Jo Rowan (Founder and Director of The American Spirit Dance Company)

Jo Rowan, nationally known ballet dancer and dance teacher, is professor of dance and

chairman of the dance department at Oklahoma City University and founder and

director of The American Spirit Dance Company, a 160 member company of

Broadway-bound singer-dancer-entertainers. The American Spirit Dance Company

has performed with entertainers such as Dinah Shore, Pearl Bailey, Marie Osmond and

the Osmond Brothers, Vic Damone, and on international tours to Malaysia and Taiwan.

Ms. Rowan, a member of Actors Equity, has appeared professionally in over sixty

musicals as a dancer, actress, singer, and comedienne. Musicals in which she has

appeared include My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, Kismet, West Side Story, Fiddler on the

Roof, Sweet Charity, Funny Girl, George M, Brigadoon, Oliver!, The Desert Song, Can

Can, Boys from Syracuse, Of Thee I Sing, Sugar Babies and Peter Pan. She

co-starred in Lyric Theatre’s production of the musical Grand Hotel as the ballerina, a

role which earlier launched the American career of Greta Garbo.

She was a regular performer on the PBS weekly television program Consumer Survival

Kit and has appeared in television commercials. Ms. Rowan was a featured subject on

PM Magazine and has appeared in a film, Oil History in Oklahoma, for use in Oklahoma

public schools. Ms. Rowan has also appeared in commercials for Technical TV,

American Appliance Stores, Crocketts Bar-B-Q, and Furrs Cafeterias and Sprite, among

others.

Ms. Rowan is a frequent lecturer on the history of ballet and American dance and has

written and narrated American Dance Styles and Seventy Years of American Dance for

television.

Ms. Rowan, former ballet mistress of the Dallas Ballet, has performed as ballet soloist

with many of the nation's leading opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera,

the Philadelphia Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Cincinnati Opera, and the

Tulsa Opera.

She appeared with Odetta in the Kansas City Performing Arts Foundation production of

Long Hair, Short Hair, and has been a ballet soloist and guest artist with the Kansas

City Philharmonic and the Baltimore and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras.

Ms. Rowan was also the producer of the popular children's show, The Buzzy, Bear, and

Budgy Show, which toured the East Coast. She was also a regular performer in

schools for Young Audiences of Maryland, Inc., in Baltimore.

As a choreographer, Ms. Rowan has created numerous ballets of various lengths and

has staged dance sequences for professional productions of Oklahoma!, Kismet and

Threepenny Opera. Her choreography for the award-winning opera Medea received

critical acclaim. She also choreographed for productions of Carmen, Die Fledermaus,

and The Tales of Hoffman. She has choreographed for PBS television programs and

is known in many communities for her extraordinary ability and unorthodox methods of

staging The Nutcracker ballet. She also provided original choreography for the Wichita

Music Theatre's production of the 1930's musical, Babes in Arms. Other musicals for

which she has provided choreography are On Your Toes, Bye Bye, Birdie, West Side

Story, The Desert Song, Oklahoma!, The Most Happy Fella, and On the Town.

Ms. Rowan is a popular guest artist and teacher. She was twice artist-in-residence at

the University of Wyoming at Laramie and was guest artist at the University of Nebraska

at Lincoln. As guest artist and artist-in-residence at the Cincinnati School of Creative

and Performing Arts, she choreographed her own full-length version of A Midsummer

Night's Dream uniquely set in the great American West.

She is in demand as a master teacher for such organizations as Oklahoma Dance

Masters Association, N.A.D.A.A., T.A.T.D., the St. Louis Dancing Teachers Association,

D.E.A., A.D.A., M.V.A.D.T., Dance Troup, Dance Makers, World Dance Association,

and for state, regional, and national conventions of Dance Masters of America. Ms.

Rowan has also taught and adjudicated for many dance organizations in Canada.

Ms. Rowan toured nationally with Dance Caravan Red for two years. She toured

nationally with Dance Olympus for over twenty-five years and has taught at Dance

Olympus Winter workshops. She was also a regular faculty member teaching ballet at

Nilo Toledo's Summer Fine Arts Camp at Tampa, Florida, and Dance Camp America.

