School of Theatre and Dance

Jill Sonke is Director of the Center for the Arts in Healthcare Research and Education (CAHRE) at the University of Florida, is on the faculty of the School of Theatre and Dance and is Assistant Director and Artist in Residence with Shands Arts in Medicine (AIM). She is active in research, curriculum and program development at UF, serves as president on the Board of Directors of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare, and is a frequent presenter, consultant, and guest artist at universities, conferences, hospitals, and festivals throughout the United States and abroad.

Jill studied dance at Interlochen Arts Academy, the Florida State University, in London, Paris and Athens with teachers of the Horton and Duncan techniques including Bella Lewitsky, Lynda Davis, Milton Meyers, Joy Kellman, Lori Belilove, Julia Levine and Hortense Koluris. She has been a principle dancer and soloist with Lori Belilove & Company in New York  and a guest performer and choreographer with Dance Alive! and Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theatre. She is a soloist and regisseur of the historic works of Isadora Duncan as well as a recognized teacher of the Duncan and Horton techniques.  

Jill is the recipient of a New Forms Florida Fellowship Award, an Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the State of Florida, a 2001 Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD), a UF Internationalizing the Curriculum Award, a Most Oustanding Service Learning Faculty Award, and over forty five grant awards for her programs and research at the University of Florida and Shands Teaching Hospital and Clinics.