Victoria Marks, professor of choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and chair of the Disability Studies minor, has been appointed to the position of associate dean, academic affairs, for the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Marks, who assumed the role on July 1, succeeded Professor Diane Favro, who has served in the position for the past two years and has retired after 33 years of service to UCLA.
An accomplished choreographer, filmmaker, scholar and activist, Marks creates dances for the stage, on film and in community settings.
Among the many themes of her work is Action Conversations, a process-based methodology she conceived and designed that builds relationships between two groups of people who would not otherwise be in a room together. Action Conversations empowers subjects to build empathy despite their differences.
Marks has been the recipient of Rauschenberg and Guggenheim Fellowships, has twice been a Fulbright Fellow, and has earned the prestigious Herb Alpert Award for choreographic achievement. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the London Arts Board, the Los Angeles Country Cultural Affairs Council and the Irvine Foundation, among others.
For her work in film (with fellow filmmaker Margaret Williams), she has received numerous international awards including the Grand Prix from the Video Danse Festival (France), the Golden Antennae Award (Bulgaria) and the Best of Show in the Dance Film Association’s Dance and the Camera Festival (United States).
Marks has been a professor since 1995 in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where she also has served as vice-chair for undergraduate affairs (2010–2017) and chair of the Disability Studies minor (2012–present).
