Trudy Cobb returns from visiting artist exchange in Portugal
April 3, 2003
KALAMAZOO -- Trudy Cobb, an associate professor of dance at Western Michigan University, recently returned from Portugal, where she was a visiting artist through an exchange program with dance faculty from the Technical University of Lisbon.
This is the first exchange of its kind for WMU's Department of Dance. Portuguese dance professors Ana Macara and Ana Paula Batalha visited WMU Jan. 8-10. Both are professors at Faculdade de Motricidade de Humana-Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa (College of Human Movement of the Technical University of Lisbon). While here, they worked extensively with WMU students.
In addition to teaching jazz technique classes, Cobb, who was in Portugal March 1-15, conducted several workshops, one of which was open to the community and students. She also assisted faculty with planning for an upcoming international conference and with English translation of their newly revised curriculum.
Cobb met the Portuguese professors at a 1998 conference for which the two were hosts. Plans for an exchange were laid during a subsequent conference in summer 2000 in Washington, D.C.
"We were surprised we got the exchange to work in the same academic year," Cobb says. "We would like to continue to have a longer, ongoing exchange and begin involving our students. We're now trying to make this happen."
Media contact: Mark Schwerin, 269 387-8400, mark.schwerin@wmich.edu