Past NCDEO Award and Scholarship Recipients

Michele Trumble is a choreographer and dance educator whose work investigates bridging movement and voice as well as unearthing universal themes from personal stories. Having worked in a wide range of dance environments, her choreography process always includes inspiration and input from the performers she works with. Her choreography has been performed at festivals along the East Coast and she spent a year co-directing and choreographing for Buen Viaje, a multigenerational and multi-ability dance company that performed throughout New Mexico. 

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Along with choreography, Michele enjoys writing dance reviews and historical and cultural aspects of western contemporary dance. Her local and national concert reviews and other dance writing can be found in Dance Chronicle, World Dance Reviews Online, and The News and Record.

She holds a BA from Franklin & Marshall College and an MFA in Choreography from University of North Carolina Greensboro. Outside of teaching theory and technique courses, advising the university’s chapter of the National Honor’s Society of the Dance Arts, and choreographing for the dance concert within High Point University’s Department of Theater and Dance, Michele continues to create and produce work in North Carolina and teach yoga as a registered yoga teacher in the Triad community. 

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Betsy Graves began her teaching career at Broughton High School in January 2013 as the Director of Dance. Betsy graduated from Meredith College in 2012 with a Bachelor's of Arts in Dance Education with a K-12 Licensure. Betsy was the first Meredith College student to have her choreography selected for the American College Dance Festival Gala. Betsy is the teacher for all levels of dance at Broughton along with the Dance Team Coach and NHS Dance advisor. Outside of dance, she serves as the Fine Arts Department Chair, BHS Senior Events Coordinator, Queen of Hearts Chair, Pantry Coordinator, and the Musical Choreographer. Betsy serves on the teacher retention, leadership team and the PLT reset committee. Outside of Broughton High School, Betsy Graves is a member of NCDEO and NDEO, serves on the IDEA committee for NDEO, has served on the Board of Wake Ed Partnership, and NCASA and is a WCPSS curriculum writer. Betsy has presented Arts programs across the state on virtual learning, editing, building a program and recruitment.  She travels as a guest choreographer and instructor.  She spends her summers in New York City and Los Angeles studying at studios.  Ms. Betsy Graves was named the 2017-2018 Wake County Teacher of the Year, 2016-2017 Broughton High School Teacher of the Year, a 2017 WRAL Teacher of the week, and 2018-2019 National Magnet Regional Teacher of the Year. In 2021, BHS dance was named best dance studio of the decade in Raleigh by Broadway World and last year was named the K-12 North Carolina Dance Educator of the Year through NCDEO.

Orphaned as a child, Chasta found comfort in the creativity, play, and catharsis of the performing arts. This led to a life as an arts entrepreneur where she believes that everyone has the power to reach their fullest potential and disrupt the status quo in an empowering and inspiring way.

She is personally doing that through her entrepreneurial endeavors, writing and motivational speaking. This niche in change management has developed through a variety of personal and professional challenges that have forced her to find optimism in her quest for success, happiness, and impact. Stage Door Dance Productions is the heart of her work. The dance studios, located in Raleigh, NC are redefining the youth extracurricular space through their focus on technique, performance, community, and character. Chasta also deeply cares about gender equity, which led to the founding of Girls Geared For Greatness, a 501(c)(3) that prepares the girls of today with the tools they need to achieve and believe that anything is possible for the betterment of their future.

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Her first book, Trash The Trophies: How to Win Without Losing Your Soul, was released in August 2020 and immediately became an Amazon Bestseller. A few months later, her TEDx talk, “You Weren’t Built to Break”, was released and has been viewed by thousands. Her second book, Handle the Horrible: Change. Triage. Joy. was universally praised as a blueprint for perseverance, authenticity, and adaptability. Chasta is known for her energy, enthusiasm, and devotion to her passion and her projects. She lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband, John, son, Bash, and Scottish Terrier, Elvis.

Christina Tsoules Soriano is the Vice Provost for the Arts and Interdisciplinary Initiatives at Wake Forest University and a Professor of dance. Christina received her MFA in dance from Smith College and has danced for many inspiring choreographers, including Alexandra Beller, B.J. Sullivan, and Heidi Henderson. In addition to the new works she creates for the Wake Forest Dance Company, Christina’s choreography has been presented throughout New England, North Carolina, New York and in Vienna, Austria. Choreographic or teaching residencies have included the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Amherst College, Trinity College (CT), Salve Regina University, Rhode Island College and Providence College. Christina has premiered a new work at the Music Carolina Festival in Winston-Salem since 2013. She often works with large, intergenerational casts of dancers, ranging in ages from 5-87.

Since 2012, Christina has regularly taught a community dance class in Winston-Salem, NC to people living with diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's diseases and their carepartners, and has co-led several scientific research studies that look at the ways dance can help the cognition, mobility and balance of people living with neurodegenerative diseases. She has received funding from the National Parkinson Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC, and the NIH where twice, she and her neuroscience collaborator Dr. Christina Hugenschmidt, have been awarded federal funding to conduct two randomized clinical trials. Her published work has appeared in the Journal of Dance Education, Research in Dance Education, Dance Magazine, Theatre Journal, the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, The Journal of Physical and Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics and Frontiers in Neurology. In her role as a Vice provost, she works with colleagues across the university to enhance the visibility of the arts at and beyond Wake Forest, and help forge interdisciplinary connections with many community partners.