Summer 2024 Faculty
Faith Morrison, Director of the Creative Pulse
Faith Morrison is the Director of the Creative Pulse Graduate Program in the College of the Arts and Media, and on faculty in the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Montana. She holds an MFA in Modern Dance from the University of Oregon, and a BA in Dance and Mathematics from the University of Montana. Prior to teaching at the University of Montana, Faith served as the Artistic Director of Dance at Willamette University. She has danced professionally throughout the Pacific Northwest and performed on stages internationally. Her choreographic research combines elements of site-specific dance and screendance to investigate the creation and conveyance of a kinesthetic experience of place. With interests ranging across several disciplines, Faith is passionate about the practice of interdisciplinary education and the creation of arts-integrated curricula.
H. Rafael Chacón, Ph.D.
H. Rafael Chacón received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in art history with honors from the University of Chicago. In 2019, Dr. Chacón was appointed Bruce and Suzanne Crocker Director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture and has spearheaded the construction of the museum’s first permanent home in its 128-year history. He is also Professor of Art History and Criticism in the School of Visual and Media Arts at the University of Montana where he has taught a range of courses for the last 29 years.
Dr. Chacon’s academic research lies in American architectural history, historic preservation, and Montana history, especially its visual arts. He has published many articles and books in these areas. His new-found passion is for vexillology, the study of flags, having received the top awards for his research at both international and national conferences. Chacón also lectures worldwide on art history, criticism, and culture both at academic conferences and as an expert for Smithsonian Journeys. Just prior to the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Smithsonian Institute named him one of its “Top Ten Lecturers” in its international travel program.
Brooklyn Draper
Brooklyn Draper is an Assistant Professor of Dance in the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Montana. She received her MFA from the University of Utah in 2019 and in 2012 she received a Post-Graduate degree from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in London, UK. While attending the University of Utah, she received a Certification as a Laban Movement Analyst through the Integrated Movement Studies program. Brooklyn has had the honor to teach, perform, and choreograph nationally and internationally.
Steven Krutek
Steven Krutek studied art at Colorado College, the University of Montana (MFA), SALT Institute for Documentary Field Studies, and with photographer Stuart Klipper. He teaches drawing, two-dimensional foundations, photography courses, painting courses, art history courses, and art education courses at the University of Montana. He has also taught elementary and secondary students in various capacities since 1997. He has exhibited work throughout the Inland Northwest and internationally. His work has also recently been published on the cover of The Sun Magazine. When he isn’t teaching, making art, or spending time with his family, Steven performs Balinese music with the Missoula-based community gamelan, Manik Harum.
Charlie Oates
Charlie Oates is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. He served as department chair and received the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016. His original physical theatre works have been performed at theatres and festivals internationally, including Truck Dog (with James Donlon) Staying Married (with Moira Keefe) and his solo work Man Overboard. His international work as a director includes Flush at Theatre Alfred in Prague and Fuatia's Future for the Calico Young People's Theatre of New Zealand. His plays for young audiences include, Fresh Paint for the Denver Center for Performing Arts and Ladder to the Moon for Creede Repertory Theatre. As a movement coach and fight choreographer, his work has been seen at La Jolla Playhouse, The Mixed Blood, The Old Globe, Cincinnati Playhouse, San Diego Rep, Chautauqua Theatre Company and the Denver Center Theatre Company. He has been a guest artist in leading actor training programs in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Senegal, Sweden, and China. In 2023 in New York he was the movement director for Zora Howard's production of her new play, Hang Time at The Flea Theatre and taught workshops at The Actor's Center.
Teresa Waldorf
Teresa Waldorf recently retired from the University of Montana and has never been better at anything in her life. She can be found outside paddle boarding, hiking, biking, sledding or cross-country skiing, when not in a local school as a SPARK Artist. Formerly the Educational Outreach Coordinator for the Montana Repertory Theatre and an adjunct instructor and publicity coordinator for the UM School of Theatre & Dance, Teresa enjoyed teaching education majors to use Creative Drama to teach any subject. Teresa received her MFA from UM in 1991 in Acting/Directing and has taught numerous classes over the years for Creative Pulse including Random Acts of Singing, Finding the Funny, and Early Morning Warm Ups to Knock Your Socks Off. Teresa can’t wait to once again produce, direct, and act in local productions, doing stand-up and sketch comedy with her comedy partner Rosie Ayers.
