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Cumorah's Dance Portfolio

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Biography

Cumorah Munford is fluent in various world dance styles along with jazz and tap. She also has some experience in clogging, ballet, social dance/ballroom, and hip hop. She has taught dance for many years, both at her home dance studio and at BYU-Idaho as a student instructor. She performed a dance instructor internship at All-American Tumbling and Dance. She graduated BYU-Idaho with a Bachelors degree in Dance Pedagogy. She has taken many dance courses to develop her teaching skills such as social dance, modern, ballet, jazz, world dance, tap, hip hop, clogging, dance kinesiology, intro to choreographic devices, philosophy and techniques of teaching dance, history of dance, teaching techniques of clogging and world dance, conditioning for dancers, and yoga. She also performed an experimental senior capstone project in finding methods to enhance dance students’ intrinsic motivation. She received a first-place trophy for ballet when competing as a youth. For her future, Cumorah plans to start and develop a world dance teaching curriculum in her hometown dance studio to teach children more about the wonderful world they live in and to provide more dance variety.

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Teaching Philosophy

My dance philosophy statement is simply to help my students find joy through dance, and make the classroom a place of joy through the use of friendship, positivity, and helping them see the many benefits that come from dance. I want to help my students become friends with one another and to learn how to work together as a team. It can be hard, but it can be done. Sometimes we allow drama to come into our lives and our relationships, but I want to help keep my classroom a safe place for all of my students and to try and keep us unified so we can grow and develop in the most effective ways. This can also help us in regards to intrinsic motivation and they cannot progress very far without it. Positivity and seeing benefits of dance also help the classroom be a safe haven and can help the students become their best selves. Negativity brings a spirit of contention and can isolate people from one another, so as we work to keep that out of the classroom, we can maintain that safe learning environment and come closer together as a team. My students don’t have to love dance, but I hope as they make new friends, feel and experience positivity and safety, and see that dance has many wonderful benefits they can learn to develop that love and continue to pursue it in the future.

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"DANCE IS THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL OF THE BODY."

Martha Graham

Artist Statement

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When creating anything in dance I like to create a story or a narrative. Something that can speak to the audience or the dancer themself. Something that can come from experiences and speak to emotions. I have always been an introvert and so a lot of my creative practices come from inside me and from my feelings. When it comes to my creative process I like to improve and play until things start falling into place and start working together to form something beautiful. I occasionally like to create things in my mind and then I test those ideas. I also like watching others perform what I create and then change those ideas accordingly when they don’t work.

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My goal is to create excitement and desire in my audience. A desire to want to give dance a try and to see what dance can offer for them. Seeing my work in the future is hard. I’m not planning on doing a whole lot with choreography, it’s mostly just teaching. I hope to get better and improve on my skills. Something that I have been working on lately is trying to figure out ways to enhance and keep intrinsic motivation in student dancers and I hope I can learn more and better develop that in my students in the future.

Resume

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Curriculum
Vitae

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Cumorah Munford

https://www.facebook.com/cumorah.munford

Instagram: @CumorahMunford

 

Education:

  • High School Diploma – Uintah High School - May 2018

  • Bachelors in Dance Pedagogy – BYU-Idaho – July 2026

 

Performance Experience:

Participated in dance competitions for All-American Tumbling and Dance from 2011-2017.

 

Teaching Experience:

  • Dance instructor at All-American Tumbling & Dance:

  • August 2017- December 2019.

  • Taught ages 5-18.

  • Styles: Ballet, Jazz, and Hip hop. 

 

  • Interned at All-American Tumbling & Dance as a dance instructor:

  • September-December 2024.

  • Taught ages 2-18.

  • Styles: Mommy N Me, Jazz, and Ballet.

 

  • Student Dance Instructor at BYU-Idaho:

  • April-July 2024, January-April 2025, and April-July 2025.

  • Taught BYU-I college students.

  • Style: World Dance.

 

  • Student Dance Instructor at BYU-Idaho:

  • January-April 2025.

  • Taught BYU-I college students.

  • Style: Clogging.

 

Research and Publications:

  • BYU-Idaho Kinesiology project – What knee injuries can be acquired during Anatolian (Turkish) folk dance training, and how can they prevent or recover from those injuries? (2024).

 

  • BYU-Idaho Experimental senior capstone project – Finding and using methods to enhance college dance students’ intrinsic motivation (2025).

 

 

Awards, Fellowships, and Residencies:

  • Received a 1st place trophy for ballet in 2014 for a dance competition.

  • Received four 1st place ribbons for ballet from 2013-2014 for dance competitions.

  • Received 1st, 1st, 2nd, and 5th place ribbons for a BYU-Idaho social dance competition in 2022 and 2024.

 

 

References:

  • Gary Larsen

 

  • Ashley Storm

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