Columbia College

Marcy Jo Yonkey-ClaytonCOLUMBIA, S.C. – A Columbia College dance professor has been awarded a fellowship through the South Carolina Arts Commission.

Marcy Jo Yonkey-Clayton, an assistant professor, was awarded a $5,000 individual artist fellowship in the category of dance choreography. In addition to teaching at Columbia College, she directs CCdanceLAB Improvisers & Friends and choreographs for and performs with the Power Company dance collective.

Yonkey-Clayton earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Texas Women’s University. As a site-specific artist, she has choreographed and performed at numerous venues, including the Columbia Museum of Art, Pearl Fryar’s topiary garden in Bishopville, S.C., and the Ghost Town Arts Collective in Denison, Texas. Her choreography has been featured at numerous festivals and events in S.C. and Texas, and her concert choreography Good Fences Make Good Neighbors has been performed more than 30 times in three states, each time with a new cast of performers igniting the work with unique stories and humorous quirks.

Yonkey-Clayton is one of three South Carolina artists receiving fellowships this year. Nancy Ancrom of Columbia was awarded a fellowship in poetry, and Camden writer Kathryn Etters Lovatt received a prose fellowship.

The S.C. Arts Commission is the state agency charged with creating a thriving arts environment for South Carolinians. The Columbia-based commission works to increase public participation in the arts by providing services, grants and leadership initiatives in arts education, community arts development and artist development. The commission is funded by the state, the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources.

August 1, 2012

About Columbia College

Columbia College is a women’s liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The College empowers a motivated student to explore new ideas, develop her voice, and cultivate within herself the leadership abilities to build a better world. The College focuses on providing students with personal attention, academically challenging programs, and intellectual and professional competencies. For more than 150 years, Columbia College has transformed young women into leaders. Columbia College encompasses the Women's College, established in 1854, and the Evening program and Graduate programs serving both women and men.