Megan Slayter

Megan Slayter, Chair and Associate Professor of Dance, began teaching dance production, lighting design, and dance history at Western Michigan University in 2004, while serving as the department's lighting designer and production manager.  Her ongoing collaborative research with dance historian Jessica Lindberg Coxe, has resulted in the reconstruction of four dances by modern dance pioneer Loïe Fuller. "Fire Dance", "Night", "Lily of the Nile", and "La Mer" have been reconstructed and commissioned for performance by universities, dance companies, and art museums across the country including: The University of Washington in Seattle; Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA; Texas State University in San Marcos; Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro; the Shay Ishii Dance Company in Austin, TX; MOMENTA Dance Company in Oak Park, IL; the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, IL; and the Maryhill Museum of Art in Glendale, WA. "Fire Dance", "Night", and "Lily of the Nile" are featured on the DVD documentary Loïe Fuller: Dancing in the Light Fantastic available through Dance Horizons. A DVD of Slayter and Lindberg’s reconstruction process for Fire Dance was produced in 2003 by John Mueller is available through The Dance Film Archive. In 2013, Slayter was named Cranbrook Schools Bravo Guest Artist and staged "La Mer" as part of her residency at Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, MI. As the resident dance lighting designer at Western Michigan University, Slayter designed for new works by esteemed guest artists including Peter Chu, Gabrielle Lamb, KT Nelson, Nelly von Bommel, Ron DeJesus, Lauren Edson, Eddie Ocampo, and Autumn Eckman; and reconstructed designs for works by Gerald Arpino, George Balanchine, Robert Battle, Frank Chaves, Lou Conte, Ohad Naharin, David Parsons, Anthony Tudor, and Doug Varone.  She is an elected representative of the East Central Region, to the Board of Directors of the American College Dance Association and received her MFA in Dance with an emphasis in lighting design from The Ohio State University.  Having received her BA in dance from Western Michigan University, she has benefited greatly from the outstanding teaching, creativity, and commitment to excellence demonstrated by the faculty, staff, and students in the College of Fine Arts.  She is honored to serve this legacy as the chairperson for the Department of Dance and to help shape the next, exciting, phase of its development as a nationally recognized program in dance education.