Putting the person ahead of the performance
Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Dance is hosting its final production of the 2025-2026 season from April 15-18 at Mather Dance Center. With Gratitude is a special concert celebrating 50 years of the Graduate Dance Program...
Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Dance is hosting its final production of the 2025-2026 season from April 15-18 at Mather Dance Center. With Gratitude is a special concert celebrating 50 years of the Graduate Dance Program at CWRU that includes five works representing alumni from each decade of the program’s history. This story highlights Chris Bell, the lone alumni soloist. (Update: Saturday's performance is sold out.)
For Chris Bell (GRS ’12, contemporary dance), the path to a career in professional dance was anything but a straight line. Yet it was Case Western Reserve University that helped transform years of training, uncertainty and ambition into a lasting vocation—one grounded not only in artistic excellence, but also in intention, wellness and longevity.
The San Antonio native arrived at Case Western Reserve after an already unconventional academic journey. Encouraged by his parents to balance artistic passion with practicality, he pursued both dance and geology as an undergraduate at Lamar University—a dual perspective that would later shape how he approached his craft.
When he ultimately chose CWRU for graduate study, it was less about a single destination and more about possibility. Cleveland, he discovered, offered a thriving arts ecosystem, a nationally respected dance program and a faculty deeply invested in preparing dancers for real careers—not just degrees.
“I was really challenged in my interview for the program,” Bell said. “They forced me to make a choice about what it is that I want to do, and knowing that at that point really helped make me who I am today.”
At CWRU, Bell found mentors who modeled what a life in dance could truly look like. Faculty members Karen Potter (GRS ’89, dance) and Gary Galbraith (CWR ’86; GRS ’88, theatre) demonstrated that it was possible to be both a working professional and an educator, balancing international performance careers with teaching and mentorship.
That example mattered. Bell didn’t come to graduate school to step away from performing; just the opposite. He came to sharpen his technique, clarify his goals and launch himself fully into the professional world.
“Chris is a talented dancer and creative choreographer who is very passionate, perceptive and articulate,” said Potter, who also chairs the CWRU department of dance. “This graduate program was a great match for him—he took many of the significant aspects of the program and engaged with them in a thoughtful and meaningful way.”
The program’s structure supported that ambition. With multiple daily technique classes, performance opportunities and encouragement to train outside the university, CWRU treated graduate study as a springboard, not a pause. Just as critical was the program’s emphasis on lineage and history—helping Bell understand not only what kind of dancer he was becoming, but where his work fit within a larger artistic continuum.
Equally transformative was Case Western Reserve’s nationally recognized dancer wellness program. Having experienced a serious knee injury as a teenager, Bell credits the university’s holistic, science-informed approach to training and injury prevention with extending the life of his career.
“I was extremely fortunate to attend one of the top universities for dancer wellness,” Bell said. “They’re very big on warming up your body, making sure you’re ready for the movement—for me, it became as important as mastering choreography.”
Today, Bell continues to perform, choreograph and teach, with much of his time rooted in education and mentorship. He works with students in New York City ranging from children to graduate-level performers, carrying forward the same values he learned at CWRU: curiosity, rigor and care.
“I’m still dancing,” Bell said with a smile. That longevity, he notes, is no accident. It’s the result of a university experience that saw him not just as a dancer, but as an artist with a future.