She has over thirty nationally distributed dance instruction records and CD’s on the

Statler, Hoctor, and Stepping Tones labels. She also has a nationally distributed

teaching video, "Basic Essentials of a Barre", distributed by Statler Records.

Ms. Rowan is listed in "Who's Who in the Southwest", "Who's Who in Entertainment",

"Who's Who in America" and "Outstanding Young Women of America".

In addition to The American Spirit Dance Company, Ms. Rowan founded the Oklahoma

City University Spirit of Grace Liturgical Dancers. The Spirit of Grace Liturgical

Dancers perform in churches of all faiths as part of the worship services.

She repeatedly received critical acclaim for writing and directing Yuletide Magic, a

record-setting holiday extravaganza presented from 1992 to 2003 by the Oklahoma City

Philharmonic featuring the orchestra, The American Spirit Dance Company, and

musical theater stars. Beginning in 2004, she created her own holiday show for the

American Spirit Dance Company, Home for the Holidays – a Gift of American Dance,

which has set historic attendance and ticket sales records at Oklahoma City University.

In May 1994, she successfully took The American Spirit Dance Company on a dance

goodwill performance tour to the Republic of China. The tour was for the purpose of

strengthening relationships between the sister-cities of Taipei and Oklahoma City.

In 1996 she took the company on tour to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to perform for the

Malaysian Red Crescent Society to help raise funds to assist victims of natural disasters

and the needy.

In 1998, Ms. Rowan lead The American Spirit Dance Company on a tour to Pensacola

to present USO performances for sailors, marines, and airman at the Naval Aviation

Technical Training Command and Pensacola Naval Air Station. Additional

performances were presented at Pensacola’s Seville Quarters for Navy, Marine, and Air

Force officers. The company also presented public performances at the Palafox

Theatre in historic downtown Pensacola. Under Rowan’s direction, The American

Spirit Dance Company then traveled to Los Alamos for public performances for the

scientific community at the Duane Smith Auditorium and lecture demonstrations and

assembly programs for the Los Alamos Public Schools.

In 1999, she took the company on tour to Kuala Lumpur to perform on behalf of the

Malaysian National Heart Foundation to raise funds for surgical equipment and for the

Tun Omar Hamid Foundation to raise funds for scholarships to assist Malaysian law

students. She then took the company to Singapore to help raise funds for the Society

for the Physically Disabled and to perform in the prestigious Kallang Theatre.

Following the tour to Malaysia, Ms. Rowan took The American Spirit Dance Company to

New York for its Broadway debut at Town Hall, performing at the Tap Extravaganza

1999.

In 2000, Ms. Rowan and The American Spirit Dance Company returned to Los Alamos

to perform at the Duane Smith Auditorium. In 2001, she took the company to Illinois for

performances at the Eastlight Theater to benefit the Ballet of Central Illinois and then to

Tennessee for a benefit performance for the Cannon County Arts Center. While in

Tennessee, she presented assembly programs in American dance at the Wharton Arts

Magnet School once attended by Oprah Winfrey.

The Executive Committee of the Malaysian American Society in Kuala Lumpur

unanimously voted to confer on Ms. Rowan the Most Distinguished Fellow of the

Malaysian American Society for “promoting goodwill and understanding between the

people of the United States of America and Malaysia through “... cultural and

educational activities.”

In May 2001, Ms. Rowan and dancers traveled to Singapore to perform at the luxurious

Meritus-Negara Hotel and to present American musical theater dance performances,

lecture demonstrations, and American jazz dance workshops at the Nanyang Academy

of Fine Arts.

In May 2002, Ms. Rowan and American Spirit Dancers traveled to the People’s Republic

of China for performances in Langfang City and Beijing.

In May 2004, Ms. Rowan and American Spirit Dancers traveled to the Republic of China

for performances in Taipei at Taiwan Police College, University of Chinese Culture,

Soochow University, and National University of Arts.

She collaborated with Mason Williams on a new staging of a revised version of Williams'

humorous song and dance work, "The Last Great Waltz", originally seen on the popular

"Smothers Brothers Show". She was also chief researcher and contributor to Michael

Allen’s book, How To Make It In Musicals, released in December 1999. And in 2000,

she again collaborated with Mason Williams and Emmy award-winning Los Angeles

video director/producer Cort Casady on a choreography project based on Williams’

music.

