Lander University's spring dance concert will honor former assistant professor of dance Carol Neubner with a performance of her dance, "The Runners."
Performances are scheduled for Monday, April 2, and Tuesday, April 3. Both performances begin at 8 p.m. in the Josephine B. Abney Cultural Center Auditorium.
Neubner, who established both the Lander University Dance Company and dance program, said she got the idea for "The Runners" from watching the slow-motion finishes of Olympics races. "It was loads of fun to watch," she said, describing the dance as "one of the most popular things we ever did."
When Neubner came to Lander in 1961, the Denver, Colo. native was initially offered one class, which she taught in the basement of Old Main. She said "it slowly worked into a full-time job."
By the time she retired in 1995, she had worked under four Lander University presidents.
"I loved my job from beginning to end," she said. "I feel so lucky to have done this."
Current Lander University Dance Company director Joey Giles, who danced for Neubner in the 1980s, said that his mentor "was able to recruit people who never thought they could be dancers." She taught him, he said, that "anybody can dance, if they have the passion and want to put in the work."
Dorothy Ann Rush Bailey, who founded "Dolly's School of Dance" soon after graduating in 1967, was another of Neubner's star students, and Bailey's dance "Crazy/We All Flew Over" will also be performed by Giles' dancers.
One of the first recipients of the Carol Neubner Dance Scholarship, created by Neubner's friends when she retired, was Suzy Connolly Shaw, and Shaw, who opened her own dance studio, Emerald City Dance Explosion, 10 years ago, will be featured in the program as well, as her students perform two dances that she choreographed, "How Great Thou Art" and "Silent All These Years."
The program will also include dances choreographed by the two current recipients of the Carol Neubner Dance Scholarship: Kellie Daugherty, a mass communication major from West Columbia, who serves as president of the Lander University Dance Company; and Damion Malachi, an elementary education major from Bennettsville, who serves as vice-president.
The performances are free and open to the public.