Marc Strauss

Marc Strauss, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus in the Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre and Dance, Holland College of Arts & Media, Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Strauss has taught all levels of studio ballet, jazz, and ballroom and theory classes in the history of the musical, dance history and appreciation, dance in world cultures, the creative process, and the aesthetics of movement. He has studied, performed, taught, and choreographed in a variety of dance styles at the regional, national and international level since the 1980s. Specialized interests include Broadway and Hollywood musicals, dance criticism, dance on film, aesthetics, George Balanchine, Astaire and Rogers, and Alfred Hitchcock. 

Dr. Strauss is the lead author (with Myron Howard Nadel) on the university text Looking at Contemporary Dance: A Guide for the Internet Age (2012; Princeton Book Company) and co-editor/co-author of the third edition of The Dance Experience: Insights into History, Culture and Creativity (2014; Princeton Book Company), also with Mr. Nadel.  He is sole author of Alfred Hitchcock’s Silent Films (2004; McFarland), Hitchcock’s Objects as Subjects: The Significance of Things on Screen (2016; McFarland) and, most recently, Discovering Musicals: A Liberal Arts Guide to Stage and Screen (McFarland; 2019).

He and his artist wife, Sarah Riley, are retired and currently live on the Highlands-Cashiers plateau and in Englewood, Florida.