Justin Lewis
Justin Lewis is a multi-media digital artist, web developer, and online course instructional designer. He holds an M.F.A. in Media Arts with a focus on Integrated Digital Media. His current focus is in developing online digital art programs for youth, filmmaking, animation, and sound design.
Marc Moss
Tell Us Something Executive Director Marc Moss was professionally trained as an English educator and was certified in 1995 to teach English 7-12 in the state of Ohio. Marc settled in Missoula in 2003 by way of Yellowstone National Park where he was a park ranger for 7 seasons. Marc has been cultivating personal storytelling in Missoula since 2011 with the popular storytelling program and nonprofit Tell Us Something. He brings his expertise in storytelling to recruiting storytellers and to the story coaching workshops that he requires of each storyteller before each Tell Us Something event. Marc has been a teaching artist in the Spark! Arts program in Missoula since 2017. In the spring/summer of 2020, Marc participated in the Artists in Education Course: Designing Residencies for Students presented by Focus 5, Inc. Marc successfully worked with Maribeth Rothwell to team teach storytelling in the classroom to the students of Creative Pulse in the summer of 2020 during an intense week of online learning. Marc returned to The Pulse in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and looks forward to working with participants once again in 2024.
Steve Kalling
Steve Kalling has an MFA in Creative Writing and is a practicing Musician. He has a diverse classroom teaching background spanning the K-12 environments along with extensive time in post-secondary settings in English, Education and Fine Arts. He spends summers on a fire tower in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness area and winters guiding interactive independent writing projects for C.P. graduate students.
Bryan Curt Kostors is a composer of diverse and evocative music for orchestra, chamber groups, electronics, multimedia, dance, film, choir, and soloists. The drastic and contrasting landscapes of the American West – desert, basin and range, high mountain peaks, ocean coast – play a prominent role in Kostors’ music. A central element of Bryan’s work is the exploration of how place affects sound, visuals, and emotional interpretation, and how the history, landscape, or social aspects of a given geography can be used to create artwork that speaks to a wide and varied audience. Much of Bryan’s work seeks to expand and develop compositional techniques for electronics, electroacoustic music, and multimedia. Recent works explore the combination of live visuals and music performance. Bryan’s research and performance work with electronics address the challenges and opportunities inherent in developing and scoring music for modular synthesizer, as well as programming electroacoustic music in a variety of formats. Bryan is currently the department chair of music composition and music theory at the University of Montana School of Music. His music has been performed internationally by chamber groups and orchestras, and his film and commercial music work has earned awards in America and Europe.
Rachel Bemis
Rachel Bemis is Creative Pulse alumni. Rachel graduated from UM-Missoula in 2014 with her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and earned her Master of Arts in Integrated Arts and Education in 2021. Rachel worked as the Teaching Assistant for the Pulse in 2022 and 2023. Rachel is in her 10th year of teaching and currently teaching 4th grade in Corvallis, MT. Rachel was recently selected as a finalist for a Fulbright Scholarship. Rachel continues her professional development by seeking out local opportunities to grow. In 2023 alone, she attended a Gifted & Talented conference, an Indian Education for All Best Practices conference and completed multiple online professional development courses through Idaho State University. Rachel believes in the art of manifestation and setting goals. Having a growth mindset is something she instills in her students as well. Rachel has taught vision boards in her classroom, with her friends’ classes and in after school clubs. In her personal time, Rachel can be found planning her next trip, planning a day at a hot spring, reading a good book, going on a hike and spending time with her friends and family.
Lizzi Juda
Lizzi Juda has over 25 years experience teaching improvisational movement classes, expressive arts groups, community rituals and retreats. She is founder and lead facilitator of Turning the Wheel Missoula, a nonprofit that builds vibrant, healthy community through creative expression. She has worked with diverse groups, including teachers, youth mentors, parents, prison guards, survivors of domestic abuse, counselors, students with special needs, elders, and youth ages preschool through college. She is a mother, dancer, massage practitioner, community organizer, and musician and is passionate about providing opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to play, move, and connect deeply with themselves and their creative spirit.