Opportunities
Work Study Positions Available: No
Grant Funded Positions Available: No
Course-Credit Research Opportunities Available: No
Volunteer Research Positions Available: No
Biography
Liz Staruch coordinates the musical theatre concentration and works with both the dance and musical theatre programs in the Department of Theatre and Dance at West Chester University. Recent scholarship focused on the German Bauhaus art movement (1919-1933) and its influence on design and performing arts with a new art installation and dance for camera entitled A Thing Is Determined By Its Nature mounted in 2019, the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus. Since 2020, primary research has examined the needs to support teaching dance/studies online, recruitment, retention and physical/mental wellbeing of faculty and students alike during a global pandemic.
As director/choreographer, her WCU credits include Cabaret a la Carte (a benefit for WCU Resource Pantry and the West Chester Food Cupboard), Once Upon A Mattress, Godspell, The Rocky Horror Show and From Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill which toured to the Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Her musical theatre choreography has earned several awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, including a national commendation for WCU’s production of Hair! Her concert choreography has been presented in Philadelphia, New York City, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, England and Poland.
Staruch currently serves on the American College Dance Association (ACDA) board of directors as Regional Director of the Mid-Atlantic North, chair of the national Fundraising committee and appointed member of the ACDA50 (50th Anniversary) Coordination committee. She was previously on faculty at DeSales University, Elon University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she received her M.F.A. in Dance/Choreography.
