Artistic Directors
Robin Stiehm, founder (1994) and co-director of DPC, started dancing in 1969 and has been dancing professionally since 1975. She began choreographing in 1989, while still dancing at MN’s New Dance Ensemble. Fifteen years of professional performance experience provided a formidable foundation for her transition into the realm of choreography. She has received funding from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. She was the 2000 recipient of the Bush Foundation’s Artist Fellowship, one of the most prestigious awards in the Midwest region. In both 1999 and 2001 she received Minneapolis’ City Pages “Best Choreographer” award. Audiences applaud her dances for their evocative landscapes that engage the emotion and the intellect. The Minneapolis Star Tribune said: “Stiehm’s choreography shows an ever-developing intelligence, rigor and artistic maturity…”
In early 2005, Peggy Paver joined DPC as co-director. Peggy Paver has been a dance educator, choreographer and performer since 1991. She received a Master’s Degree in Dance from the University of Arizona in 1995, and spent 14 years teaching at University High and Tucson Fine Arts Magnet Schools in Tucson, Arizona. She was a senior choreographer and community educator with ZUZI Dance Company in Tucson until her move to Ashland in 2003. She has studied and performed with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (Washington D.C.), David Dorfman Dance, and Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane Co. (New York). Her Master’s thesis was the brainchild for a partnership between Tucson Unified School District, the University of Arizona’s Centennial Hall, and local artists that grew into the Tucson Arts Connections program. This program is currently recognized by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and was the recipient of the 1999 Arizona Governor’s Arts Education award.