inFORM 2015
Faculty
Susan Hadley, Professor, Chair Harmony Bench, Assistant Professor Michael Kelly Bruce, Associate Professor Ann Sofie Clemmensen, Visiting Assistant Professor David Covey, Professor Melanye White Dixon, Associate Professor Karen Eliot, Professor Hannah Kosstrin, Assistant Professor Bebe Miller, Professor Susan Van Pelt Petry, Professor Daniel Roberts, Assistant Professor Mitchell Rose, Associate Professor Valarie Williams, Professor, Arts and Humanities Associate Dean Norah Zuniga-Shaw, Associate Professor
Emeritus Faculty Helen Alkire Melanie Bales Karen Bell Vera J. Blaine Odette Blum Candace Feck Angelika Gerbes John Giffin Louise Guthman Ann Lilly Vera Maletic Sheila Marion Victoria Uris Lucy Venable
Lecturers
Other Players
Dale Beaver Veronica Dittman-Stanich Maryanna Klatt Alex Dickson Karen Mozingo Danielle Schoon
Rachel Barnes, Box Office Manager Rodney A. Brown, Faculty on leave Irina Keller, Musician Joe Krygier, Musician Caleb Miller, Musician
Administrative and Professional Staff Susan Chess, Musician Supervisor Carolyn Cox, Production Coordinator Oded Huberman, Interdisciplinary Production Manager Dori Jenks, External Relations Coordinator Toby Kaufmann-Buhler, Media Manager Elijah Palnik, Sound Designer; Musician Amy Schmidt, Academic Program Coordinator Lindsay Simon, Costume Designer Deb Singer, Administrative Manager
Mariah Nierman, Performing Arts Medicine, Chief Liaison Lise Worthen-Chaudari, Affiliate Faculty, College of Medicine Inform Publication Editor: Dori Jenks Assistant Editor: Sarah Levitt ASC Communications Team: Victoria Ellwood, Karin Samoviski
College of Arts and Sciences Executive Dean and Vice Provost David C. Manderscheid Divisional Dean, Arts and Humanities Peter Hahn
photo courtesy of Elijah Palnik; cover design of Helen P. Alkire vintage images by Jacinda Walker
4 6 8 9 12
THE GRAND RE-OPENING OF SULLIVANT HALL + SULLIVANT’S TRAVELS DANCE DOWNTOWN 2014 ALUMNI REUNION OSU DANCE: HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE THE DANCE OF LEADERSHIP/REFLECTIONS ON SUSAN VAN PELT PETRY
14 DANCING ONSCREEN, ONLINE AND ONWARDS:
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AT OHIO STATE
15 NEW FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: DANIEL ROBERTS 16 AWARDS 20 MELANIE BALES AND CANDACE FECK: STEP INTO RETIREMENT
Guest Artists 2014-2015 Kent DeSpain Lynn Garafola James Graham Vida Midgelow Aakash Odedra Susan Rethorst Jenna Riegel Tine Salling Leslie Seiters Nancy Stark Smith
We aspire to give our students the skills and imagination to be leaders in the field of dance and in their communities. Our graduating class of 2015 confirms that students, staff and faculty work together to do just that. Our graduate students are moving into faculty positions in dance departments and pursuing their creative and scholarly work. Our undergraduates are working as performers in dance companies and projects, launching their choreographic careers, teaching in a wide variety of settings, serving as arts managers and entering graduate school in medicine and physical therapy. Most importantly, they are global citizens intent upon enriching society through dance and the arts. Susan Petry guided this department through very challenging years. She has left us with a stellar staff, a state-of-the-art facility, programs that emerged from semester conversion even better, national re-accreditation of our programs and the continuation of our status on this campus as a center of excellence (pg. 12). She will take a muchdeserved leave and rejoin the faculty next year. I now step into the chair position, grateful for her work and mentorship. Replacing Melanie Bales and Candace Feck, our most recent retiring faculty, seems like a daunting challenge. They inspired us all for 25 years (pg. 20). We move forward with new faculty hires as an opportunity to extend their profound engagement with the past and present as inspiration for the future. Our newest hire, Daniel Roberts, joins us from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the Danish National School of Contemporary Dance (pg. 15). And Sofie Clemmensen (MFA ’13) who has strengthened the BFA program for the past two years, moves into a three-year visiting assistant professor position (pg. 23). As we conduct our searches for new tenure-track faculty, an exciting group of visiting artists and lecturers enhance the student experience. Eddie Taketa, 20-year veteran of Doug Varone and Dancers and recipient of a Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement in Performance, joins us for this year.
22 FACULTY & STAFF NEWS 23 VISITING FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: ANN SOFIE CLEMMENSEN
24 HELEN ALKIRE 27 GIVING/SCHOLARSHIPS
I have worked under every chair this department has known, in graduate school as well as my 26 years on the faculty. I intend to honor this legacy of enlightened leadership as we continue to situate The Ohio State University Department of Dance at the national forefront of innovation in dance: intersecting physical practice, creative process and theoretical inquiry. Please stay in touch as we move together into the next iteration of this remarkable place. Sincerely,
Susan Hadley, Chair
THE GRAND REOPENING OF
SULLIVANT HALL
I often compare lighting design to painting. Lights and gel are my brushes and pigment applied to the moving body, creating environments, or landscapes in which the dance is fully realized in a theatrical setting. [ David Covey ]
As we close out another year, and reflect back on all we’ve accomplished, it seems like only yesterday we were celebrating the grand reopening of Sullivant Hall with over 1,000 visitors as they experienced Stephen Koplowitz’s site specific works. My contribution was the lighting for the grid piece in the Barnett Theatre. Though people enjoyed it, I have to admit that simply pointing white light across the grid to illuminate the dancers was not what I had envisioned to unveil our new system of LED lighting technology. Fast forward to today. After a few configurations of the seating and light plot, through trial and error, I have learned a great deal about this black box space and its ability to showcase movement. It has taken time to adjust to the lack of wings for entrances and exits, and there is no cyclorama for colorful backgrounds, but it provides a wonderfully intimate environment in which to view dance with ample space for movement. 4
While choreographers and dancers adjusted to working in this environment, I grappled with moving from a (warmer) quartz lighting system with finite color choices, to the (cooler) LED system with virtually endless color choices. Technology forced me to re-examine my aesthetic and approach to design. I often compare lighting design to painting. Lights and gel are my brushes and pigment applied to the moving body, creating environments or landscapes in which the dance is fully realized in a theatrical setting. Though I integrated the old with the new, creating images of “mixed media” as do visual artists, my palette has exploded with the LEDs, and the landscapes I may now paint are infinite in their variation, complexity and subtlety. Gels will soon become a relic of the past. The implications of this for my research and teaching are extremely exciting. The future in our new black box looks very bright indeed. —David Covey
Sullivant’s Travels by Stephan Koplowitz Photo by Nick Fancher
The Grand Reopening of Sullivant Hall took place on Sept. 20, 2014. It was a grand occasion marking our return home after two years of displacement. Dave Covey took on the monumental task of moving us out and then moving back in. Now that we are here, Dave shares his experiences as he settles into the new Barnett Theatre, his home away from home.
SULLIVANT’S TRAVELS Commissioned by the College of Arts and Sciences, choreographer Stephan Koplowitz created a promenade, site-specific and site-inspired performance event to celebrate the grand reopening. Sullivant’s Travels; a journey into the mind of a building was a world premiere of 11 performance works inspired by the history of the building, the architecture and the current use of specific spaces.
