10 minute read
Raising the Barre
By Rosanne Dunkelberger
The FSU School of Dance took a leap of faith on James Frazier when they accepted him into their graduate program. Now this two-time alumnus has returned to lead the college that launched his career and changed his life.
After attending Florida State University as an undergraduate and graduate student, James Frazier (B.S. ’91, M.F.A. ’94) couldn’t be happier to return to his alma mater after being appointed dean of the College of Fine Arts. “It’s like being at home, and people have been amazing. There’s something about this place that feels like family,” said Frazier, who has been on the job since June 2019. “I’ve been blown away by the number of people across the campus that know of me. Surreal is the word I use most often.”
Frazier earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from FSU and a Master of Fine Arts in dance from the very college he now leads. His connection to Florida State goes beyond his degrees, having worked in the School of Dance as a work-study student and graduate assistant while studying at the university. After receiving his master’s degree, Frazier worked in several different roles including teaching stints at FSU and Florida A&M University (FAMU), and performances as a professional dance artist before receiving his doctorate of education in dance from Temple University in 2007, while a fulltime faculty member of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
James Frazier in the studio where he auditioned for the FSU School of Dane nearly 30 years ago.
Photo by Bruce Palmer/FSU Photography Services
Prior to returning to FSU, Frazier had an 18-year career at VCU starting as assistant professor and rising to a full professor with tenure, and serving at the university as chair of dance and choreography, associate dean for graduate studies and faculty affairs, and interim dean. Now, he’s dean of the college that launched his career and changed his life.
Despite a long and lauded career in the dance world as a teacher, choreographer and administrator, Frazier’s first degree from Florida State is in marketing. And then came a life-altering revelation three years into his undergraduate studies: “One night I was at a show over at FAMU, just watching, and it was as clear as day that I thought ‘I can do that.’”
A graduate student at FSU invited Frazier to audit a non-major jazz class, which inspired him to sign up for more dance classes, including beginning ballet. “My ballet teacher assumed I was auditioning for the department … and because of that assumption, I thought hmm,” he said. “I met the department chair, and I told her I thought I might be interested in auditioning. I auditioned for the department and, I always say, they gave me a chance and let me in.”
That department chair was the legendary Nancy Smith Fichter (B.A. ’52, M.A. ’54), who Frazier describes as dear to his heart and central to his story. “She may balk at this, but I owe this to her,” he said.
The admiration is mutual.
Smith Fichter teaching.
Photo courtesy of Heritage and University Archives, FSU Libraries
“I remember that he was not the usual candidate and that he had not had dance experience, but he had gifts,” said Smith Fichter, who was instrumental in building the dance program during her decades-long career at FSU. “This was exactly what he wanted to do. I remember the audition committee and the other faculty members liked him a lot, but they worried, of course, about the lack of background. But he had keen intelligence and was very musical. Eventually they became convinced he should certainly be given this opportunity — and you can see where it went.”
About that audition: Ballet was the first portion of the process and he was in the first group. “The instructor conducted the entire audition using ballet terminology, so it was in French,” Frazier said. “She didn’t fully demonstrate anything.”
Standing at the barre wasn’t so difficult because he could follow the person in front of him. But then, the group went to the center of the floor and the instructor began describing the dance combination such as, “we’re going to do 16 changement and we're going to éschappé to second,” while using her hands to indicate what she wanted, Frazier said.
“If Jennifer Finn had not started jumping in the center of the floor — because the changement was actually a jump where the feet change position from fifth to fifth front to back — I would have been standing in the middle of the floor moving my hands instead of jumping, because I had no idea, no idea. At the end of the ballet portion of the audition, I was sitting on the floor actively contemplating leaving, and Gwynne Ashton, a faculty member in the School of Dance, came over. She’s no longer with us, but she came over, leaned down and said, ‘You did fine, dear,’ which was totally not true, but bless her heart. So, I stayed and I did the modern portion of the audition.”
James Frazier, 1993.
Photo by Jon Nalon
WHILE FRAZIER TOLD HIS AUDITION STORY WITH LAUGHTER AND GOOD CHEER, HE CHOKED UP WHEN TALKING ABOUT HOW THE FSU SCHOOL OF DANCE – TAKING A CHANCE ON A YOUNG MAN WITH LITTLE TRAINING BUT LOTS OF POTENTIAL – CHANGED THE TRAJECTORY OF HIS LIFE.
Frazier, second from left, with dance students and faculty between rehearsals in 1991.
Photos courtesy of Heritage and University Archives, FSU Libraries.
“Just in that moment where they let me in, it gave me an opportunity. It wasn’t going to be easy,” he recalled. “In fact, in some ways, I knew that’s how I wanted to do it.” To illustrate, Frazier spoke of starting piano lessons, but soon realized the commitment it would take to master the skill. Dance, he decided, was worth the time and effort required. “I still wanted to do it, and FSU gave me an opportunity to do it. They opened that door for me, and that door obviously was everything.”
