MEMPHIS, TN, March 17, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Karen J. Zissoff has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Ms. Zissoff has extensive training and interest in ballet, modern, tap and jazz, dance idioms. From ages 5 to 19 she had Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) ballet training. She earned an Honors Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from York University in 1976, a Canada Council scholarship (1976) for the Les Grandes Ballets Canadiens professional apprentice program (Montreal, Quebec), and four summer scholarships from the Banff School of Fine Arts Summer Program (1977-1980). She earned a teaching certificate (1995) and teaching diploma (1998) through the Royal Academy of Dance and is an RAD Life Member.
Ms. Zissoff was a principal dancer with Ottawa Dance Theatre (Ottawa, Canada) and teacher for the affiliated Ottawa Dance Centre School, from 1977 until 1984. For the Dance In Canada Conference she performed solo and duet dances in 1980, 1982, and 1984. Ms. Zissoff established Dance Works (1987-2011) in Memphis, Tennessee, where she was director, teacher, and choreographer, while she served annually as a guest teacher for the Ottawa Dance Center summer school. She founded Dance Scholars Inc. (2011-2017) and served as the Executive Officer and Director.
Throughout the course of her career, Ms. Zissoff gained valuable expertise as a dancer and choreographer for the Tennessee Ballet, and the Memphis Classical Ballet. In addition she was a teacher for the Arts Memphis Center for Arts in Education, Shelby County Schools and the Governor's School for the Arts. Supported by four decades of excellence in choreography and directing performances, she is presently the Director of Dancers Inc., an academy for students in arts education based on the international syllabus of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) that emphasizes the fundamental movements up to the professional levels of classical ballet. In this capacity, Ms. Zissoff teaches pupils in elementary through high school levels for Memphis City Schools.
In order to remain aware of changes in the profession, she aligned herself with the Tennessee Association of Dance. Likewise dedicated to her community as an avid civic advocate, Ms. Zissoff was a founding board member of the Memphis Dance Alliance and as an adjudicator and teacher for the Governor's School of the Arts of Tennessee.
In light of her excellence in dance, Ms. Zissoff undertook numerous principal roles in ballet, contemporary and creative dance and was featured in Memphis Magazine in December of 1989. Her awards include the Choreographic Competition Award, Ballet Division and the Judith Woodruff Professional Development Award from the Tennessee Association of Dance, an Outstanding Teacher Award from the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts at Middle Tennessee State University, a Tennessee Arts Commission Dance Fellowship Grant, a Women's Foundation Grant, and the She Knows Where She's Going Award from Girl's Inc. of Memphis. Though her career has been suffused with principal roles in Snow Queen, Hansel and Gretel, Nutcracker, Firebird, and Coppelia, she is especially proud of a commission to learn and perform famous works by modern choreographers: Charles Wideman's "The Brahms Waltzes" authorization and training by the Dance Notation Bureau and likewise Doris Humphrey's "Two Ecstatic Themes" by Ernestine Stodelle the administrator and a dancer in Humphrey's works. Ms. Zissoff continues teaching and choreographing.
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