Bene Arnold, MFA (Part-time Faculty)

Bené Arnold’s professional career began, in 1949-1959, as a dancer in the San Francisco Ballet Company.  In 1959-1962, she was asked by Artistic Director Lew Christensen to become the first official Ballet Mistress and in 1962 she joined D. Gordon Paxman and Willam Christensen in Salt Lake City where she became the first Ballet Mistress for Ballet West 1962-1975.  In 1975-2001 she joined the faculty in the University of Utah’s, Department of Ballet, retiring in 2001, as Distinguished Professor Emerita.  She returned to the University of Utah as the Interim Chair from 2008-2011.  Bené is an honorary member of Phi Kappa Phi and in 2007 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Corps-de-Ballet International.  In 1994 & 1996 she wrote two articles for Dance Teacher Now.  One Article was co-written on the Ballet West Nutcracker and the other article concerned a review of her trip to Russia.  She was asked by Dean Speer to be one of the teachers highlighted in his book, On Technique.