Learn more about this event at dance.osu.edu/events/sullivants-travels
Sullivant’s Travels: Behind the Collaboration Sarah Levitt, MFA w16 On Sept. 20, 2014, Sullivant’s Travels traversed through Sullivant Hall, the Department of Dance’s newly renovated home. Audiences witnessed dancers leaning over the outdoor balcony on High Street, flying through the rotunda, climbing ropes in Studio 390, rehearsing in 290 and jumping onto the Barnett Theatre’s lighting grid. Audience members became performers themselves at times in interactive elements including a dancing “photo booth.” These are just a few of the performance and participatory sections of Sullivant’s Travels, which incorporated undergraduate, graduate students and faculty members from the Department of Dance, the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, and the School of Music. Choreographer Stephan Koplowitz, internationally known for his site-specific performances, led the six-month, highly collaborative process of creating this work, assisted closely by faculty member Ann Sofie Clemmensen. Stephan and Sofie selected a small company of graduate and undergraduate students in spring 2014 to create movement material and try out ideas in the various sites that would be taught to the rest of the ensemble in May and August. In our early rehearsals, Stephan gave us movement prompts in various sites, usually starting with one task and quickly layering on more ideas. Following closely behind these instructions from Stephan was Sofie, carefully crafting and cleaning his vision until each section shined. At one point in August, I joined Sofie on the first floor of the rotunda as she rehearsed dancers on the second and third floors. The rotunda section, in which dancers continually rotated, was extremely challenging. Dancers
“Our process — messy, unpredictable, unwieldy — created a dance that really reflected the daily life of Sullivant Hall over the years. It highlighted the artistic processes that have taken place in this building, the people who built their lives here and the daily decision to make art, no matter the circumstances.” [ Sarah Levitt ] had to coordinate their timing exactly with dancers across from them, next to them, and above or below them, finding a group timing that didn’t necessarily rely on being able to see everyone at once. Sofie started the dancers and stopped them, clarified counts, questioned a pathway, started and stopped again. Sofie could see the big picture of the whole dance, and knew that the details weren’t just important to the dance, they were the dance. The process of arriving at Sept. 20 was far from smooth, but it strikes me that smooth, even and steady creates a certain kind of dance. Our process — messy, unpredictable, unwieldy — created a dance that really reflected the daily life of Sullivant Hall over the years. It highlighted the artistic processes that have taken place in this building, the people who built their lives here and the daily decision to make art, no matter the circumstances. Stephan and Sofie were tireless leaders, and their efforts together created an event that still resonates in the studios and halls of Sullivant. 5
New Lucy by Susan Rethorst; photo courtesy of Catherine Proctor
I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Rethorst because now I can try to adopt her attitude of letting the art emerge through a series of un-precious decisions without halting the thoughtfulness at the heart of it all.
Pange Lingua (1986) New Lucy
Choreographer: Michael Kelly Bruce
Choreographer: Susan Rethorst
Asha Whitfield, BFA ’16
Maddie Leonard-Rose, BFA ’17
Going through the process of recreating Pange Lingua with Michael Kelly Bruce (MKB) for Dance Downtown was exciting because we got the opportunity to live in the past. The original piece was created in the 1980s for eight women, and even then it was reflective of an earlier time period. My fellow cast mates and I bonded over the fact that our cast was also all women. Although not intentional, the casting seemed to have a higher meaning and connection to who we are as people and how we fit in society as a whole.
I remember first meeting Susan Rethorst in late September 2014, when she served as a guest artist at Ohio State during fall semester. She created a piece for Dance Downtown that November, and I was one of 12 women cast in the work. Rethorst seemed to have an endless supply of quirky, task-like movement phrases that looked illogical from the outset but possessed a certain flow that steered them away from the categories of dull and mimetic. One day she announced that the piece was to be called New Lucy. We asked her why and she said that it had just come to her and seemed fitting. The entire process adhered to Rethorst’s un-precious, whimsical ideas that proved endlessly fruitful and entertaining. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Rethorst because now I can try to adopt her attitude of letting the art emerge through a series of unprecious decisions without halting the thoughtfulness at the heart of it all. Congratulations to Susan Rethorst, recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Award 2015.
MKB allowed the dancers to offer suggestions as to where the dance could go next or how a movement phrase could be adapted to fit our cast. By doing this, we were making Pange Lingua our own, a dance from the past that lived in us in the present. MKB encouraged us to find the internal sensation of existing in two worlds: of being pulled toward the future while the past trailed behind us. To live in two worlds at once is an experience I wish many could feel, and dancing Pange Lingua gave us that opportunity, and now the work will live on in each of us.
The Steadfast Tinder Soldier Choreographer: Tine Salling
The Name of the Game
Ca’la Henderson, BFA ’15
Choreographer: Ann Sofie Clemmensen
Creating a new dance for Dance Downtown with visiting artist Tine Salling was an entertaining yet tough experience. The Steadfast Tinder Soldier was inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Steadfast Tinder Soldier and the dating service, Tinder. In rehearsal, we read the fairytale aloud together, discussed the dating app, and created lists of mannerisms we thought we presented through the pictures we post on social media. As we dug deeper into movement exploration, tasks became more difficult as we attempted to move as a unit. Tine really trusted us as dancers to pull everything together and work out the kinks as a group. Toward the end of rehearsals, Tine edited all the movement material, focusing emotions and relationships between the dancers. This was the toughest part of the process — it was so close to show time and many changes were made. I learned the true meaning of endurance during those last few rehearsals.
Charlotte Stickles, BFA ’17 Sofie took the movement that the cast created, and strung it together with her own choreography in a cohesive and unexpected way. She told us on the first day of rehearsal that she was interested in exploring childhood games and imagery, and a lot of our tasks revolved around this idea. To me, the sections of the piece represented the various emotional capacities and developments of a child. In a process, Sofie knows exactly what she wants, and she knows how to extract it from her dancers. She recognizes potential and always expects the best from the dancers. She is very demanding but equally encouraging, intensely focused yet playful and whimsical. As a choreographer, Sofie creates incredible movement that challenges her dancers, and as one of her students, I am constantly inspired by her talent.
