FOUNDER
Tom Evert currently serves as the Executive & Artistic director, dancer, choreographer and teacher of DANCE EVERT. He holds BFA degrees in both painting and dance from Ohio University in Athens, OH. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City to apprentice with The Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais Dance Companies, and from 1975-77 toured as a dancer and teaching artist with the Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company. His critical acclaim and maturity as a performing artist, however, developed while performing and touring nationally and internationally with The Paul Taylor Dance Company for 8 years and was featured in PBS television productions (1977-85).
In 1986, he founded the Tom Evert Dance Company and created a major body of work for which he has received 7 Fellowships for Excellence in Choreography from the Ohio Arts Council and the Arts Council of Fairfax County, VA. The company, now called DANCEEVERT, has toured extensively and is dedicated to outreach and collaborative community projects. He has been commissioned to create works for professional and pre-professional dance companies, university ensembles, art institutions and commercial enterprises. He often gives master classes in tandem with company performances.
After being involved in arts education programming in the schools for 33 years, Evert has emerged as a prominent “teaching artist” nationally and internationally and serves on the artist rosters of the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning, The Ohio Arts Council, VSA Ohio, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He was also a founding member of the Statewide Arts Talent Assessment Initiative (START-ID). Through the sponsorship of the Kennedy Center’s Ohio-State-Based Partnership, Evert presents workshops for teachers on the integration of arts activities into the teaching of the core curriculum. He pioneers a unique instruction approach which integrates the art of dance and the core curriculum.
Before dancing, Evert was an athlete through high school and began his college career in the visual arts,. Subsequently, he designs and constructs many of the sets for his dances, works as a muralist and sculptor of figurative works for which he has received commissions and prizes in invitational shows. Contact him at TomEvertArt@gmail.com
Evert Education
DANCE EVERT has launched Evert Education, which incorporates the theory of Arts Integration, based on the idea that art underlies all the higher human function involving creativity and invention. Literacy is the representative skill for those attainments. Art and literacy are fundamentally the same things; that is social, communicative activities that are productive and constructive at their core.
Evert Education ties in with everyday math and science classroom curriculum and enhances valuable school time while strengthening teachers’ agendas, by using the Evert Educational programs and tools.
Evert Education teaches organization, memory skills, thinking on your feet, vocabulary development, writing programs, public speaking skills, dance and simple art techniques.
The results in the classroom have been overwhelming, with greater focus, increased participation, higher self-awareness, and increasing test scores over 40%. (Research-based test scores are available on request).
Evert Education programming has its foundation in research, multiple intelligences, cooperative learning, arts integration, and whole-child engagement. It provides students with critical thinking, curriculum mastery, fluency, strategic planning, imagery, flexibility, and energized relationships.
Evert Educational programs have been successful in all schools where applied, whether rural, Inner City and Inner Ring school districts, or Special Education, regardless of socio-economic background.