The Florida State University School of Dance welcomes Helanius J. Wilkins as its new chair this Fall.  

“As dean of the College of Fine Arts and as someone deeply engaged in the field of dance, I am very pleased to welcome Helanius J. Wilkins as our new Chair,” said James Frazier. “His breadth of experience as a performer, choreographer, educator, and leader in the arts makes him exceptionally well-suited for this role. Dance has been central to the FSU experience for more than 90 years, and our commitment to the field remains as strong as ever. I am thrilled to celebrate this new chapter, confident that under Helanius’s leadership the School of Dance will continue to flourish.”  

As Chair, Wilkins hopes to foster a culture of innovation, collective action, and meaningful partnerships to advance FSU’s national reputation for excellence in dance.  

“I am inspired by the vibrant legacy of achievements, faculty, and alumni that define FSU’s School of Dance,” said Wilkins. “My focus will be on building opportunities that spark collaboration, deepen our academic networks, and strengthen our curriculum to meet the evolving needs of students. By leading with integrity and imagination, I look forward to shaping new futures for our community and continuing the tradition of mentorship and excellence that has made the School of Dance a leader in the field.”  

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My focus will be on building opportunities that spark collaboration, deepen our academic networks, and strengthen our curriculum to meet the evolving needs of students.

Helanius J. Wilkins, School of Dance Chair & Professor

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Wilkins founded and led EDGEWORKS Dance Theater, a Washington, DC-based all-male, contemporary dance company, from 2001 to 2014, and continues his work as an independent dance artist. He has created more than 60 works, with choreography presented at prestigious venues including Jacob’s Pillow, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Place (Washington, D.C.), Movement Research at Judson Church (New York), and international stages in South Africa and the Caribbean.  

With a significant body of work in screendance, Wilkins has earned praise, with films such as Dirt and EntangleMEN: From the Dugout, which were officially selected for international festivals across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America, and have garnered multiple awards, including Best Experimental Film honors at festivals in New York, Venice, Toronto, and Kolkata. 

Throughout his career, his projects have been backed by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), and the National Performance Network (NPN), among others. 

Prior to joining the School of Dance, Wilkins served for ten years as a professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he held the roles of Associate Chair and Director of Dance.   

“Having admired the energy and achievements of FSU’s School of Dance from afar,” said Wilkins, “I am looking forward to stepping into the heart of the action—being not just a witness, but an active collaborator in the successes and milestones yet to come. 

This announcement comes following the retirement of former chair Anjali Austin last December. Ansje Burdick, who served as interim chair, has recently been announced as the new director of the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and will begin her work in that role this Spring.  

Visit HelaniusJ.org to learn more about Wilkins and his work.

By: Anna Prentiss

Florida State University’s School of Dance is home to a rare collection of costumes and ephemera that serves as a valuable resource for FSU students and faculty.

The collection, which includes costumes dating back to the early 1900s, offers a tangible link to the evolution of modern dance in America while also offering national researchers access to valuable dance resources.

“Dance is such an ephemeral art form, but when you can actually touch and see the costumes that were used in the 1930s, it makes it more concrete,” said Tim Glenn, a School of Dance professor who teaches movement analysis and dance technique at FSU. “You can see the fashions, the techniques and how fabrics were used and dyed to create the costuming of modern dances from our past.”

The School of Dance costume shop houses two major costume collections: The Killinger Collection: Costumes of Denishawn and Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers; and The Costumes of the Hanya Holm Collection.

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The Hanya Holm Collection includes costumes and collectables from the works of Holm, who is celebrated as one of the “Big Four” founders of American modern dance. The collection includes costumes by important surrealist painter Kurt Seligmann for the Holm Company, as well as pieces from the Don Redlich Dance Company, which Holm choreographed for.

Recently, Mary Anne Santos Newhall, a distinguished professor emeritus of dance, history and criticism, and contemporary dance from the University of New Mexico, visited to explore this rare and historically significant collection linked to modern dance pioneer Hanya Holm.

“I knew that there was a remarkable collection here,” Newhall said. “I didn’t know how remarkable until we actually came and saw it in person. The collections that the School of Dance holds are so valuable for the field and for the history of dance, and I don’t know anywhere else that has quite this particular legacy of early modern dance.”

Newhall is currently working on reconstructing Holm’s 1937 masterwork “Trend.”

“The costumes are the only lasting remnants of a performance,” she said. “When you put together a photograph with the costume itself, you really begin to feel the life of the work again.”

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The collection is maintained by Katrina Lundquist, costume shop manager for the School of Dance, who described the care required to preserve the delicate garments.

“They’re wrapped in acid-free paper and stored in a temperature- and moisture-controlled space,” she said. “Even handling them requires gloves or thoroughly washed hands. If someone tried to dance in one of these, it would likely fall apart at the seams.”

Lundquist noted that the collection represents a turning point in costume design.

“Originally, costumes were just the nice clothing dancers had,” she said. “But this collection represents a shift — where designers began thinking abstractly about how color and fabric movement could express emotion and enhance choreography. It means we can watch how the past evolved into our present and use that knowledge to shape the future. It’s exciting to see researchers come in and be so moved by what we have here. We’re learning from them just as much as they’re learning from us.”

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Glenn highlighted that the collection aids in tracing the genealogy of modern dance for students and researchers.

“I feel as if I’m sort of a distant cousin of modern dance with Mary Anne,” Glenn said. “We’ve both studied with people who were largely influenced by Hanya Holm. I studied with Alwin Nikolais, who studied with Hanya Holm. It’s part of a German lineage that came from Mary Wigman to Holm, to Nikolais, to me — and I share that with my students here at Florida State.”

Newhall is among numerous researchers who have drawn valuable insights from collections like the Hanya Holm Collection, underscoring FSU’s standing in the field that provides national researchers access to valuable dance resources.

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“The staff here at FSU are wonderful to work with,” Newhall said. “The value of the materials and access to them is immeasurable. Some of these things are priceless. I hope that this is the beginning of a long-term relationship with FSU.”

For more information, visit dance.fsu.edu.