Department of Dance
By Candace Feck
The alumni reunion brought together many decades of dancers on Sept. 20 and 21. Close to 100 past and present students mixed with current and former faculty of the department in a series of events and venues that sparked a palpable frisson of joyous reconnections that is still percolating. Alumni bumped into one another at the ribbon-cutting and Sullivant Hall Grand Opening performances staged throughout the building, schmoozed and hugged at the Bravo dinner event, and regrouped again over a sunlit brunch staged in the large and airy new Studio 390, overlooking the Wexner Center and Oval. Laughter and great affection were the by-words of the weekend, as kisses were passed, addresses exchanged and new memories made. photos pg. 8 (l-r): Dianne McIntyre (BFA ’69) with Helen Alkire, founder of the Department of Dance; Tyisha Nedd (BFA ’14) with Susan Hadley, professor and chair; Robbie Shaw (MFA ’96), Cheryl Banks Smith (MFA ’95), Sara Wookey (BFA ’96), Karen Bell, professor emeritus and Tony Calucci (MFA ’86); Helen Alkire with 1983 BFA alumni from the year she retired: Francine Johnson, Barb Maiberger, Betsy Strome and Dori Jenks photos pg. 10 (l-r): Kate Hale (BFA ’09) and newborn Natalie with Bebe Miller and Susan Van Pelt Petry, professors; Dianne McIntyre (BFA ’69) Loren Bucek, PhD (MA ’80), Lucy Venable, professor emeritus and Kate Wissel (BFA ’06); John Giffin and Vicki Uris, professors emeriti, with Valarie Williams, professor and associate dean; Mel Bales, professor, Odette Blum, professor emeritus and Francis Craig Guillemot (MA ’89) All photos courtesy of Hallie Kerr. Visit dance.osu.edu for the full gallery of photos from this event
OSU DANCE: Here, There and Everywhere From the local scene to the international stage, the Department of Dance is out and about in our communities. With generous sponsorship of the Karen A. Bell Fund for Community Outreach, the Barbara and Sheldon Pinchuk Arts & Community Outreach Grant and the Outreach Arts Initiative of College of Arts and Sciences our outreach projects give close to 1,500 young people annually an opportunity to experience dance, validating the kinesthetic, musical and imaginative expressions of human existence, so often under-represented in education. Now Is The Time by Susan Van Pelt Petry, photo courtesy of Elijah Palnik
OHIO STATE REP CO. JUST IN TIME Throughout April, 2015, a student repertory company of the Department of Dance toured public schools in the greater Columbus area. This select group of eight undergraduate and two graduate students rehearsed diligently for three months to learn seven new dance works. The company’s production, It’s About Time, explored how time and rhythm are used in choreography. The program included works by Bill T. Jones, Bebe Miller, Susan Hadley, Susan Van Pelt Petry, Tammy Carrasco and hip-hop artist Quilan Arnold. This project provided opportunities for dance majors to experience a glimpse of company life while introducing children in schools to contemporary dance forms. As part of their learning laboratory, company members took on various roles of tour management. They also prepared a study guide for the teachers.
continued on pg. 10 9
BUCKEYE ROOTS STRINGS AND STEPS Dance PhD student Janet Schroeder served as artistic director of Buckeye Roots Strings and Steps, a group of Ohio State-affiliated musicians and dancers who toured China (Beijing, Wuhan, Suzhou and Shanghai) over spring break of 2015. Schroeder created a 45-minute performance, which was performed over nine days. Along with fellow clogger and Ohio State communications staffer Adam King, they kicked up their heels to the toe-tapping sounds of the trio of Joshua Coy (banjo), Carrie Miller (fiddle) and Liberty Brigner (guitar.) This tour was part of an ongoing cultural exchange program, courtesy of grants from the State Department with oversight by Bob Eckhart, executive director of the combined ESL programs, Department of Teaching and Learning, and director of the WHU-OSU Center for American Culture.
C.L.E.M SUMMER ART PROJECT In the summer 2014, Ann Sofie Clemmensen invited Ohio State dance majors Kathryn Sauma, Kelly Hurlburt, Madeleine Leonard-Rose and Melissa Mark to Denmark to partake in her four week creative intensive C.L.E.M Summer Art Project. Besides immersing the dancers in various choreographic processes, cultural exchange played a pivotal role, as the mission of C.L.E.M Summer Art Project was to develop cultural understanding between United States and Denmark through art and physical imagination. The project received $1,880 from the American Embassy in Copenhagen. The “Small Grant” is given to programs that aim to promote the understanding and appreciation of American culture. The program included daily outdoor rehearsals, driving to various locations for filming, and teaching a master class to the National Danish Performance Team.
Visit dance.osu.edu for the full gallery of photos from this event.
Community Engagement continued from pg. 9
“The kids had a blast. Dancing was inspiring for them. It encouraged them to be active and gave them a creative outlet.” [Dana Schafer]
DAY OF DANCE Last December, Dana Schafer, a fourth-year dance major, invited 70 third graders from Starling STEM School in Franklinton to Sullivant Hall to participate in a Day of Dance, which focused on community dance and the importance for children to experience the arts in public schools. The day was broken down into three 45-minute classes: creative movement and improv, jazz or hip-hop, and choreography to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. After learning the choreography, the children went back to their school and surprised their peers with a flash mob of Thriller. Ohio State dance alumna, Loren Bucek, PhD, Starling teacher and nationally recognized dance education specialist, spearheaded this connection.
YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONCERT Each year, 800 students from schools in the greater Columbus area are bussed downtown to our Young People’s Concert at the Capitol Theatre to see a fully produced program of contemporary dance excerpted from the weekend’s Dance Downtown production. Led by Melanye White Dixon, PhD, with a team of students, the lecture demonstration is carefully crafted to engage the audience as participants and observers as they familiarize themselves with contemporary dance. A study guide is also generated to provide teachers and students with a more in-depth look at the creative process of the choreographers’ works. 11
ON THE DANCE OF LEADERSHIP By Susan Petry
In the ’70s, I took a workshop with Barbara Dilley. In it we were doing a “leading/following” exercise. It came my turn to lead the group and I poured forth all kinds of movement, feeling brave and clever. A discussion followed, and Barbara queried, “Were they following you”? Stunned, I realized I had simply run my own show, and indeed what’s the use of being a leader if there are no followers? I had not been asking, where are they, what do they need, can they see me, what is happening? This lesson, and all its nuances, has continued to inform and deepen my approach to teaching, choreography, and leadership for 35 years. Today, it is called “servant leadership,” or “leading from behind.” By whatever name, my commitment to sensing, intuiting, standing behind, prompting others to lead, has grown through practice these past nine years as chair of the Department of Dance. My guiding principles as a leader have been informed by my work as a dancer and artist. Dance is an excellent paradigm for administrative work: ethical treatment of others, co-creation in the moment, attention to detail, “Partire del terreno” ( judgment of space as termed by Italian Renaissance dancing masters), perception of patterns and self-reflexive skills. While my choreographic work often centers on the theme of vulnerability in the context of tenacity, so too I see administration as honoring capricious human nature in the context of structures that must have consistency, fairness and transparency. It has been an astounding stretch, working under three presidents, three provosts and three deans; seeing through the transition from the College of the Arts to the College of Arts and Sciences; the transition from quarters to semesters; and the renovation of Sullivant Hall. In my time, I will have seen through five retirements, three resignations, and seven hires, a program review and re-accreditation. I have ushered in a complete transition of administrative staff, the establishment of a permanent costume staff, an outreach position and an interdisciplinary production manager. We have continued the department’s legacy of integrating professional artists and scholars, grown our town and gown relationships, re-framed the role of Laban studies, increased study abroad, graduated our first PhD students and established new funds. Digital literacy and writing run through our curriculum, and diversity as well as health and wellness is celebrated through multiple avenues and projects. None of this has happened without exceptional faculty, dedicated staff and inspiring students and I thank everyone I had the pleasure to learn from over the years. My many small strategies, coupled with a distributed leadership structure, a dose of luck and a dash of humor, has made for an exhilarating, exhausting, generative, challenging and fascinating nine years. When leading from behind, one wishes to ultimately be the vessel and the conductor but not the thing itself. It is my hope that I have been asking, where are they, what do they need, can they see me, what is happening? I am thrilled the department will move forward in the very capable hands of my successor, Susan Hadley. With joy I move back to the studio, stage, camera, pen and paper, to teach and create, as well as continue an active role on the board of the National Association of Schools of Dance. As Helen Alkire said on her 100th birthday, “Let’s think about the future”! 12
photo courtesy of Elijah Palnik
REFLECTIONS ON SUSAN VAN PELT PETRY Michael J. Morris I first met Susan Van Pelt Petry in 2008 when I auditioned for the MFA program. Seven years later, I am completing my PhD, and Susan has been chair of this department for my entire time here. During our years together, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with Susan on revising departmental administration documents and informal performances. She has mentored my teaching and guided me as I navigated my move onto the job market. We have had rich, lively and sometimes difficult conversations about dance, art, gender, my research and administration and departmental practices; we have had fun conversations about fashion. I have watched as she has led our department through ceaseless transition — from quarters to semesters, out of Sullivant Hall and back again, through new faculty hires, and through changing administrative personnel year after year. I have seen her raising and distributing funds, managing schedules and resources, resolving conflicts and issues, making and staging dances, celebrating the accomplishments of faculty and students and consistently presenting herself as the confident, capable face of our department across the
university. The Ohio State University Department of Dance has thrived because of her direction and care. There are so many things I have learned from Susan about being a leader, and I can only mention a few here: Practice trying to say yes, and when something does not seem possible, try to find ways to make it possible. Be open to change, and allow the challenge to change to become an opportunity for creativity and invention. When interpersonal tensions or conflicts arise within a community — because whatever else a department is, it is also a community — do not shut down continuing conversation. Keep learning, always. The most effective leadership comes from a place of care for those who are moving with you. It would be unjust to say that Susan has made being the chair of this department look effortless. In actuality, I have seen probably only a glimpse of how difficult and demanding this job can be. Rather than “effortless,” Susan has modeled gracious, persistent effort within constantly shifting complexity and demand, and that is only a part of what has made her such an effective leader.
