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Rita Snyder is Associate Professor of Dance and Director of Undergraduate Studies for Dance.  She has taught all levels of ballet and modern technique as well as pointe, ballet repertoire and partnering.  Her teaching also includes dance history, ballroom dance and anatomy and kinesiology for dance.

In addition to teaching, Ms. Snyder has a committed interest in anatomy and kinesiology for dance.  Her interest in this area has been the recent focus for her scholarly research.  The result of this research is the book, Anatomy and Kinesiology for Dance:  An Introduction, which was recently published (May 2019) by Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

As part of Ms. Snyder’s creative activity, she regularly choreographs and stages both ballet and modern works for the pre-professional student dance ensemble, Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre (ARDT).  Her original choreography has been performed internationally in Spain, Italy and also across the United States.  As part of her interest in researching and preserving historic dance works, Ms. Snyder has restaged ballet classics that include:  Act II of Swan Lake, Act II of Giselle, Pas de Dix from Raymonda, the Grand Pas de Deux (with ensemble) from Paquita, and Vaganova’s Diane and Acteon.

Prior to her appointment at The University of Alabama, Rita Snyder danced professionally with both ballet and modern dance companies including American Festival Ballet, Classical Ballet theatre, Berkshire/Albany Ballet, Tandy Beal and Co., and Clay Taliaferro and Dancers.  Her professional performing also includes musical theatre in Baltimore, MD, Salt Lake City, UT and Albuquerque, NM.  Ms. Snyder also has a background in classical music, having performed professionally as a violinist with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Albuquerque Opera Theatre and Albuquerque Chamber Orchestra.