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Show f 1 TAUNA HUNTER I VHS graduate excels Tauna Hunter has been chosen as the VHS PTSA Alumnus of the Month for May, the final honoree this year. Tauna graduated with high honors with the class of 1972. She then attended the University of Utah on the William F. Christ- . ensen Scholarship and received her BFA in ballet performance and choreography in 1976. graduating Magna Cum Laude. She went on to receive her MFA in 1980, She started dancing with Ballet West in 1974 and danced with them for eight years, much of the time as principal ballerina. New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff said of her during Ballet West's debut New York season, "...one of the best dancers in the company, ..consistently impressive, she has a strong technique, techni-que, combined with an elegant refinement." Tauna then was lured to the Colorado Ballet in Denver and was principal dancer with them for two years. In 1986 she headed to Dallas where she has been a principal with the Dallas Ballet. Last year she had the honor to dance with Andre Ustinov from the Soviet Union after he defected to the U.S. and came to the Dallas BaUet. In 1982 Tauna was invited to attend the II International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. She toured the U.S. and South America with the Pavlova Celebration in 1980 and later toured Great Britain with the Northern BaUet based in Manchester Man-chester England. Tauna is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and was named Outstanding Young Woman in America in 1985. In 1985 Tauna and her husband founded Dansource, an information infor-mation and referral service that links dancers and dance companies com-panies nationwide. Tauna's choreography has been performed by the Black Hills Dance Theatre, the University of Utah, the Salt Lake Chamber Ballet, Dance Wyoming, Western Oklahoma Dance Theatre and Chamberworks in San Francisco. She has taught workshops work-shops and master classes all over the United States at colleges, universities, companies and private schools. Tauna and her husband, Michael Gleason, travel extensively in their work, and she says travel is her main hobby other than dance. She feels very fortunate to have her vocation and avocation avoca-tion go hand in hand. Tauna's name has been added to the Outstanding Alumni plaque in the foyer of the school, and she was also honored at the Valkyrie Awards Night on April 28. |