received her Master of Fine Arts degree in choreography from The Ohio State University in 1998. That same year, Ms. Marrone founded The Dance Cure and began her field research on southern Italian folk dance. With generous support from several choreographic awards, public arts support, and scholarly based grants, The Dance Cure has premiered four evening length works based on the fusion of southern Italian folk dance and contemporary dance. Marrone’s research and choreography has been presented both nationally and internationally by the North Carolina Dance Festival, the international Congress on Research in Dance, the National Dance Educators Organization, The Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Italian Folk Art Federation, The World Dance Alliance, The American Italian Historical Association and Ohio Dance. She has served on faculty for ten years in higher education dance programs and as a guest choreographer and master teacher all over the United States for several universities, public schools, national commercials, live television and professional academies. In 2002 and 2004 Marrone’s evening length works were honored by the Columbus Dispatch as “top ten” events of the year. In 2003 Marrone was also named a next generation arts leader by the Academy for Leadership and Governance for the arts in Columbus OH and has received leadership training from nationally recognized non-profit and for profit leaders. In the last five years, Ms. Marrone has created an international dance program, a consulting company called Dance Decision to help young dancers choose college dance programs and conducted field research on Italian vernacular healing traditions. She currently serves on faculty at Elon University and Meredith College.