biography

JAMES CLOUSER began dancing while at the Eastman School of Music on an orchestral scholarship, studying the French Horn and musical composition. He became familiar with the classical and contemporary repertory as a member of the American Ballet Theatre, and as principal artist with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet of Canada. He first came to Texas in 1970 after establishing an international reputation as a dancer and choreographer. For the next several years he served as Ballet Master, Choreographer-in-Residence and Acting Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet. During these years he staged such classics as "Swan Lake, Act II" and "Napoli, Act III", and choreographed numerous original works including "Carmina Burana" and the rock-ballet, "Caliban".

In 1976 he established a dance major at the University of Houston at Clear Lake City and founded Space/Dance/Theater which toured the Southwest with a repertory of unique and accessible dance works which included "Rasputin, The Holy Devil" starring Eric Bruhn. During this period he was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships. In recognition of his contributions to dance in Texas, which included the many dances he created for the state's regional and professional companies in Houston, Galveston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Dallas, the Texas Commission on the Arts honored him with their first Artistic Excellence Award.

In 1982 he accepted an invitation to head the dance program at Loretto Heights College in Denver, where he subsequently became the Chairman of the Programs in Fine Arts. In 1988 he was appointed Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Ballet and Modern Dance at Texas Christian University. In 1990 he moved briefly to Ohio where he served as Artistic Director of the Dayton Ballet.

When a faculty position at the University of North Texas opened in 1993 he eagerly returned to the Southwest where he has remained active regionally and nationally as a choreographer and master teacher. His works for regional and university dance groups are regularly featured at those organization's festivals. In addition to publishing articles and lecturing on kinesiologically sound methods of ballet training, he has choreographed for dance companies in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, El Paso, Lexington, Cincinatti, Greensboro, Denver, Des Moines and Chicago. A special collection of materials concerning his earlier work is housed in the Performing Arts Library at the University of Texas at Austin.