photos pg. 12: (top) courtesy of Hallie Kerr; (middle) courtesy of Dori Jenks; (bottom) Susan Van Pelt Petry with first graduate of our PhD program Ashley Thorndike Youssef and Candace Feck, PhD, courtesy of Elijah Palnik 13
DANCING ONSCREEN, ONLINE AND ONWARDS: DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AT OHIO STATE For many decades the department has invested in new technologies to interrogate and advance the art form. Lucy Venable worked with IBM to design a Labanotation typewriter, Vera Maletic forged coursework in dance video work and movement analysis aided by technology, and teams of faculty and staff developed early CD ROM technologies for aligning video and Labanotation scores. Johannes Birringer developed dance and technology course work and research working with Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD), and for the past 12 years Norah Zuniga Shaw has advanced dance and technology with her shared position at ACCAD. Today, dancing on screen and online is showing up substantially in five of our faculty’s profiles.
Norah Zuniga Shaw and TWO In November 2013, Zuniga Shaw and Maria Palazzi launched their most recent project, TWO at the Frankfurt Lab. Commissioned by the Forsythe Company for Motion Bank, TWO focuses on the mind/body practices of two unrelated directors of performance improvisation: Ohio State’s Bebe Miller and Brussels-based Thomas Hauert/ ZOO Company. Published online TWO focuses on mind/ body processes in Miller and Hauert’s choreographic practices — namely memory, habit, attention and impulse. In these artist-initiated projects, the archive is constructed as generative and the makers of the work are considering what else is available to be traced and transmitted. The moment of human and computer intervention in fixing and re-articulating performance involves not only scholars, practitioners, librarians and archivists but also designers, scientists, curators and users and results in producing knowledge objects such as traces, scores, inscriptions, articulations.
scores.motionbank.org
Harmony Bench and Mapping Touring Mapping Touring combines archival research in concert dance history with tools and approaches drawn from the digital humanities. It is a digital research project that uses concert dance programs held in library special collections to document and track the appearances of dancers, choreographers and dance companies as they tour domestically and internationally. Of particular concern is representing the dates of performance, cities and venues, 14
and repertory performed. Bench said, “I think coming to terms with dancers on the move will demand that we grapple more concertedly with globalization in the early 20th century as it manifests in economies of movement — economies in which ‘kinesthetic legacies’ are simultaneously obscured and revealed.”
Bebe Miller and Dance Fort Developed in tandem with the performance work A History (2012), Dance Fort: A History is a digital play-book, part installation and part digital artifact. It is based on the matrix of materials surrounding the development, production and performance of A History, containing cross-referenced research materials danced, written, spoken and shared in other forms. Dance works are made of a mix of ideas, physical practice, happenstance, forgetting, remembering, minor epiphanies and daily discoveries, joined together piece by piece, over time. One of the goals of both the dance performance and the digital book is to learn and understand the archive of work that lives within a dancer’s memory and body. This digital book serves as a companion piece, another way of viewing form and context. It is not meant to represent the performance but to create an interactive experience with its bones and subtext, mapping the viewer’s trace through the artists’ process.
The Department and Online There are numerous ways faculty and students are showing up online as artists, scholars and learners. Harmony Bench is co-editor of The International Journal of Screendance, an artist-led journal exploring the field of screendance. It is the first scholarly journal dedicated to this growing area of worldwide interdisciplinary practice. Also, the department is preparing to offer its first completely online general education course “Dance in Popular Cultures” in autumn 2015. Bench is also developing a new course where students will interface with technologies while asking “how do we do history digitally?” The course, “Spectacles of agency and desire: digital dance histories and the burlesque stage,” is built around the Charles H. McCaghy Collection of Exotic Dance and examines the politics of women’s bodies on the popular stage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Digital literacy runs across the curriculum and all students develop their own electronic portfolios.
NEW FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
screendancejournal.org
Hannah Kosstrin and KineScribe KineScribe is an iPad app that displays and edits scores in Laban movement notation. In it, users can read and create scores in structured Labanotation, Motif and Language of Dance. KineScribe reimagines LabanWriter for the touch screen, allowing users to write dances in Laban movement notation and quickly edit scores and symbols. Hannah Kosstrin and LabanWriter programmer David Ralley developed KineScribe with the support of Marty Ringle and Trina Marmarelli at Reed College, the cooperation of Ohio State and a National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities Level I Startup Grant. At Ohio State, Kosstrin plans to further develop the app as a teaching and research tool for investigations in movement description, analysis and observation. KineScribe is available as a free download on the Apple App Store.
kinescribe.org
Mitchell Rose and Dance Film Mitchell Rose continues to advance dance film-making in the department and he is working on two new films. Targeted Advertising was shot two years ago by a professional aerial photography company and involved 80 dancers from five central Ohio dance departments. It featured the choreography of new dance Chair Susan Hadley. Additionally, Exquisite Corps is a twoyear project that is creating a chain letter of 40 wellknown choreographers each dancing for seven seconds. Rose’s film Globe Trot, shot by 54 filmmakers in 23 countries and made in collaboration with Bebe Miller, is winding up its rounds on the festival circuit having garnered 11 awards. It will soon be seen as inflight entertainment on international flights. Rose continues to curate the department’s festival of dancefilm, DANCE@30FPS. Bringing together the finest dancefilms from around the world, it was presented this year at the Wexner Center for the Arts.
Daniel Roberts, Assistant Professor By Sarah Levitt, MFA ’16 The Department of Dance welcomes Assistant Professor Daniel Roberts as our newest faculty member, who brings to the position international performing, teaching and rehearsal direction experience. Joining the faculty represents a homecoming for Roberts, who received his BFA from the department in 1999 with a specialization in Labanotation. Immediately after graduating, he apprenticed with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) for a year and joined the company in 2000. Until 2006, Roberts toured extensively with MCDC, and continues to stage Cunningham repertory on companies around the world. After leaving MCDC, he became head technique teacher at the Danish National School of Contemporary Dance in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he taught for four years before returning to the U.S. for graduate studies at Bennington College, where he received an MFA in Dance in 2012. In addition to his teaching experience, Roberts was rehearsal director for Danish Dance Theater and rehearsal assistant for the Royal Danish Ballet. Roberts also has an extensive musical background and has worked frequently as an accompanist for dance. Roberts’ choreographic work has been presented at venues such as Movement Research, Danspace Project and Bennington College. Students first encountered Roberts in spring 2014 when he taught ballet, contemporary and composition as a visiting artist, and were struck by his energy, specificity and contagious work ethic.
