“I started dancing when I was 4,” says Diane Rawlinson, now 63 years old. “If someone had told me, when I was 18 or 20, that I’d spend half of my life teaching dance in public schools, I wouldn’t have believed them!” Now retired from teaching K–12, Rawlinson has embarked on her next career: mentoring […]
In most college dance programs, the curricular focus toggles between physical training and theoretical study. But one critical area is often overlooked: the business of dance. Despite how important it is, students are often not equipped with the tools or knowledge necessary to navigate the complexities of the dance economy. The omission is striking, given […]
On a Friday afternoon on the last day of May, Donna Faye Burchfield was sitting on her deck in Philadelphia when a newspaper notification popped up on her friend’s phone: University of the Arts, where Burchfield had been dean of the School of Dance since 2010, was closing its doors in a week—for good. Were […]
Because job security can be hard to come by in the dance world, there’s an understandable appeal to full-time professorships in college and university dance programs. The path to get there can seem elusive, however—and the requirements of the job extend beyond teaching and choreography. Two dance professors—Jason Ohlberg, Skidmore College associate professor and associate […]
As a certified intimacy professional who creates practices and choreography for scenes of vulnerability (including simulated sex and/or nudity in film, TV, theater, dance, and opera), I’m aware that the power dynamics of performance traditions do not allow for the less powerful performers to take creative risks, feel agency over their bodies, or ask questions. […]
Last fall, Chauna Sumpter and her daughter Carrington Hope Mason—then a high school senior—flew from Southern California to New York City to attend Dancewave Through College and Beyond. Over the course of a few days, Mason took college-level master classes, attended an audition, and spoke with faculty members and representatives of dozens of university dance […]
Last Friday, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia announced it would be shutting down as of June 7. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a steep drop in enrollment left the nearly 150-year-old school in such a deep financial crisis that the accrediting agency abruptly withdrew its charter. Many students and faculty found out through the Inquirer’s coverage, and only got […]
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I find myself thinking about the dynamics of partnering. We know that teaching partnering protocol can be complicated because you must teach what it’s like to partner and do the partnering, as well. So in our Technique & Artistry column this month, we’re offering you tips on preparing […]
The story took flight with a chance encounter at the 60th Street post office in Manhattan. It was the mid-’90s and Denise Jefferson, then head of The Ailey School, and Edward Bristow, then dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, would often bump into each other in the neighborhood. At that point, both schools were […]
“Ballet was my first language; it was my first love,” recalls Butler University dance professor Susan McGuire. But after being moved by a performance of Diversion of Angels by the Martha Graham Dance Company, McGuire pivoted to a career in modern dance, eventually joining the esteemed institution as a soloist in 1973. She went on to […]