Loren E. Bucek History

Loren Elizabeth Bucek is a life-long arts and arts education advocate whose love for creating worlds of possibility are lenses through which she leads her life. She is a dancer, choreographer, educator, scholar, author, and visual artist.

In the sixties, Bucek grew up in Vestal, NY, performing with the Briansky Ballet and Southern Tier Civic Ballet companies. Between 1974-1980, she earned her undergraduate degree and graduate degrees in choreography and performance (with honors) from SUNY Brockport and The Ohio State University. As a Columbus-based dance artist, Bucek performed with Dancentral, Columbus Historical Dancers, Bucek/Dils Dance, New Mime Troupe and ZIVILI Dance Company. She choreographed on BalletMet’s company and co-founded the Moving Arts Company.

In 1982, Bucek co-founded and worked as the K-5 dance educator at Duxberry Park Arts IMPACT Elementary School. In its early years Duxberry’s student population grew immensely and gained national recognition as from the US News list of Best Schools in the United States. Simultaneously, Bucek served on The Ohio State University Department of Dances’ K12 Teacher Preparation Work Group resulting in Ohio’s first K12 Dance Education Licensure Program. Bucek joined the Department’s education faculty and produced its inaugural group of K12 licensed public school dance educators. Over time, the Columbus City Schools invested heavily in arts learning and by 1996 had employed 29 full-time, licensed dance educators at all K12 levels in 28 urban public schools.

In 1988, Bucek moved to NYC to study artistic development, imagination, and creativity and to conduct research with the Creative Arts Program team at Columbia University Teachers College. She directed and revitalized its graduate dance education program fostering a new generation of dance education leaders worldwide.  Bucek also worked as the 92^ndStreet Y’s Tisch Center as its inaugural Arts Education Director.

While completing her PhD in Columbus, Bucek joined The Ohio State University’s Department of Art Education’s Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge (TETAC) team and co-taught undergraduate and graduate dance pedagogy courses there and at Otterbein and Antioch Universities and the University of Rio Grande. Dr. Bucek’s dissertation, Children’s Dance-Making: An Autoethnographic Path Towards Transformative Critical Pedagogy, revealed a new way of thinking to better understand the transformative embodiment of feelings, thoughts, ideas, and dreams in and through children’s dance making.

Bucek was a founding member of the National Dance Education Organization and served on the editorial board for the Journal of Dance Education. She published articles about children and dance learning in professional dance and dance education journals and served on the working groups for the National Core Arts (Dance) Standards and NDEO’s Priorities in Dance Education Research. Dr. Bucek also served on boards of directors for the Congress on Research in Dance, and Dancing in the Millennium. She co-wrote K12 dance curricula and facilitated professional development sessions at local, state, national and international levels in diverse educational settings on 3 continents.

Bucek received numerous recognitions for excellence in teaching from the Columbus City Schools, the Ohio Association of Health, Recreation, Physical Education and Dance, Martha Holden Jennings Foundation Award and Teachers College Columbus University. Bucek also received an the 2012 OhioDance Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of Dance Education.

At age 61, Bucek returned stage and performance in Ohad Naharin’s choreography, Minus 16, in Parallel Connections at the Wexner Center for the Arts. On March 30, 2021, Dr. Bucek retired from the Columbus City schools then founded Global Water Dances Columbus to foster greater awareness and action to insure clean water for everyone.

Today, Loren Bucek spends her time traveling, visiting cherished friends, and enjoying her human and furry family. She makes art daily and volunteers locally.

Milestones

1956

Born in Johnson City, New York

1970

Dancer. Briansky Ballet & Southern Tier Civic Ballet, Binghamton, New York

1974

Graduation. Vestal High School in Vestal, New York

1976

Dancer with the American Dance Asylum’s Lois Welk, Bill T. Jones & Arnie Zane

1978

Graduation. SUNY Brockport, New York, BS in Dance with Honors & NYS N-8 Teacher Certification

1980

Graduation. The Ohio State University. MA with Honors. Choreography & Performance

1981

Choreographer. BalletMet

1982

Co-Founder. Dance Educator. Duxberry Park Arts IMPACT ES Columbus City Schools

1983

Dancer & Company Manager with ZIVILI Dance Company

1985

K12 Dance Education Program/Curriculum Co-Writer. The Ohio State University’s K12 Dance Teacher Preparation/ Certification Program

1986

Adjunct Dance Education Faculty, The Ohio State University Department of Dance

1987

Award. Ohio Educator of The Year. Ohio Association of Health, Physical Education Recreation & Dance

1988

Co-Conference Coordinator. OhioDance Festival

1988-2021

Co-Writer. Ohio Department of Education K12 Dance Curriculum

1989

Dancer at the American Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow

1991

Director, Dance & Dance Education Graduate Program @ Columbia University Teachers College, NYC

1992

Co-Writer; Dance Education Initiative, Perpich Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota

1993

Executive Board of Directors. Congress on Research in Dance

1994

Dancer with Spoke The Hub Dancing and Sun Ra, NYC

1995

Award. Teaching Excellence from Student Senate. Columbia University Teachers College, NYC

1996

Co-Writer. Frameworks for Dance. Dance Curricula & Assessment. NYS Education Department

1998

Founding Member. National Dance Education Organization

1992-1999

Facilitator. Professional Development Workshops for Teaching Artists with the 92nd Street YHM-WA Harkness Dance Center, Ballet Hispanico, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Lincoln Center Institute, Arts Connection, Young People’s Audiences @ City Center in NYC; International Teaching in South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Cypress, Egypt, People’s Republic of China

1996

Co-Writer. Dance Research Priorities in Dance Education. National Dance Education Organization, Washington DC

1997

Teacher Mentor. Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge, The Ohio State University.

2000

Director, University of Rio Grande M.Ed. in Education with Fine Arts Program (Satellite) in Columbus OH

2004

Co-Conference Coordinator. National Dance Education Organization, Lansing Michigan

2006

Co-Writer. Accelerated Motion: Towards a New Dance Literacy in America. Wesleyan University Press

2011

Co-Writer. Ohio Department of Education. Revisioning Arts Academic Content Standards

2013

Graduation. The Ohio State University. PhD In Arts Administration, Education & Policy. Dissertation: Children’s Dance Making: An Autoethnographic Path Towards Transformational Critical Pedagogy

2014

Co-Writer in Dance Team. National Coalition for Common Core Arts Standards. Washington DC

2016

Invited Speaker. Enhancing Teachers’ Voices in Policy Making for K-12 Engineering Education. The National Academies Teacher Advisory Council., National Academy of Engineering, American Society for Engineering Education, Washington DC

2021

Retired

2023

Founder, Director, Cultural Producer. Global Water Dances Columbus.

1991-Present

Visual Artist. Shared Exhibitions at the Macy Gallery, NYC; Columbus Museum of Art, Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center, Carnegie Gallery, Columbus Dance Theatre Art Gallery, Hammond Harkins Galleries