander Turnbull collection, Wellington, New Zealand, and the Cook Islands National Archives. Her Cuban and West African work in particular formed the heart of a multi- media arts-based installation that was presented in Cuba, West Africa, Anchorage and Homer Alaska, and San Francisco. She remained an active choreographer and performer throughout her career, dancing and choreographing in concert for the final time in April 2023.