In academia, today’s world seems to be laserfocused on the value of STEM; studying more artistic pursuits can be seen as impractical. Frazier makes the case for the fine arts: “Art is not just the thing that gives us joy, although it does. It’s also the thing that makes us think, deeply, in profound ways. It's everywhere. It's all around us. Even in the things that we don't think are about arts and design.”
Gesturing around his office, he continued. “This table is just a table. But you know, it has a look that we understand. If we think it’s beautiful, that’s all having to deal with our senses and our beliefs. You know, aesthetics. Art and artistry are everywhere. It’s in this carpet, you know. It’s in the mundane.” Frazier sees arts education as central to all that we do and to who we are as people. He also values vocational education, citing classes he took during his middle and high school years in central Florida in typing, drafting, agriculture, shop and business. “I actually think the kind of broad education that doesn’t exclude those kinds of practical things is really, really important,” he said.
James Frazier gives the keynote address at the second annual DIRECTO — or Diversity and Inclusion in Research and Teaching Organization — symposium held Sept. 27, 2019. In his speech on the power of the personal story, Frazier noted that he found his complete self as a college student at FSU learning about dance as an independent platform.
Photo by Bill Lax/FSU Photography Services.
Frazier also counsels that a particular degree isn’t necessarily one’s destiny, nor should it be considered a waste of time if a person doesn’t work in what they were trained for in college. “I have a list of people like me who are college professors and administrators in the arts who do not have undergraduate degrees in the arts,” he said. “Which is to say that landing in the arts is just as valid and perhaps more fulfilling as deciding on any other career.”
Before deciding to focus on dance, Frazier had taken college courses in a variety of disciplines including calculus, brain and behavior, music theory and international relations, all while working multiple jobs. In what he calls a “soap box moment,” Frazier bucked the trend of committing to a career choice even before college. “Kids are on these career paths in the ninth and 10th grade,” he said. “They’re asking them to choose what it is that they’re going to do for the rest of their lives, and they don’t know. And so it forces them into something that they may not love.”
“SO EVEN IF IT’S A DETOUR, YOU LEARN SOMETHING ALONG THE WAY. ALWAYS WITH YOUR EYES STILL ON THE END GOAL, SO THAT YOU CAN RECOGNIZE WHEN DETOURS COME. THEY ARE JUST THAT. I’M NOT DERAILED. I’M NOT OFF TRACK HERE. I’M JUST GOING THIS WAY. AND WHILE I’M OVER HERE, I’M GOING TO GAIN SOME SKILLS. I’M GOING TO GAIN SOME UNDERSTANDING, SOME KNOWLEDGE, THAT I CAN THEN APPLY AND USE WHEN I COME BACK ON A MORE DIRECT PATH TO THE THING THAT I WANT TO DO.”
One of Frazier’s detours included learning how to sew from School of Dance Costumer Currie Leggoe. “I remember talking through basics, assuming he would want to learn on a machine; but no, his plan was to hand sew an entire garment and he did just that,” Leggoe said. “I tried to talk him out of the hand sewing plan, but to no avail. He showed up in the office on Monday in a shirt and pants he had worked on over the weekend! And they were fabulous, African print fabric, beautifully done. When he commits, he commits 150%.”
A group of ballet dancers practice in Montgomery Hall studio 301, the very same studio Frazier would audition in years later.
Photo courtesy of Heritage and University Archives, FSU Libraries
Frazier recalls that his hand sewing was the result of “bobbins just kind of messing me up,” although he did eventually learn to use a sewing machine and would make the costumes for all the dances he choreographed at VCU as chair of the Department of Dance and Choreography.
“Even when I was department chair you could come by my office, and you might hear the sewing machine in there because I’d be in there trying to make a costume,” he said. “Creativity is a connector. It all connects if you can tap into your passion. I think that’s the big thing for a lot of students. They just haven't found it yet. But if they find the thing that they’re absolutely passionate about, they can make everything relevant and I believe everything is relevant. Everything is connected, and you just have to take the time to figure out how it connects, or where it connects.”
Frazier’s connection to his alma mater led him back years later to lead as dean. The FSU College of Fine Arts is home to a unique combination of visual and performing arts studios, classrooms, performance spaces, galleries and a museum. Under the umbrella of degree programs that fall within the college are studio art, art and museum education and curation, art therapy, art history, interior architecture and design, dance and theatre. While Frazier leads a well-established college with some of the most diverse and renowned programs at any public university, he sees opportunities for growth.
Frazier stands at the same barre where he auditioned nearly 30 years ago, reflecting on his journey that led him back to FSU to serve as dean of the college that launched his career.
Photo by Bruce Palmer/FSU Photography Services
“I would like for more people to know about what it is that we do. How do we expand reach and increase our visibility so that people really see and better understand what it is we’re doing here?” One of Frazier’s major goals is to work on the college’s infrastructure to support its growth and thriving. He adds, “My life’s work would be facilities that match the stature of the programs that we have.”
Smith Fichter, Frazier’s mentor, is confident that he will excel in his new position. “It’s a tough job, and I think he will do well because he's done so well at everything else.”
