Dance calendar filled with a smorgasbord of motion
There’s a lot more going on in the
University dance department this
year than simply ballet and jazz.
The 1984-85 dance calendar is
filled with a smorgasbord of
classical productions, student perfor
mances and theatrical collaborations.
The department is offering courses and
workshops in everything from Renaissance dance
styles to breakdancing. In addition, the Song and
Dance Troupe, Dobre Folk Ensemble and Concert
Dance Theater each will have performances
throughout the year.
This term, faculty members are focusing their
energy on Dance ’85, an annual concert that is co
produced by the Dance and Theater departments.
“We’ve already started into the rehearsal schedule,”
says Caroline Shell, graduate coordinator and head of
the dance department. The show will run from Jan.
24 to 31 and Feb. 1 and 2 in the Robinson Theatre,
and promises to be “the big, major dance concert” of
the term, Shell says.
In the spring, students from almost all the dance
courses will rehearse, choreograph and perform in
their own concert May 17, 18 and 19.
Twice each school year, the department invites a
guest artist to teach at the University. Shell says that
they will try to arrange for a guest artist to work with
students for a week to 10 days in the fall and about
/ ' -”
three days during spring term. Last year’s artist was
Robin Johnson, who both teaches dance at California
State University and tours professionally.
Two graduate students will give their masters’
thesis concerts as well; one on Dec. 7 and 8, and
another April 12 and 13. Both concerts will be held
in the Frances M. Dougherty Theater in Gerlinger An
nex. “Our graduate student concerts are usually some
of our biggest drawing events,” says Shell.
Collaborations between the dance, and theater
departments and the music school have proved very
successful in recent years. '‘After doing ‘West Side
Story’ last year, we were all just chomping at the bit
to do another three-way coordinated event,” Shell
says.
"We will be working with the theater department
with their dramatic production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’
in the spring. Our Dobre Folk Ensemble will be doing
the dance sequences, and Ken Aldrich will be in
structing the actors in the movement style of the
period,” she says.
The Dobre Folk Ensemble performs at folk
festivals and public schools throughout the Nor
thwest. They also appear at University sports events,
in musical productions and in the annual Dance Con
cert. Ken Aldrich, director of ensemble, says the
group learns social dance forms which encompass
folk and ethnic styles from Europe and the Americas.
They also study dances from Renaissance and Baro
que eras to more modern forms such as
swing, tango, Charleston and "hand jive”
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Dancers in the cast of “Romeo and
Juliet” will be required to take the
Renaissance Dance course which Aldrich
teaches. He says that this will help to
prepare them for the production.
In addition to the spring production
and Dance ’85, the Folk Ensemble will
participate in the Shrovetide Festival dur
ing the first week of May. This annual
celebration of folk culture includes art,
films, dance and special speakers.
As one of the department’s goals for
the year, Shell says that she would like to
see some sort of follow-up to a dance
science symposium that was held at the
University in conjunction with the Olym
pic Scientific Congress this past July.
“It was very, very successful,” she
says. “This year, we are shaping a cur
riculum at the graduate level to forward
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from
the study of dance science, primarily in the
biomechanical, kinesiological areas. We think this
would be a first such curriculum in the United
States.”
A second ambition is to acquire computers which
can be programmed for Laban Dance Notation. This
system, named after its German creator, uses symbols
such as squares and triangles to notate dance
movements just as musical scores are notated. In this
way, even very complicated dance movements can be
recorded much more quickly and accurately.
“In the dance science area, the computers would
not only do the obvious things like analyze data, but
(they) would also help us to be able to graphically ex
plore pedagogical.. . and biomechanical questions
with three-dimensional graphics,” Shell says. “They
just seem imperative if we’re going to stay on top.”
Because of the amount of work needed to secure grant
support, however, she believes that it will take at
least two years to acquire such a system.
Two new dance workshops will be offered
through the SHAPE program this year. Shell says.
Breakdancing and the “rock’n’roll, Jitterbug” style of
dance, will be taught by guest artists from West Ger
many. For next year's curriculum, a new course in
“character dancing,” or the balletic form of folk dan
cing, will be created and instructed by a graduate
student.
The career choices open to dance students are
varied, although Shell says that most don’t know
right away what they want when they come in other
than to learn to dance. Many enter the performance
choreography field, which is the primary focus of the
department. Some go into teaching and are eventually
able to open their own studios.
Shell says, “We’ve also gotten a lot of students
who are interested in studying dance because they
want to become the equivalent of what athletic
trainers are in sports” and go into the areas of dance
science and medicine.
The foundation of the department is modem
dance, as it provides the broadest base on which to
support a curriculum. Shell says that faculty advisors
help students to work within this foundation and to
explore their many options for the future. Strict
discipline and hard work are integral to the
philosophy of the program, but, as Shell stresses
“above all, we try to teach (students) how to live
life.”
"And, of course, enjoying it,” she adds.
“There’s nothing better than moving.”
Lori Stephens
s£imi
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