KU News Release

KU junior receives 2007 Elizabeth Sherbon Dance Award

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas junior has received the 2007 Elizabeth Sherbon Dance Award for outstanding achievement in dance.

The $500 award was presented to Amanda M. Shriwise of Overland Park at the University Dance Company performance April 27 at the Lied Center.

The award is named in honor of Sherbon, a KU professor of dance who performed with the Martha Graham and Jean Erdman dance companies in New York City. She died in 2000.

Shriwise is majoring in dance and African studies and minoring in chemistry. She has a long-range goal of earning a medical degree and a master’s in public health.

“Artistic development is not optional, but essential,” said Shriwise. “It gives us the ability and skills to create something out of nothing, to innovate and to express ourselves. Dancing makes me a stronger person, and I have no doubt that it also will make me a better doctor.”

Shriwise has performed with the University Dance Company since fall 2004. She is member of the University Honors Program and was one of 20 students selected from among 5,000 sophomores for KU’s University Scholars academic mentorship program. She performed at the 2005 and 2007 American College Dance festivals and at the 2006 Kansas Dance Festival. She is the treasurer of the University Dance Company this year and a representative for the dance division on the School of Fine Arts Student Advisory Council.

Last summer, Shriwise volunteered in a hospital and in a school for disabled children in Tanzania, where she also taught English. She plans to return to Tanzania this summer.

She is the daughter of Rodney and Susan Shriwise of Overland Park (ZIP 66212) and a graduate of Shawnee Mission South High School.

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