Dance Program

Faculty

Dance Faculty - Wendy Dwyer Wendy Dwyer, Associate Professor of Dance, holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied with renowned modern dancer Viola Farber after training with Ruth Silk and Brian Loftus at the Dance Centre of London, England. She has also studied with Joel Hall and Gus Giordano in Chicago and at the American Dance Festival at Duke University as well as working in contact improvisation with Nancy Stark Smith and others. She designed and developed the Dance Program at Franklin Pierce and has directed modern dance concerts and choreographed musicals that include West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate, Pippin, Bat Boy-The Musical, Blood Brothers, Cabaret, Bells Are Ringing, Fiddler on the Roof among many others, as well original music theatre work. She has served on the National Board of the American College Dance Festival Association. Professor Dwyer worked with dancer and educator Jacques d'Amboise for 21 years as the Founding Artistic Director of New Hampshire Dance Institute, and dance education program in New Hampshire elementary and middle schools. In 2002, she received the Granite State Award "for outstanding contribution to the arts in New Hampshire." Professor Dwyer teaches modern dance, improvisation and composition, teaching dance for children, and dance history in addition to choreographing and directing for the Dance Program. She also holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester in Russian Literature.

Dance Faculty - Sally Bomer Sally Bomer began dancing while studying Art History at Vassar College (B.A.). She performed for 15 years with the Bessie Award winning company, Amy Sue Rosen/Derek Bernstein Projects and is featured in video artist Douglas Rosenberg's Emmy-nominated Dancing for Television. She also performed with Claire Porter, Richard Bull's Improvisational Dance Ensemble, Barbara Roan, Jude Bartlett and others, in many New York venues and at the American Dance Festival. Her most recent choreography has been shown as part of 40Up at Dance Theater Workshop, and at the Cool New York Dance Festival. She has created works at Franklin Pierce College and Keene State College and has also taught in New Hampshire at Antioch New England and The Moving Company. Her teaching is based on studies of Klein Technique, yoga, anatomy, and Bartenieff Fundamentals, as well as her experience in various modern and improvisational styles. As a collaborator with husband and theater artist Robert Lawson, her work has been seen in Milwaukee, Charlottesville and New Hampshire, in both original and traditional music/dance/theater works. Ms. Bomer teaches several levels of modern dance and dance composition in addition to choreographing and directing for the Dance Program.

Dance Faculty - Sarah Franklin Sarah Franklin has been dancing for over 25 years. After performing, choreographing, and teaching in New York City from 1985-1993, she moved to Connecticut, where she taught modern dance and was commissioned to choreograph pieces at Trinity College, The Hartford Conservatory, Wesleyan University, Yale University, and Fairfield University. At Fairfield she was an honored faculty member for her choreography and teaching in the Theatre Department. Sarah was featured choreographer in WGBY Public Television special: SEE DANCE and served on the committee to create a nation-wide syllabus for dance in grades 1-12 called the Trace Map Project. Her choreography was described by New Haven critic Christopher Arnott as "personality-driven, emotionally intuitive, and constantly creative." Since moving back to her home area, she has produced Moving Minds: a dance concert, and opera and has choreographed Carmen, Dido and Aeneas, Kiss Me Kate and Nunsense for local theatre companies as well as teaching at Antioch College and The Moving Company in addition to teaching and Choreographing at Franklin Pierce University. Sarah teaches modern dance and theatre dance/jazz in addition to choreographing for the Dance program.

Dance Faculty - Reagan Messer Reagan Messer is a native of Atlanta and former Boston Ballet Soloist. He continues to dance as a guest artist throughout the United States. Reagan has performed Solar and Golden Idol in La Bayadere, Basilio and Espada in Don Quixote, Siegfried and Jester in Swan Lake, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Blue Bird in The Sleeping Beauty, Slave, Pas d'esclave, and Birbanto in Le Corsaire, Peasant Pas de Deux in Giselle, Sir Kenneth Macmillan's Winter Dreams, Quasimodo in Michael Pink's Hunchback of Notre Dame, Goro in Stanton Welch's Madame Butterfly, Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, Tico in Paul Taylor's Company B, Champion Roper in Rodeo, Red Boy in Lila York's Celts, and the lead in Balanchine's Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. In 1993, Reagan toured Brazil with Fernando Bujones and Friends where he danced Don Quixote Pas de Deux and Gopak. In 1994, he was a finalist at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Miss. Reagan was Ballet Master for Boston Ballet II from 2000 to 2002 and directed and produced the International Ballet Gala in Atlanta, Georgia featuring artists from Boston Ballet and the Royal Ballet of London in 1995 and 1996. He is currently Artistic Director at the Moving Company Dance Center in Keene, in addition to teaching at Franklin Pierce, Mr. Messer teaches several levels of ballet and choreographs for the Dance Program.