June A. Vail

June A. Vail founded the Bowdoin dance program in 1970 and offered courses in modern dance technique, choreography, and dance history and criticism. Her research focused on dance as cultural performance and modes of writing about dance. A former choreographer/performer, she regularly wrote journalistic dance reviews, articles, and conference papers. She contributed chapters to two anthologies: "Watching American Critics Watch World Dance" in Looking Out: Perspectives on Dance and Criticism in a Multicultural World (1995) and "Balkan Tradition, American Alternative" in Moving Words: Re-Writing Dance (1996). Her first book, Kulturella Koreografier [Cultural Choreographies], on the broad range of dance forms practiced in Sweden, was published (in Swedish) in 1998.

In 2010 Bowdoin honored her with its biennial Distinguished Service Award for Faculty and Staff.

June’s recent books reflect her interest in writing about women’s lives enmeshed in their time 
and place. Her memoir, Folly Cove Sketches/Remembering Virginia Lee Burton, appeared in
2022 (Custom Museum Publishing.) Previously, June published The Passion of
Perfection/Gertrude Hitz Burton’s Modern Victorian Life (Maine Authors Publishing, 2017),
Finalist for Maine Literary Award in Nonfiction, 2018. www.junevail.com