BEBE MILLER RECOGNIZED AT MOVEMENT RESEARCH GALA 2015 by Dori Jenks On Monday, June 8, Movement Research held its 2015 Spring Gala at the beautiful and historic Judson Memorial Church in New York City. The Gala Program honored three exceptional individuals for their vital contributions to the field. Bebe Miller, Distinguished Professor and alumna (MA ’75), was selected by her contemporaries to receive this prestigious recognition, along with fellow artists Moira Brennan and Tere O’Connor. Movement Research is an organization dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation in the field of dance. This organization strives to reflect the cultural, political and economic diversity of its moving community, including artists and audiences alike.
SUSAN HADLEY RECEIVES RATNER AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED TEACHING by Susan Van Pelt Petry Professor Susan Hadley received one of the inaugural Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Awards. This prestigious honor recognizes faculty for developing new courses, original materials, innovative methods and venues for delivery, as well as for making a difference in students’ educations, lives and careers. Each Ratner Award includes a $10,000 cash prize plus a $10,000 teaching account to fund future projects. She is one of five arts and humanities faculty to receive the 2014 award. With support from the award, Hadley will lead a group of 11 dance majors to Salvador, Brazil, during spring break 2016 to perform, teach and share in cultural exchanges with Brazilian dancers, musicians, students and community. In preparation for this experience, Ohio State dancers will rehearse works by students, faculty and visiting artists in addition to taking a course in Brazilian history, religion, arts and culture. Her proposal adds to the globalization of our curriculum, just as Brazil becomes the third partner country in the Ohio State Global Gateways program. 16
MELANYE WHITE DIXON HONORED FOR HER WORK IN DANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION by Dori Jenks
Melanye White Dixon, PhD, associate professor, received the 2015 International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) Educator/Scholar Award at the 27th annual IABD conference and festival in Cleveland Jan. 24. She was honored for her contributions to dance through her teaching and mentoring in higher education. The award was presented by Dixon’s mentor, dance scholar Brenda Dixon Gottschild. Additionally, Dixon was recognized on April 7 by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for a grant to support her conference paper, “Social Change and The Black Dancing Body: Mary Hinkson and the Martha Graham Dance Company.” Dixon presented the paper at the 21st Annual Popular Culture Association Conference in New Orleans April 1-4.
MICHAEL KELLY BRUCE AWARDED FOR DISTINGUISHED FACULTY SERVICE by Sarah Levitt
Michael Kelly Bruce received the 2015 President and Provost’s Award for Distinguished Faculty Service. This award honors faculty whose service has been extensive and made a long-lasting positive impact on the quality of the university and beyond. Bruce began his career here in 1990 and has always looked for opportunities to serve the department, college and university. In whatever capacity he serves, he stays focused on wanting to find the best outcome for any given problem or situation. He has been on 18 university committees, almost continuous service on college senate and curriculum committees, and a full array of service in the department including interim chair for a two-year period and assistant chair for many years. Bruce was an associate dean in the former College of the Arts from 1998 to 2001 where he was a program founder and director of the original Arts Scholars, and chaired the college’s honors committee helping to advance honors work in the college. Chair Petry wrote, “The sum total of his accomplishments, advocacy and munificence has helped countless students, programs and initiatives to advance and thrive.”
SUSAN CHESS SELECTED FOR DISTINGUISHED STAFF AWARD by Dori Jenks
Susan Chess, PhD, music supervisor, was one of 12 university honorees who received Distinguished Staff Awards for the 2014-15 academic year on Monday, May 4. Ohio State President Michael Drake and Provost Joseph Steinmetz presented each recipient with a crystal trophy, a $1,500 cash award and a $700 base salary increase. Professor Karen Eliot described Chess as “a sturdy backbone of the Department of Dance since she first took the piano bench as a dance accompanist in 1978. She has been a dedicated staff member who, during her long tenure in the dance department, has interacted with generations of students, faculty and staff.” Rachel Riggs Leyva, PhD, and assistant director, Dance Notation Bureau Extension, added, “Susan’s playful and witty personality, combined with her dedicated work ethic, make her a treasured teacher, colleague and friend.”
DORI JENKS AWARDED FOR SERVICE ABOVE AND BEYOND by Susan Van Pelt Petry
Executive Dean Manderscheid made a surprise visit to the department in December to present Dori Jenks, external relations coordinator, with the College of Arts and Sciences’ “Above and Beyond Buckeye Award” for her dedicated efforts in the department. Jenks played a key role during a period of enormous change including the move back to Sullivant, the turnover of a number of staff and the absorption of new systems and duties. As her nominators said: “She is stalwart, positive, committed, caring, funny, fun, creative, visionary…” and “The end of this tumultuous era was the building opening coupled with an alumni reunion, which she ran with effort to detail and quality above and beyond.”
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SARAH LEVITT NAMED ALBERT SCHWEITZER FELLOW Sarah Levitt was selected as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow, one of 18 graduate students selected for the 2015-16 class of Albert Schweitzer Fellows from Columbus and Athens. Levitt’s project is addressing the health and wellness of senior citizens in Columbus by creating a dance program for older adults incorporating a variety of movement styles, including hip-hop and social dance. Working with the ClintonvilleBeechwold Community Resource Center, Levitt will teach participants methods to create their own dances, promoting physical activity and artistic expression. “Sarah is testing the efficacy of dance to positively affect the health of a senior population, demonstrating once again the power dance has to improve communities in many ways,” said Susan Petry, former chair, Department of Dance.
MICHAEL MORRIS HONORED WITH NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP AWARD AND GRADUATE ASSOCIATE TEACHING AWARD Michael Morris (PhD, ’15) swept the Graduate School Awards Reception April 21. Morris was recognized with the Presidential Fellowship Award of 2014. This award was based on Morris’s dissertation proposal, “Material Entanglements with the Nonhuman World: Theorizing Ecosexualities in Performance.” Morris also received the Graduate Associate Teaching Award, the university’s highest recognition of the exceptional teaching provided by graduate students at Ohio State, an honor bestowed on only 10 graduate teaching associates per academic year.
BFA students Mimi Lamantia and Serena Chang receive Pelotonia Undergraduate Research Fellowships for their cancer research projects. These $12,000 awards fund their research and continued coursework next year. The Pelotonia Undergraduate Fellowship Program supports undergraduate students who want to help cure cancer. Competition for Pelotonia Undergraduate Fellowships is intense. Each year, approximately 80 undergraduate applications are submitted and reviewed by members of the Pelotonia Fellowship Committee
Mimi Lamantia’s “It Takes Two to Tango: A Study on the Effect of Dance-Based Interventions for Cancer Survivors” is a yearlong study to determine the feasibility of using two dance-based interventions, Argentine Tango and dance alumna Lise WorthenChaudari’s game-like visual art feedback program to improve balance and quality of life among cancer survivors with balance deficits. Lamantia has earned the BFA in dance and will attend medical school after completing her pre-med studies and research next year.
Serena Chang’s “Dance: A Holistic Expression of the Cancer Experience” is a choreographic dance project intended to raise awareness of cancer by encompassing the physical and emotional experiences of cancer survivors. Serena will complete a BFA in dance and a BS in molecular genetics next year. She intends on going to medical school after she pursues professional dance. Mimi Lamantia working with her research participants, photo courtesy of Jo McCulty.
