Dance professor Balinda Craig-Quijada has been dancing since she was a child. She was first drawn to ballet and later to modern dance and choreography, but she was never blinded by dreams of Broadway. Instead, her steady move toward an academic career was more akin to that of her five South American red-footed tortoises. Arriving at Kenyon in 2000, Craig-Quijada has won the race.

"I kind of matured into the idea of dance as an academic career," says Craig-Quijada. "I was never in love with the stage lights and the audience. I'm more in love with the craft of choreography."

She translates her love for dance into electrifying classes for students, where her energy and drive inspire her students to develop their own original choreography. Under her tutelage, students perform and choreograph two popular campus dance concerts a year.

A 1987 graduate of the University of Iowa with a bachelor's degree in religion, Craig-Quijada earned an M.F.A. in choreography and dance from Ohio State University. Not long after, she was asked to join the faculty there, in one of the country's top-rated programs.

Craig-Quijada spent eight years of her childhood in Venezuela, which is where she acquired the five pet tortoises that are likely to outlive her. Despite travels around the globe, she feels the most at home in the Midwest and considers the Columbus, Ohio, art scene to be cutting edge. "I'm probably biased, but there's so much happening in Columbus," says the postmodern dance specialist. "I have to live near a thriving dance community, and what I've found in Columbus and Gambier is wonderful."