Judi Hofmeister Oral History, 2022

Interview with Judi Hofmeister conducted by Sandra Minton. Judi Hofmeister originally hails from Lamar, Colorado. Once graduating from Lamar High School Judi made her way to Steamboat Springs to attend the Perry/Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp. This was the first time Judi took part in a “real dance class”. Loving her P/M experience and soaking up as much as she could, Judi spent four summers there while also attending Loretto Heights College in Denver as a Music Theatre major. Wanting a career in musical theatre, she auditioned for the Country Dinner Playhouse, and two weeks after graduation was hired as one of the pre-show performers called the Barnstormers, with an additional chorus role in the musical Anything Goes. Judi performed at the Country Dinner Playhouse for ten years before attending the University of Denver’s teacher certification program to gain her license to teach K-12 Drama. She was placed at Douglas County High School in Castle Rock for her student teaching field experience and ended up staying there for twenty-three years teaching International Baccalaureate (IB) dance, theatre, and vocal music, as well as sitting as the Chair of the DCHS Performing Arts Department. In 2000 she had the honor and opportunity to travel to Cardiff, Wales as one of six dance educators from around the world who developed the syllabus and piloted one of the first IB dance programs. It was through Judi’s work on the IB dance curriculum that she was soon invited by the Standards and Instructional Support unit at the Colorado Department of Education to be a member of the standards revision committee for the 2008 iteration of Colorado’s dance standards. That opportunity opened the door for Judi to facilitate the 2012 development of K-12 curricular dance units for CDE’s District Sample Curriculum Project, become a founding member and Past President of the Colorado Dance Education Organization (CoDEO), as well as a member of the Colorado Dance Endorsement Committee who ushered in the successful adoption of Colorado’s Dance Endorsement in 2014. In 2016 Judi was hired at CDE as the Dance and Drama/Theatre Arts Content Specialist for the Standards and Instructional Support unit. She thoroughly enjoys consulting with and mentoring dance and drama teachers throughout the state.