Organization
Who We Are
On July 14, 1981, Joann Keali’inohomoku, her daughter Halla Kaiulani Keali’inohomoku,
and Northern Arizona University anthropology colleague and Lowell Observatory geophysicist, Louise Riley founded Cross-Cultural Dance Resources, Inc.
Incorporated in the State of Arizona, this 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicates itself to
education, research, and consultation related to dance culture.
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No other entity of its kind exists worldwide, making CCDR unique and revolutionary.
November 2016 "Moving Legacies" CCDR Special Event
CCDR’s founding represents a powerful change in understanding dance as an interrelated and interdependent part of culture. Interestingly, the birth date of CCDR coincides with Bastille Day, which marked major historical transformation in France. The paradigm shift for CCDR repositions the significance of dance that brings meaning to movement.
Joann Wheeler Keali’inohomoku
Joann Keali’inohomoku with Grace Chapella, Hopi-Tewa pottery maker, Hopi Reservation, 1979
CCDR emerged as the embodiment of Joann Keali’inohomoku’s lived experience. She was a depression-era child, growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Des Plaines, Illinois, and Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, encouraged by her parents to study dance and theatre arts.
Remarkably, at age three, her 1933 Chicago World Fair performances with a local ballet group were most inspirational to the career path she pursued, which she shared in a 2011 interview.
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"I remember all those things very, very well from that fair. And it included all the groups that were from [other] parts of the world, and they would dance in the street and so on. You know, they had a scheduled time to perform in the streets. So as a three-year-old, I’m looking at dancers from Europe, from South America, from Asia, from Africa. So it was in my mind that the world danced."
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(Listen to the full Oral History Interview here.)
Joann’s interest in studying dance culture goes back to childhood, referring to herself as a natural-born anthropologist. A specific experience that she describes vividly in the same 2011 interview sparked her academic direction and lay the groundwork for Cross-Cultural Dance Resources to emerge.
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"When I was seven years old, my father and mother told me-my father, actually-that Japan and China were at war. Well, I had gotten a Chinese doll by that time-a friend had brought one to me. And in the meantime, one of the things that we would see during the times it was warm in Chicago, we’d go to what was called the Japanese Gardens-beautiful places. So I had a Japanese doll. And the Japanese proprietors of the little store in the Japanese Gardens would tell me about Japanese dance, and I had seen it at the fair [1933 World Fair in Chicago]. So I had decided that Japanese dance and Chinese dance were my favorites. When I heard that these two countries were at war, I said to my parents, 'It’s because they don’t know about each other’s dances. When I grow up, I want to learn about the dances of people around the world, and tell those people about it, and then there will be peace.' I was seven years old. And that’s been my goal all my life. I never veered from that."
Board of Directors
Pegge Vissicaro
Executive Director
Following in the footsteps of Joann Keali’inohomoku is a great privilege that holds much responsibility. My journey into this leadership place of honor ignited during a graduate dance anthropology course. The impact I felt after reading Joann’s article “Dance Culture as a Microcosm of Holistic Culture” literally moved me to Arizona in 1982 where I first met Joann and her daughter Halla at their Flagstaff home. Decades later, Joann told me that after our initial meeting, she turned to Halla and said, “That person is going to be important to CCDR someday.” This story reminds me that fulfilling Joann’s prophecy is my destiny, which I have been realizing these past four decades.
CCDR Executive Director, President & Secretary; Professor Emerita in Dance, 2016 Arizona State University; Fulbright Scholar and Specialist to Portugal (1996-1997, 2008, 2012); Assistant Teaching Professor Northern Arizona University Honors College, specializes in dance anthropology, dance ethnography, cross-cultural dance pedagogy; socially engaged dance practices, multicultural festival producer for K-20 schools; pioneered online dance education; dancer/drummer with Adzido West African Folkloric Company and Batuque Brazilian Dance and Music (1987-2003), video artist; interdisciplinary conference presenter/speaker, published author of articles and books such as Studying Dance Cultures; research areas include quadrilhas caipiras, forró, contemporary dance in Brazil, African refugee dance communities, guÇŽngchÇŽng wÇ” in China, applied dance culture as a model for ecological wellbeing.​
Elsie Ivancich Dunin
Vice-President
CCDR Vice-President; Professor Emerita in Dance Ethnology,
1994 University of California, Los Angeles; closely associated with CCDR in Flagstaff since 1998; continuing as external dance research associate with Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research (IEF) in Croatia. Organizer of dance research congresses with IEF held in Croatia (2000 and 2014) and with CCDR in Arizona (2003 and 2006); fifty years (1967–2017) documentation of Skopje's Romani Erdelezi event displayed in a touring multi-media museum exhibit with award-winning documentary film. Research continues to focus on dancing continuities and changes of South Slavs compared with their diasporas in California, and countries Chile, Peru, and Australia. Dunin's years of dance research materials are in the CCDR Collections at Arizona State University.
GinaMarie Byars
Treasurer
CCDR Treasurer; Born and raised in Flagstaff, AZ, GinaMarie facilitates community events as co-owner of Rugged Nature Productions. She also performs with Random Impulse Taiko as well as guides online meditation experiences. Additionally, GinaMarie has served on the board of directors for The Gaian Collective since its inception. She co-founded and directs Flagstaff Youth Theatre and is executive director of Magic Curtin Productions.
Studies of her Chamorro family traditions include language and other cultural practices such as inafa'maolek—a Chamoru concept meaning to restore harmony, which she applies toward professional and volunteer work to promote cooperative leadership.
Jessica Yu
Trust Executor
Joann Keali'inohomoku Trust Executor; daughter of Joann’s sister, Lynda Wheeler Yu. Jessica’s cherished aunt had a profound influence on her life; earliest memories of Joann were in Hawaii during the 1960s; lived together in Polacca on Hopi in 1970 while Joann conducted research for her dissertation; observed Yaqui Easter ceremonies in Tucson and Mexico. In 1981, engaged in discussions regarding formation of CCDR; 1989 traveled the world together when Joann was a professor on Semester at Sea; Joann’s insightful teachings guided her on the path to studying medical anthropology and ultimately led to becoming a Doctor of Nursing Practice in psychiatry and medicine; currently practicing in the San Francisco Bay area.
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