Traveling back to the United States from Holland is not rare for GW alum Vincent Cacialano, but this month his trip to the States was not just to visit his family in Norfolk, Va.

On Oct. 13 the improvisational dancer arrived at GW to spend a week teaching classes in the Theater and Dance Department as a visiting professor. This is not his first time dancing at GW after graduating in 1993, but his first time back only to teach. Teaching and dancing are of equal importance, Cacialano said.

“It is good to do both,” he said. “If there is no performance, there is nothing to teach, and you can analyze what you are going to do on stage in your teaching.”

Cacialano, who got his master’s degree in fine arts from GW, began dancing abroad while he was a student, dancing for companies in Italy, England and the Netherlands.

He has also danced for several companies in the United States, including the Maida Withers Dance Construction Company. Maida Withers currently heads GW’s dance program. Cacialano danced with Withers in two of her largest projects since 1996.

Withers said she loves when visiting professors come to her department and believes that GW needs to bring more to the department.

“(Visiting professors are a) really important part of university life,” said Withers, who helps decide who will visit the program. The dance department chose Cacialano because of his talent and the relationship he has kept with GW over the years, Withers said.

“I knew him well, so we knew the quality of the residence would be very high,” Withers said.

Cacialano teaches every subject of dance. Composition is his favorite aspect, along with technique. For him, improvisation method of composition because it is not fully choreographed so it will not look too fixed.

During his week-long stay at GW, Cacialano taught seven classes. He had three classes a day that covered all disciplines.

Sophomore Wendell Cooper was in a modern dance class for intermediate and advanced students that Cacialano visited. Cooper said he learned a lot from Cacialano and likes every visiting professor’s different perspectives.

“(Cacialano) offers a new way to relate your body to space and the floor,” Cooper said.

During his technique classes, Cacialano involved himself with the students by dancing alongside them. The class was full of intense dancing and instruction, but Cacialano was encouraging and stopped to take breaks. The professor smiled while he watched the students practice, as if satisfied with their progress.

On Oct. 18 the advanced students performed Cacialano’s work and danced in an improvisational show. The performance went well even though Cacialano had only been at GW for a week, Withers said.

” (His work) very much speaks to the age of a college student because of its irreverence,” Withers said.

Currently Cacialano is living in Amsterdam, Holland and is a dancer in an improvisational company called Magpie. The company receives a great deal of government funding even though only three of the 20 members are Dutch.

Cacialano said his group receives ample funding because European countries, such as Holland, support the arts and see more importance in their affect on culture than America does.

He said his only idea of a bad performance is when there is “no communication” with the audience, he “doesn’t care if they don’t like it” as long as there is some sort of exchange.

Cacialano would have been unable to teach at GW if it were not for the Contributing Associates in Support of Theater and Dance (CAST), a group of students and alumni that raises money and supports the arts at GW, Withers said.

Coming to the United States after living in Europe for several years has given Cacialano a different perspective on Americans.

Cacialano said Europe allows more room for confronting emotions and “it is okay to fall apart” more than it is in the United States.

“Not everything is positive, and Europeans leave a place for bad things where Americans do not,” Cacialano said.

Cacialano said the European press makes U.S. citizens out to be “like sheep following the President, which is not true.”

“Americans are some of the most creative people on the planet,” he said.