INTERNATIONAL dance teacher Professor Ana Baer has been working with students at Teesside University.

Professor Baer has been teaching dance for over 25 years in her native Mexico, Spain and America - for the past seven years as Associate Professor at Texas State University.

During her time at Teesside as a visiting academic, she led choreography masterclasses and worked with BA (Hons) Dance students to prepare for the University’s Creative Teesside, an annual celebration of work by students from across the wide range of creative subject areas within the School of Arts & Media.

She was also involved in the TDFF (Tees Dance Film Festival) where she gave a presentation on the prestigious international Sans Souci festival held in Colorada, which she co-directs.

Professor Baer, who has been involved in collaborative projects with Teesside University’s Dance Programme Leader Heike Salzer, said: “I knew nothing about the Northern part of England until I was introduced to it by Heike. Spending time here has been a wonderful experience.

“I really enjoy working with students from various cultures as people move so distinctively in different locations. It is almost idiosyncratic to each place.

“It is a challenge to develop and work on a piece of dance with students I have never met before, but I also enjoy the creative process and the students at Teesside have been wonderful. The culture of Teesside is very welcoming.”

Heike said: “It is extremely beneficial for our students to experience working with choreographers and international artists from varied cultural backgrounds as it helps to broaden their experience and it also helps us as teachers to share best practice.

“Our international visiting academics scheme continues to produce fruitful collaborations and we’re hoping to develop our collaborative work further and looking at ways in which we can connect our students in Teesside with Ana’s students in Texas.”