DIANNE MCINTYRE WINS DORIS DUKE AWARD Dance alumna Dianne McIntyre is one of 20 recipients of a Doris Duke Impact Award, announced in June. Each recipient receives unrestricted/flexible funds plus restricted project funds up to $80,000. The award is part of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, launched in 2011 as a 10-year initiative to empower, invest in and celebrate artists. An Arts and Sciences Distinguished Achievement Alumni Award winner, McIntyre’s trailblazing career has touched the genre of dance for more than 40 years. Her work combines elements of both dance and theatre, exploring cultural themes while challenging the viewer’s ability to think and feel. As an improviser and experimentalist, she interweaves dance with live jazz music, creating what she coined “visual conversations” between the dance and music makers. She created a Dance Downtown piece with Ohio State dance students in 2013.
ALUMNA HONORED WITH RUTH PAGE AWARD Alumna Diane Smagatz-Rawlinson (dance education, 1983) has been honored with the 2014 Ruth Page Award, celebrating her dedication to teaching young dancers for nearly 30 years, not only in the discipline of dance but also the importance of community philanthropy and citizenship. Rawlinson is the orchesis director and dance teacher at Wheeling High School in Wheeling, Illinois, and founder of Dance for Life’s Next Generation — an annual studentproduced benefit concert. The award was presented at a private reception in March. The award has been given annually by the Ruth Page Center for the Arts on behalf of the Ruth Page Foundation and the Chicago dance community since 1986. It honors dance icon Ruth Page (1899-1991) and is an opportunity for the center to acknowledge an individual’s or organization’s artistic momentum.
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MELANIE BALES AND CANDACE FECK STEP INTO RETIREMENT By Susan Petry
On May 12, 2015, at the Faculty Club, we celebrated Melanie Bales and Candace Feck as they step into their retirements. Brief summaries of their work at The Ohio State University follow, with excerpts from the remarks given at the reception, as they were encircled with our reflections and love. Melanie Bales has been at Ohio State for 26 years — one year as a lecturer in 1989, then assistant professor in 1990, moving up to associate professor in 1997 and full professor in 2007. Before coming to Ohio State, she established her rich and diverse palate as both an artist/dancer and as an academic scholar. After receiving a BA from Carleton College she moved to her professional dancing life in Germany, then earned her MFA at the University of Illinois and on to her years of dancing with Doug Nielsen and others. Here at Ohio State, she was hired to teach contemporary, then ballet, then delved into somatics and Laban Movement Analysis, then choreography, then directing, then graduate seminar, then writing, publishing and teaching PhDs the history of Balanchine and Robbins. She was instrumental in the development of the PhD program, and managed to continue teaching ballet and choreographing even while developing significant new curriculum for the graduate program in history, theory and literature. During her tenure, she performed in numerous artists’ work, including baroque ballet, such as The Rape of the Lock, and contemporary works by Tere O’Connor, Susan Hadley, Ann Carlson and Vicki Uris, to name a few. She choreographed 22 dances during her time here, almost one a year (that and having two kids!), including works for Dance Downtown, Drums Downtown, opera and works for graduate students.
“As a faculty member, I gained a new appreciation for Melanie’s intimate knowledge and realistic attitude toward how the university runs, and what are small and large potatoes.” [Hannah Kosstrin, assistant professor] Her conference presentations are too numerous to list, but most notably was her invitation just last year to Emory University’s Friends of Dance Lecture Series joining a roster of speakers over the years like Lynn Garafola, Janice Ross and Brenda Dixon Gottschild. 20
Significantly, she co-edited with Karen Eliot the recent Dance on its Own Terms: Histories and Methodologies, helping to put our program on the dance studies map, and co-authored with Rebecca Nettl-Fiol The Body Eclectic: Evolving Practices in Dance Training, which has become a well-used resource for history and pedagogy courses. The service that Melanie provided this university is extraordinary: five department search committees, chaired four standing committees, served on others, and coordinated the massive semester conversion work three years ago, and also served on approximately 20 college and university committees and work groups.
“Melanie Bales: All things beautiful, smart, classic, designed, tasteful, deep, funny, brilliant, ironic, intellectual, complex, right and loving.” [Susan Hadley, MFA, professor]
Candace Feck has been giving her all at Ohio State for 24 continuous years (25.25 if you count her teaching years in the ‘80s as a graduate student and a one quarter stint as a lecturer in 1986).
Candace was a lecturer with continuous service from 1991 to 2000, then the department managed to up that to visiting assistant professor, and finally got it right in 2003 hiring her into her rightful tenure track line, where we have benefited from her superb teaching, curriculum development, writing and service since. In 2002 Candace completed her doctoral studies in art education, with her dissertation “Understandings about Dance: An Analysis of Student Critical Writings and Pedagogical Implications.” The essence of that work has propelled her teaching and her scholarship before, during and since.
conference publications and two early award-winning CD ROM dance documentation works, one of which received funding from a Pew Trust grant, the National Initiative to Preserve American Dance. She has been asked to give keynote lectures, moderate panels, perform (her “Against On Project”) and significantly was a member of the research team that developed early online National Endowment for the Arts funded course materials: “Accelerated Motion: Towards a New Dance Literacy In America”.
“Candace leaves with us as a legacy of her mentorship and guidance. I “She taught me and countless others of could not have had a more thoughtful the power of language. But, the greatest and encouraging mentor in my first gift Candace offered her students was years here. I have benefited from visibility. She simply expected students Candace’s perspectives, her considered to shine, to be their best and to use their deliberations and thoughtful reflections. I own voice. She demanded this tall task in cannot imagine this department without the kindest, most generous way.” her calming presence.” [Karl Rogers, MFA, former graduate student]
[Harmony Bench,PhD, assistant professor] During her years here, she has created and taught significant general education courses, including the former Dance and Theatre, 1945 to the Present, and our first honors course, Writing for Dance. A major contribution was Candace’s design and shepherding of the department’s dance minor, setting in motion a whole new level of engagement and visibility for dance at Ohio State. She is known and loved for the seminal and core graduate course Aesthetics and Criticism, and just recently began the development of teaching Oral Histories, to name just a few critical curricular contributions. Candace has been a frequent consultant, guest scholar and scholar in residence over the years at places including SUNY Brockport, University of Colorado, University of Georgia, to name a few. Her list of publications ranges from chapters in recent books to essays for catalogues, book reviews, journal articles,
Close to her heart is the extensive research she has conducted and published about Elizabeth Streb, working towards a book, and she is known for her 2005 article “Inverse Contextualization: Writing about Dance from the Inside Out” as a brilliant piece that is a marker of our department’s commitment to good writing, as well as her chapter in the aforementioned Dance on Its Own Terms. Candace has been a leader in the department, the university and the field. She served for five years on the Congress on Research in Dance (CORD) executive board, in addition to chairing many conference panels. The department has benefited from her years of leadership on many committees: graduate studies, search, Dance Preservation Fund, PhD development, to name a few, in addition to frequent service on the Graduate School’s Presidential Fellowship committee.
