Deena Burke: Tango Is A Conversation

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Deena & Rhonda talk about dancing, teaching, living without regrets, and so much more.  Please take a moment to share Past the Blue Mailbox with your friends, and be sure to follow on your favorite streaming service to be notified of new episodes!

Deena Burke has coached dialects, voice, speech, and text for theatres including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Old Globe Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Intiman Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre DC, Center Stage, and the McCarter Theatre.

She developed the Voice and Speech component of the MFA program at the Old Globe/University of San Diego, served as Head of Voice and Speech at the Cornish College of the Arts for 14 years and has taught at the California Institute of the Arts, University of California-San Diego, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the University of Washington. For 15 years Deena was a faculty member of the University of Delaware Professional Theatre Training Program where she taught voice, speech, text, dialects and coached and directed productions for the gradate students as well as teaching undergraduate non majors.

In private practice Deena has worked with actors, lawyers, business people and other public speakers. She has published articles on voice, speech, text and teaching pedagogy in The Voice and Speech Review, The Complete Voice and Speech Workout and the VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association) Newsletter. She has presented workshops in cities around
the country and in London, Scotland, Thailand, Japan and The Dominican Republic. In addition to working in Theatre Deena has also coached dialects for film and television.

Deena’s acting credits include major roles at the Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, A Contemporary Theatre, and the Resident Ensemble Players (REP). At the REP, Deena played the roles of Ivy in Osage Orange county, Susan in Wait Until Dark, Dorine in Tartuffe, Brooke in Noises Off, Slippy Helen in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Liz Morder in Our Country’s Good, Polly
Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, Sam in the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s Fever, and Miss Casewell in The Mousetrap among others. You can hear her voice on ads for Alaska Airlines, Washington Mutual Bank, The Bon-Marche (Macy’s), Nordstrom and many others as well as on many CD Rom games.

Deena is a graduate of The Juilliard School and loves to dance. While she has studied some ballet, tap and modern her true passion lies in social dance (not to be confused with Ballroom dancing). She has traveled the country and the world to study, dance and occasionally perform the Argentine Tango as well as salsa, bachata and Kizomba.