Ms. Rowan has been a regular master teacher at the prestigious St. Louis Tap Festival

in recent years. The St. Louis Tap Festival selected her and John Bedford, Dean of

OCU’s Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment, to receive the Festival’s

first Tap Preservationist Award. The award presented on August 5, 2001, recognized

their significant contribution to preserving and revitalizing American tap dance by

establishing the first degree program in an institution of higher education based on the

American dance styles of tap, jazz, and theater dance. The dance program

established by Ms. Rowan and Dean Bedford has become world famous for producing

top dancers and managers for the entertainment industry.

Ms. Rowan was selected to be National Dance Week 2002 Education Spokesperson,

serving with motion picture star Ben Vereen who was selected to be the National Dance

Week 2002 Celebrity Spokesperson. She was selected to be National Dance Week

Education Spokesperson again for 2003 and 2004, marking the first time that a person

has been selected to serve more than one year.

In May 2003, Ms. Rowan was presented “The Musician of the Year Award” by the

Ladies Music Club of Oklahoma City “in recognition of her outstanding accomplishments

in the Oklahoma City musical and cultural community”.

In August 2004, Ms. Rowan was honored by Dance Teacher magazine published by

Lifestyle Media as national Teacher of the Year in Higher Education. In October 2004,

she was inducted into the Oklahoma Heritage Higher Education Hall of Fame.

In May 2005, Ms. Rowan was a co-leader of a delegation to the People’s Republic of

China to meet with leaders of arts and cultural organizations and government agencies

to exchange knowledge of how arts, culture, and entertainment are developed,

nurtured, and managed in our two countries.

In July 2006, Ms. Rowan received the National Dance Masters of America President’s

Award in Las Vegas for unique and significant contributions to dance education.

In February 2008, Ms. Rowan received the prestigious Byliners Award in the Arts from

the Oklahoma Chapter of the Association of Women in Communication.

Ms. Rowan received her ballet training in Cincinnati and at the School of American

Ballet and the Ballet Theatre School, both in New York. She has also studied ballet

with Miguel Terekhov and Yvonne Chouteau. She received a bachelor of science

degree in design and a master of arts in dance, both from the University of Cincinnati.

In 1975, Ms. Rowan received and accepted an invitation to study ballet at the Bolshoi

School in Moscow, Russia. While on a leave-of-absence from Oklahoma City

University during the fall 1989 semester, she studied ballet in Switzerland, France, and

Italy.

Jo Rowan is married to John Bedford, dean of the Ann Lacy School of American Dance

and Entertainment. Professor Rowan and Dean Bedford were awarded the

internationally prestigious Flo-Bert Award (“the Tony of tap”) in New York City in 2007

for their significant contributions to the revitalization and preservation of tap dance.

Also, in 2007, the president of the Borough of Manhattan, New York City, issued a

proclamation recognizing Dean Bedford and Jo Rowan for contributing “.... greatly to the

cultural life of Manhattan and all of New York City.”

She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from National Association of Dance and Affiliated Artists in 2009

The May 2010 issue of Oklahoma Magazine featured Ms. Rowan as one of “Seven

Incredible Women” in Oklahoma. ION Oklahoma magazine featured Rowan in its

April/May 2011 issue in an article titled “Imposing in Pink”.

The Association of Dance Conventions and Competitions presented Rowan with its

2016 Lifetime Achievement Award. The Annie Oakley Society of the National Cowboy

& Western Heritage Museum present Rowan with its 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award.

okcFriday included Rowan in its 2016 listing of the five most powerful women in the arts

in Oklahoma.

This year 2020 the Journal Record will honor her as one of “50 Making a Difference”.

In addition, she will be inducted into the Circle of Excellence, an honor reserved for those being selected for the third time, ( 2018, 2019, 2020)..

In 2019 she received the prestigious Governor’s Arts Award for her longtime leadership and significant contributions to the arts. “The Governor’s Arts Awards honorees reflect the qualities that define Oklahomans. Hard working, selfless, and devoted to causes greater than themselves”, Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Amber Sharples said. “Those selected for awards have shown exemplary commitment to impacting lives through one of Oklahoma’s most robust assets, the arts.”