Melanie Bales and Candace Feck performing Companions by Susan Hadley, photo courtesy of Toby Kaufmann-Buhler
FACULTY & STAFF NEWS Harmony Bench began the school year by rupturing her Achilles. Nevertheless, with the incredible research assistance of undergraduates Christine Ghinder, Shannon Drake and Emily Liptow, her RCA-funded digital humanities project Mapping Touring: Itineraries in Motion is well underway. Bench presented her research at Hemispheric Institute, Network Detroit, SDHS/CORD and Performance Philosophy conferences, and was an invited presenter at both Brown and Duke Universities. She serves as co-editor of The International Journal of Screendance (screendancejournal.org), and will soon conclude her term as secretary for CORD. She has lots of irons in the fire, but is most looking forward to recovering her ability to sauté. More information at harmonybench.com
Michael Kelly Bruce began his year rehearsing with an engaged and talented cast of 12 on the reworking of Pange Lingua, a dance he originally made in Texas after seeing Sankai Juku for the first time. Together they had a bountiful journey. He finished the year with receiving the President’s and Provost’s Award for Distinctive Faculty Service for his 25 years of work in the department, college, university and dance world. Said Bruce, “It was a terrific year.”
Dave Covey spent the early part of the school year preparing for the grand reopening of Sullivant Hall and the many aspects of the site-specific performance piece, Sullivant’s Travels. He spent the latter part of the school year preparing for Helen P. Alkire’s 100th birthday celebration. Between these capstone projects, Covey continued his stewardship of the seniors as they complete their projects. He also nurtures and maintains the connection to our emeriti. His latest project is a collaboration with glass
blower Jonathan Capps, an MFA student in the Department of Art, the results of which will manifest as a piece for Dance Downtown in autumn 2015. In addition to the recognitions and honors Melanye White Dixon received throughout the school year ( see pg. 17), she also presented conference papers at the 99th annual Association for the Study of African American Life and History Conference (ASALH) in Memphis, September 2014, and the Popular Culture Association in New Orleans, April 2015. Dixon delivered the Keynote Lecture for the 21st annual Black Women’s Conference, University of Kentucky, April 2015. She served as an intern mentor for the Columbus City Schools and consultant to its Gifted and Talented Performing Arts Division. Dixon directs the Ohio State Dance Downtown Young People’s Concert and is on the faculty advisory committee of the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum. She spent an amazing week at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the summer 2014 gathering resources for her research on Graham dancer Mary Hinkson.
Karen Eliot is sad to be losing her beloved colleagues Melanie Bales and Candace Feck, and happy to have survived her first year as Graduate Studies Chair. She continues her work on her book Albion’s Dance: Ballet in Britain during the Second World War. After seven years of not having taught contemporary, Eliot had the pleasure of working with the freshmen on Cunningham Technique.
Susan Hadley took the reins of leadership on June 15 as new chair of the Department of Dance. Previous to this position, she completed an 18-month President and Provost’s Leadership Initiative. Additionally she choreographed a new work to Lou Harrison’s In Praise of Johnny Appleseed for Drums
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Downtown XI. Hadley was an inaugural recipient of the Ratner Award for Distinguished Teaching. As a teaching project partially funded by this award, Hadley will lead a group of 11 dancers to perform in Salvador, Brazil, during Spring Break 2016. ( see pg. 16)
Hannah Kosstrin joined the Society of Dance History Scholars Editorial Board and continues her tenure as treasurer of the Congress on Research in Dance and as a member of the Dance Notation Bureau Professional Advisory Committee. She has furthered work on her book, Honest Bodies: The Dances of Anna Sokolow, which examines the critical functions of Jewishness, communism and gender in Sokolow’s 1930s-1960s choreography in the U.S., Mexico and Israel. She continues to work on KineScribe, the Labanotation iPad app she developed with David Ralley at Reed College. This year she presented papers about Sokolow and KineScribe at the CORD-SDHS joint conference at the University of Iowa, the Midwest Slavic Conference at Ohio State and the Conney Conference on Jewish Arts at the University of Southern California. She also taught a new special topics course about Jewish and Israeli dance.
Bebe Miller began the 2014–15 academic year choreographing Watching Watching for the Sullivant Hall opening celebration in September 2014. She also performed with The Wooster Group in Early Shaker Spirituals (2014), a reinterpretation of a record album of the same name that was recorded in 1976, by women of the Shaker community in Sabbath Day Lake, Maine. This project has taken her to the REDCAT in Los Angeles, St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York City and Der Singel in Antwerp, Belgium. Miller received an NEA grant for The Making
Room Project, a collaborative project with choreographer Susan Rethorst that will track their separate choreographic processes over the course of a year, sharing them virtually and in in-progress gatherings during 2016. This spring Miller launched Dance Fort: A History, a digital book that shares the creative process behind A History (2012) with a wider audience; available for free download from digitalbookstore.osu.edu.
Mitchell Rose’s crowdsourced dance-film, Globe Trot that he made with Bebe Miller continues to ply the film festival circuit and has now garnered 11 awards. It recently received a distribution deal to be shown on international airline flights. He’s also in the midst of working on two other films: Editing a film he made with Susan Hadley that was shot from a helicopter and used 80 Ohio dance students (including 50 from Ohio State), and a new film project that will take two years to complete and uses contributions from 40 well-known choreographers the world over. In October, Mitchell will present his The Mitch Show a program of his films and audience-participation performance pieces, in the Barnett Theatre.
Valarie Williams, professor, co-directed from a Labanotation score Anna Sokolow’s Daydream from Rooms (1957) with Rachael RiggsLeyva and Chair/Pillow from Continuous Project Altered Daily… (1969) by Yvonne Rainer for the department’s tour to China. Valarie hosted Lorry May, executive director of the Sokolow Foundation, to check and coach the work. She co-published Dialogue Among Culture, Institutions and Individuals with Sergio Soave for the catalogue accompanying the international exhibition PULL LEFT: Contemporary Chinese Art, Horizon Rivers Press, and presented on the
For more information about Melanie Bales and Candace Feck, please see pg. 20; For more information about Susan Van Pelt Petry, please see pg. 12. Department of Dance staffers with Chair Susan Van Pelt Petry: (l-r) Toby Kaufmann-Buhler, Carrie Cox, Dori Jenks, Amy Schmidt, Susan Petry, Elijah Palnik, Susan Chess, Lindsay Simon. Not pictured: Deb Singer
university’s Town and Gown Partnerships at the Council of Arts Administrators in Chicago. She continues to serve the college as associate dean and as executive director of the Arts Initiative.
This year Norah ZunigaShaw served as a faculty fellow for internationalization of the curriculum at Ohio State’s University Center for the Advancement of Teaching. She was a plenary speaker at the American Society for Theater Research conference in Baltimore, Maryland, and also a keynote speaker at the Moving Stories think tank in Vancouver, B.C. at Simon Fraser University and Emily
Carr College of Arts. ZunigaShaw published an article drawing from the last 10 years of research in choreographic visualization on digital articulations of choreographic ideas for Choreographic Practices Journal. She also taught an embodied research workshop with Nancy Stark Smith and they are starting a new choreographic visualization project focusing on Stark Smith’s structure for group improvisation, the Underscore. She is starting work on a new hybrid lecture/performance solo work on art, disaster and life in the 21st century with composer Byron AuYong and theater technician Oded Huberman in the Motion Lab at ACCAD.
