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A primary benefactor of the University of Arizona's dance program is endowing a faculty position to support the program's longtime director.

On Thursday, UA President Robert Shelton announced the second major gift to the dance program from UA alumna Stevie Eller, who is the namesake of the program's 28,600-square-foot theater.

Jory Hancock, director of the dance program since 1990, will be named as the first Stevie Eller Chair in dance. Future directors of the School of Dance will occupy the chair, said John Brown, a spokesman for the UA Foundation.

"Jory has been absolutely fabulous in leading one of the most elite dance programs in the country," said Eller in a written statement announcing the gift.

Eller, who was a member of the UA dance club Orchesis as a student in the 1950s, was the lead donor for the $9 million dance theater. The precise amount of that donation and the endowment for the chair were not disclosed, but a minimum of $1 million is needed to establish an endowed chair, Brown said.

Hancock joined the UA dance faculty in 1987 after teaching at Indiana University, where he received his master's degree. He trained as an American Ballet Theatre apprentice in New York and has danced with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet.

The Stevie Eller chair is the third endowed chair in the College of Fine Arts, after the Amelia T. Reiman Endowed Chair in opera and the Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair in music, and the 69th overall at the university.

Stevie and her husband, Karl Eller, graduated from the UA in 1952. The business school is named for Karl Eller, who made his fortune as CEO of Circle K and in billboard advertising.