Jill Priest, M.F.A.

Jill Priest is Professor and Assistant Chair of the Department of Dance at the University of Central Oklahoma.  She completed the Master of Fine Arts in Choreography and Performance from Texas Woman’s University and the Bachelor of Arts in Dance Education from the University of Central Oklahoma.  Jill has worked as a passionate dance educator and choreographer for a wide variety of dance and theatre performances and events for the past 20+ years throughout Oklahoma and the region.  Among others, she has set dance works for Stephen F. Austin State University, Perpetual Motion Modern Dance Oklahoma, and the Cherokee Nation.  Her work, Roots in Red Dirt, based on family recollections of the Oklahoma Land Run, was presented at the Performatica International Dance Festival in Puebla, Mexico, the American College Dance Festival in Hendrix, AR and as a featured performance for the Enid Symphony Subscription Series.  She has also traveled throughout China presenting master classes at Sichuan Normal University, Xinghai Conservatory of Music, South China Normal University and Minzu University of China.  Prior to joining the faculty at UCO, she founded and directed Tulsa Contemporary Dance Theatre, presenting work at the Living Arts New Genre Festival, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center and the Nightingale Theatre.  Jill served on the Dance Content Advisory Committee for the Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation and is currently serving on the Fine Arts Advisory Committee for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.