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Sandra Shih Parks
Assistant Professor of Dance
Sandra Parks received her M.F.A in choreography from Smith College with a fellowship, and her B.F.A in dance performance from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
Sandra Parks is originally from Taiwan, where she received her training in ballet, modern and Chinese classical dance. She danced as a soloist with Four Seasons Ballet and Wu-I Dance Company in Taipei, Taiwan. After graduating from NYU, Sandra Parks toured nationally and internationally with the Broadway production of The King And I. Since 1996, Sandra Parks has appeared as a performer and choreographer in more than 75 dance productions in Atlantic City, Boston, Las Vegas and New York City. She served as the artistic director of her own dance company in New York City for more than six years. After moving to Boston, she danced with Bosoma Dance Company, Dance Collective, and Impulse Dance Company.
Training
Cloud Gate Dance Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graham Technique
Wu-I Dance Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Chinese Dance
- Vaganova Technique
Four Seasons Ballet School, Taipei, Taiwan
- Da-yung Zhang
Smith College, MA
- Ballet – Rodger Blum
- Modern – Paul Dennis (Limon technique), Cathy Nicoli
- Jazz – Mark Davis
New York University, Tisch School of the Arts
- Ballet – Cherylyn Lavagnino, Cassandra Phifer
- Modern – David Dorfman, Doug Elkins, Joy Kellman (Limon technique),
Nicholas Leichter, Bebe Miller, Gus Solomans Jr. (Cunningham technique), Gwen Welliver
New Dance Group Arts Center, New York, NY
- Jazz – Stephen Harding (Luigi technique)
Steps on Broadway, New York, NY
- Ballet – David Howard, Michael Vernon
- Jazz – Rick Atwell (Luigi technique), Debbie Roshe (Fosse technique)
- Theater Jazz – master classes with Ann Reinking (Fosse technique), Tony Stevens
- Hip Hop – Master classes with Darrin Henson
Broadway Dance Center, New York, NY
- Ballet – Jack Hertzog
- Hip Hop – Brian Thomas (BT) and master classes with Darrin Henson
Teaching Experience
Sandra Parks started her teaching career in 2000, and has since taught dance in schools, colleges and universities throughout the New England area:
- Regis College, MA
- Bridgewater State College, MA
- Colleges of the Fenway, MA
- Boston University, MA
- Smith College, MA
- American College Dance Festival, Boston, MA
- Amherst Ballet School, MA
- Pioneer Valley Ballet School, MA
- Belmont High School, MA
- Cambridge School of Weston, MA
- Topf Center for Dance Education, MA
- Mass Movement, MA
- Chinese Folk Arts Workshop, MA
Choreography
Sandra Parks’ choreography is greatly influenced by her diverse dance training and performance career. Her work fuses different movement styles, such as modern and hip-hop, Chinese classical dance and modern, creating a unique movement vocabulary. Some of her recent choreographic works include:
- Decision – Contemporary Chinese dance (2010)
- Remember the Way You Move – Hip Hop (2010)
- Little Broken Steps – Modern and Chinese fusion (2009)
- Love is What We Need – Hip Hop (2009)
- 51208 – Modern and Chinese fusion (2008)
- Opening Another Door – Modern and Chinese fusion (2007)
- Will Your Life Ever Cross Mine? – Modern and Hip Hop fusion (2007)
- Where to? – Modern, Pointe and Chinese Fusion (2007)
- π – Contemporary Pointe (2006)
- Unfamiliar – Modern (2005)
- It’s Time – Hip Hop (2005)
- Flower Festival – Ballet (2005)
- All for You – Hip Hop (2004)
- Le Grand Tango – Ballet (2003)
Her commercial works have been presented at the following venues:
- Manhattan Center, New York, NY
- John Hancock Building, Boston, MA
- Foxwoods Theater, Foxwoods, CT
- Mohegan Sun Arena, Mohegan Sun, CT
- MGM Grand Casino Arena, Las Vegas, NV
- Convention Center, Reno, NV
- Trump Taj Mahaj, Trump Plaza, Trump Marina, Atlantic City, NJ