Owen Rockwell, DMA, is Director of Music for the Belhaven University Department of Dance where he leads a staff of dedicated musicians - together, they provide live accompaniment for nearly the dance technique classes offered on campus. “Doc Rock” uses an assortment of drums, keyboards, electronic looping/sampling, as well as his voice to create rich aural soundscapes. Over the course of the past 20 years as a dance musician, he has played for technique classes in Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, West African (Guinea, Ghana), as well as Afro-Latin/Caribbean dance forms, in addition to Improvisation classes. He composes, mixes and edits music for dance performances, as well as securing copyright permissions for music used in departmental productions, at festivals, and other public performances.
Recent accomplishments include, in 2025, hosting the 35th Anniversary Conference of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance in collaboration with the Dance Department at BU, during the 2023-2024 Academic year, he founded the International Center for Musicianship in Dance, a research repository and resource for the unique niche of musicians working within the dance profession, housed in the library at BU, and throughout 2024-2025 he oversaw the design and construction of the Belhaven University Music Production Studios (BUMPS) . He is an active member of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance where he currently serves as Treasurer.
Dr. Rockwell received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Percussion Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and later the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Southern Mississippi. In 2021, he participated in the 2nd annual Mark Morris Dance Group Dance Accompanist Training Program in New York City, further solidifying his interest and commitment to guiding dancers and musicians through the process of discovering effective co-teaching and learning strategies for music within the context of the dance technique class. He was a 2015 Mississippi Arts Commission Fellow in music performance. He is also a former Assistant Band Director with the Jackson State University “Sonic Boom of the South” Marching Band, serving from 2006-2012.