SUU Dance Faculty Earns Jacob's Pillow Research Fellowship
Published: July 08, 2026 | Author: Kol Gibson | Read Time: 5 minutes
Southern Utah University’s Danielle Lydia Sheather, Associate Chair of Theatre, Dance, and Arts Administration (TDAA) and Associate Professor of Dance, has been selected as a Jacob’s Pillow Research Fellow for 2026-27.
The fellowship will allow Sheather to conduct research at Jacob’s Pillow, home to America’s longest-running international dance festival and one of the nation’s most influential dance institutions. Founded by dancer and choreographer Ted Shawn in 1931, Jacob’s Pillow serves as a center for dance performance, preservation, and education.
Sheather’s project, Sahomi Tachibana: A Life in Dance, explores how dance histories are constructed and whose contributions are remembered. Her research focuses on Sahomi Tachibana, a Japanese dancer, teacher, and choreographer whose influence on dance in Utah and beyond has often gone unrecognized. Tachibana’s story intersects with the history of the Topaz War Relocation Center in Delta, Utah, where she was incarcerated during World War II. While many accounts focus solely on that period, Sheather’s research seeks to examine the full arc of Tachibana’s career.
“An observation I have made over the course of my dance career is that oftentimes an artist’s work and life can be relegated to a very narrow scope, usually highlighting the most tragic parts of their lives,” Sheather said. “But Tachibana was more than a dancer, teacher, and choreographer who was confined at Topaz for four years.”
Before internment, Tachibana studied traditional Japanese dance in Fukushima. Following World War II, she trained in modern dance and ballet, made her professional New York City debut in 1948, and first performed at Jacob’s Pillow in 1953. She returned to the festival five more times over the next two decades, concluding with a 1971 performance alongside her teacher, Saho Tachibana.
The fellowship will provide Sheather access to archival materials documenting those performances, helping to build a more complete understanding of an artist whose contributions have been largely absent from many dance histories.
The research also reflects the type of scholarship and critical inquiry Sheather brings into the classroom. While developing her Dance History curriculum, she learned of Tachibana’s story and began taking students to the Topaz Museum and the site of the former internment camp.
“My intention was to confront a dark part of the United States’ history and to demonstrate that despite the inhumane, prejudicial, and racist treatment of a marginalized population, art prevailed,” Sheather said.
Students in SUU’s Dance History course engage directly with historical sites, archival materials, and questions about memory, identity, and artistic legacy.
“While it can be difficult to contend with our history as a nation, it can also be liberating to discover and discuss so as to become better humans, artists, and people to one another,” Sheather said.
The Jacob’s Pillow Fellowship represents one part of a broader research effort spanning multiple institutions and sources dedicated to preserving dance history. Alongside her work at Jacob’s Pillow, Sheather has been collaborating with Angela Rapp, a library technical assistant in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “Angela has been instrumental in helping me to gain access to a variety of resources connected to Sahomi Tachibana’s legacy in dance.”
Sheather will spend two days at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts examining archival materials that will help build a more complete understanding of Tachibana’s artistic life. Together, the collections at Jacob’s Pillow, the New York Public Library, the Topaz Museum, and contributions from Tachibana’s daughter, Elaine Werner, are allowing Sheather to reconstruct the story of an artist whose influence stretched far beyond her internment in Utah.
Sheather’s project highlights the breadth of a contemporary dance education. At SUU, students learn not only performance and choreography, but also research, historical analysis, critical thinking, and cultural stewardship. By examining how artists are remembered or forgotten, students gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between art, history, and society.
While Sheather has dedicated countless hours to her project and earning this fellowship, she has built a supportive community that has been crucial to her success. Sahomi Tachibana’s daughter, Elaine Werner, supplied countless priceless resources, including a book gifted to her mother with an inscription from Jacob’s Pillow’s founder, as well as a letter of recommendation for the fellowship. Sheather also extends gratitude to the Topaz Museum and its founder, Jane Beckwith, TDAA chair Brian Swanson, and her father, Stephen J. Sheather, who taught her the value of being on, in, and around historical sites.
As Sheather begins her fellowship work, she will help bring greater visibility to an influential artist while contributing new scholarship to the field of dance history. In doing so, she also demonstrates how dance education prepares students to be not only artists, but also researchers, historians, and engaged citizens.
To learn more about Dance at SUU, please visit www.suu.edu/pva/tdaa/dance.
About the College of Performing and Visual Arts
The College of Performing and Visual Arts (CPVA) at Southern Utah University comprises 41 academic programs, including liberal arts (BA/BS) and professional (BFA, BM, BMEd) degrees in art, design, dance, filmmaking, music, and theatre. It includes graduate programs in the fields of arts administration (MFA, MA), music education (MME), and music technology (MM). More than 60 full-time faculty and staff are engaged in teaching and mentoring over 900 majors in the College. CPVA presents over 100 performances, lectures, presentations, and exhibitions each year, which are complemented by the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA) and Shakespeare Studies at SUU, and is affiliated with the Tony award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival (USF). Southern Utah University is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Art & Design (NASAD), National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD), National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), and the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST), making SUU the first public university in the state of Utah to be accredited by all four associations. For more information about the College of Performing and Visual Arts, visit www.suu.edu/pva.Contact Information
Kol Gibson
435-865-8667
kolgibson@suu.edu