Dance Faculty Department of Dance

Cari Martin Freiberger (she/her) is a Professor of Dance at Jacksonville University, Florida where she teaches ballet, history, and pedagogy to undergraduate and graduate students. She also teaches master classes and is a guest artist choreographing and staging ballets, teaching yoga, contemporary, improv, and inclusive dance. She received her early training at Washington School of Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Pennsylvania Ballet and performed with Alabama Ballet Company/Ballet South, Appalachian Ballet Company, Festival Ballet-Atlanta, and Ballet Company of Spokane. Her education includes a BA from Birmingham-Southern College and her MFA in dance at Florida State University where she was the recipient of the Suzanne Farrell Fellowship. Current research focuses are on François Delsarte and Isadora Duncan movement explorations and historical philosophical influences on contemporary dance. When not teaching or dancing, you will most likely find her on her sailboat named ‘Grand Jeté’ !

Lana Carroll Heylock is an accomplished teacher, choreographer, and interdisciplinary collaborative artist with a dynamic career that spans performance, education, and global artistic partnerships. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Akron and an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University, where she is currently an Associate Professor of Dance. Throughout her career, Ms. Heylock has made significant contributions to both the dance world and academia. Her professional journey includes over fourteen years with Jennifer Muller/The Works Dance Company in New York City, where she served as a principal dancer, rehearsal director, and special projects director. During her tenure, she worked closely with Jennifer Muller, assisting in restaging the company's renowned repertory on stages worldwide. Following Jennifer Muller's passing in 2023, Ms. Heylock was honored to be named Legacy Artistic Advisor for the continuing Muller/Works Dance Company, a testament to her deep commitment to the company’s history and legacy. A master teacher with an international reputation, Ms. Heylock has taught at prestigious professional dance companies, universities, schools, and festivals worldwide. Her expertise spans various dance teaching methods, and her ability to inspire dancers at all levels has made her a sought-after educator.

Before joining Jacksonville University, she served as full-time faculty and Head of the Dance Institute at the University of Akron for over a decade. At Jacksonville University, she has pioneered several innovative multicultural initiatives, such as an intensive choreography workshop in Pontlevoy, France, and an interdisciplinary cultural immersion program in China. She also initiated a groundbreaking collaboration between Jacksonville University’s MFA graduate students and dancers from the Institute of Classical and Modern Dance in Mumbai, India. Additionally, she directed the Myths & Legends Collaborative Project at Jacksonville University, a multidisciplinary performance that united over 100 artists.

Millicent Johnnie is an award-winning choreographer-director, filmmaker, executive producer, writer, and interdisciplinary artist whose 27-year career spans Broadway, regional theatre, opera, concert performance, film, commercial entertainment, higher education, and international cultural work.

Her choreography and directing have been presented by Goodman Theatre, The Public Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Two River Theater, Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, Jacob's Pillow, Urban Bush Women, and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. Selected credits include Revolution(s), Party People, Thoughts of a Colored Man, Parable of the Sower Opera, Disney's Frozen: Live at the Hyperion, Scary Movie 5, The Young Wife, and the Rio 2016 Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

A Creative Capital Awardee and two-time United States Artists nominee in Dance, Johnnie received the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Choreography for Party People and an AUDELCO Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography for the production’s engagement at The Public Theater. Her work has also received support from the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project and National Theater Project. Her films and media projects have been recognized and exhibited nationally and internationally, including through the Tokyo International Monthly Film Festival (TIMFF), the RapidLion Film Festival in Johannesburg, and the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.

Johnnie's national field leadership includes service on boards, funding panels, selection committees, and advisory bodies connected to United Nations cultural programs, Dance/USA, the MAP Fund, the American Playwriting Foundation's Relentless Award, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production. She is also a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

As founder and Chief Visionary Producer of Millicent Johnnie Films and 319productions, she creates work at the intersection of performance, cinema, emerging technology, cultural memory, and social impact. A self-described 'memory architect', she builds living containers for Black diasporic, Southern, Creole, working-class, and embodied histories.

Johnnie joins Jacksonville University as a Visiting Associate Professor of Dance. She previously served as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Florida and an Associate Professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She holds an MFA in Motion Picture Arts, an MFA in Dance, and a BFA in Dance from Florida State University.

As an artist educator, Christina Teague-Mann understands the complexity and the need for teaching for the unknown. Over her career she has actively supported students as they develop knowledge and become artistic and creative professionals.

Since joining Jacksonville University in 1998, she has taught theoretical and practice-based courses. In 2009 Teague-Mann co-developed the Master of Fine Arts in Choreography at Jacksonville University. Since the launch of the program in 2010 she has remained teaching the core practical and theoretical courses. To date, she has initiated over 102 student-led artistic projects and supervised over 70 artistic projects through completion.

For over 20 years she has focused on creating and leading innovative educational programs in the arts. Most of her program development efforts have centered around study abroad courses and exchanges with higher education across Europe. She is presently involved in active research projects that explore collaboration approaches across diverse research contexts. These projects aim to develop innovative methodologies while also examining the role of diversity within creative processes.

Teague-Mann holds a Doctorate in Education from Alverno College, a terminal degree with Distinction in Choreographic Performance Creation from City University London, and a BFA in Dance from Jacksonville University.

Brian Palmer (he/him) has been a professor at Jacksonville University since 2002 and unit administrator since 2007. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Radford University and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Florida State University where he was the recipient of a Suzanne Farrell Fellowship. Mr. Palmer began his career as a professional ballet dancer; nine years with the Richmond Ballet and two years with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet sponsored by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC. He continues to perform as a guest with local dance groups in Jacksonville.

His professional organization accomplishments include serving as a dance review panelist for Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs and Secretary and Board of Directors member for the National Association of Schools of Dance. In 2014-15 he was named the Jacksonville University Professor of the Year.