VISITING FACULTY SPOTLIGHT Ann Sofie Clemmensen By Melanie Bales Next year 2015-16 the Department of Dance has the great pleasure of welcoming Ann Sofie Clemmensen as a three-year visiting assistant professor. She brings with her a bouquet of talents and fine personal qualities that have enriched and enlivened our hallowed halls since receiving her MFA in 2013. As freshmen “den mother” she has created a comprehensive and deep experience for entering students by leading the Freshmen Seminar and teaching her special approach to contemporary technique. In the seminar she brings her formidable expertise in digital technologies to the creative table while orienting her flock to possibilities in dance that they could not have imagined. As a dancer of rare and breathtaking beauty, and a teacher of seemingly limitless creativity, Sofie is able to take her students to new places of rigor and self-discovery in their work. As a colleague, she is the ultimate “go to” person, a smart and insightful problem-solver who always seems to come up with just the right solution. Her choreography has already garnered praise from many quarters — including the dancers that are lucky enough to be cast in it — and has been seen recently in New York and on the China tour. It will be so exciting to see where she takes herself, and the department, in the years to come! 23
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY HELEN P. ALKIRE By Dave Covey
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As we celebrate Helen Alkire’s 100th birthday and reflect on the legacy of this remarkable department, I felt it appropriate that we also acknowledge the extraordinary women Helen was smart enough to assemble to help her build this ground-breaking program. It is impossible to include all of the people involved, so I will share my reflections on those with whom I was a student, then a colleague and now a friend. It is a story of a group of women who were willing to take a chance on me, an untrained body and mind, enabling me to realize a career and life that would not have happened without their love and support. Huge Buckeye fans, if Helen was the head coach, Ann Lilly was the quarterback, defensive lineman and tackle all rolled into one. She was the muscle behind Helen’s intellectual vision, fighting for space, funding and faculty lines necessary to create what would become the Department of Dance. I know Helen was also at the line of scrimmage, ready to block any opponent who dared to stall their drive as they marched down the field but I firmly believe Ann was the leader in pass interceptions.
Lucy Venable and Odette Blum, among many things, were the queens of notation, forming one of the foundational principles of the department centered on dance documentation and Laban notation. In addition to teaching notation, they were sought after as notators in the field and I remember reconstructions of Jose Limon’s There is a Time and Kurt Joos’ The Green Table, which were performed by the students at Mershon Auditorium. They helped preserve the history of modern dance and provided a means to bring it alive in the present. Their work and their teachings will have a lasting impact on the filed for generations to come.
Vera Maletic established the program as a leader in movement analysis. Her courses opened up the body and mind to move and think in ways never before imagined prior to taking her classes. And Vera, along with Lucy was instrumental in acknowledging and embracing this “new” dance technology that has become hugely prominent throughout our curriculum. Angelica Gerbes developed the history program for the department, bringing dance to light from its very beginnings all the way to the most recent contemporary forms. Her work solidified the importance of historical awareness and analysis and continues in earnest in a wide range of courses and research.
Vickie Blaine studied under Helen, and eventually joined the faculty and established the composition area of the curriculum, developing a pedagogy that is emulated throughout the country. She was an avid choreographer and directed the University Dance Company for many years. Upon Helen’s retirement, she succeeded her as chair and continued to lead the department as a Center of Excellence. Rosalind Pierson, ballet dancer extraordinaire, also was a choreographer and took over UDC when Vickie became chair. I was hired shortly thereafter and designed
Helen Alkire waves to her audience at her 100th birthday celebration May 30, 2015.
many concerts in partnership with Rosalind at Mershon Auditorium. Ours was a partnership based in trust, which allowed me to develop tremendously as an artist.
Karen Bell succeeded Vickie as chair and it is Karen who enabled me to take an extensive leave when offered to go design for and tour with Merce Cunningham. This is without a doubt the greatest experience of my life and would not have been possible without Karen’s tremendous support. And finally, there is Louise Guthman. A protégé of Tom Skelton, she was a pioneer in the male-dominated world of lighting design and production. In addition to working with many of the historically prominent figures of modern dance, she traveled the world over with the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. Helen eventually offered Louise a position to establish a program in dance production and lighting design, the first in the country. When I studied lighting with Louise, I had my “Aha!” moment and realized what I wanted to be when I grew up. The rest as they say, is history. Time has passed, they have all retired, we have a wonderful new facility in which to work and technology has totally transformed the way we do most everything. But these women remain the bedrock of principles of what dance in higher education is and what it will become. As time marches on and the challenges of old age rear its omnipotent head, they continue to reach out to help each other, working together today, to move the ball down the field, as they did over 60 years ago. So as we celebrate Helen’s 100th, we indeed celebrate the birthdays of all of these remarkable women. For more details on this celebration, visit dance.osu.edu.
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Pange Lingua by Michael Kelly Bruce, photo courtesy of Catherine Proctor
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The Steadfast Tinder Soldier by Tine Salling, photo courtesy of Catherine Proctor
GIVING, SCHOLARSHIPS Many friends, alumni, emeriti and Department of Dance faculty and staff have sponsored and continue to support the following funds. Thank you for considering adding or increasing your support of our students and programs. Cash is one of our currencies; energy and passion are our others. We promise that for every dollar you give, energy and passion will be returned to this one precious world in which we live. Thank you.
Susan Hadley, Chair
HIGHLIGHT: Vera J. Blaine Special Projects Fund
Department Scholarship Funds
The Vera J. Blaine Special Projects Fund was established in honor of Vera J. Blaine to support creative projects in dance. Since 2002, the fund has awarded an average of $1,700 per year in small grants, annually providing five to six undergraduate and graduate students resources for their senior projects, MFA projects, and travel to study abroad and to present at conferences. Students gain experience with proposal writing, budget planning, event organization and entrepreneurialism; with the support of the fund, students move beyond the borders of the campus with their creative and scholarly research.
Helen P. Alkire Scholarship Fund (#600066) Stella J. Becker Scholarship Fund (#600406) Rosalind Pierson Scholarship Fund (#665802) Catherine Elizabeth Woods Dance Scholarship Fund (#667854)
Department Project Grants Karen A. Bell Dance Fund (#640418) Vera J. Blaine Special Projects Fund (#305892) Presutti-Madison Memorial Dance Fund (#605905) Dance Preservation Fund (#641562) Department of Dance Chair’s Support Fund (#306319)
Online at dance.osu.edu Our safe, secure online giving site allows donors to search or browse through funds to quickly and easily make a gift.
By Phone Call (614) 292-2141 and have your credit or debit card information ready.
By Mail To send a gift by mail, download a giving form. Mail completed form—and check, if applicable—to:
Electronically Scheduled To set up an electronic funds transfer, call (614) 292-2141. This method of giving allows you to make a one-time or recurring gift without writing a check.
The Ohio State University Foundation 1480 West Lane Avenue Columbus, OH 43221 If sending a check, please make payable to The Ohio State University Foundation.
Payroll Deduction In addition to making one-time gifts via credit card or check, Ohio State employees may give to the university by setting up a payroll deduction. To do so, visit the Campus Campaign online giving site or download a Campus Campaign giving form.
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DEPARTMENT OF DANCE 316 Sullivant Hall 1813 North High St. Columbus, Ohio 43210 (614) 292-7977
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DEPARTMENT OF DANCE EVENTS 2015 -2016
2015
2016
Faculty Concert The Mitch Show Friday-Saturday, Oct. 2-3, 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3 Matinee, 3 p.m. Barnett Theatre, Sullivant Hall
MFA Dance Installations I Thursday-Friday, Jan. 21-22, 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan 23, 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21 Reception, 6 p.m. Urban Arts Space
Guest Scholar Lecture and Book Signing with Clare Croft Writing Dancers as Diplomats Monday, Oct. 12, 6 p.m. Barnett Theatre, Sullivant Hall
MFA Dance Installations II Thursday-Friday, Jan. 28-29, 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28 Reception, 6 p.m. Urban Arts Space
MFA Concert Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 29-31, 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31 Matinee, 3 p.m. Barnett Theatre, Sullivant Hall
Winter Concert Thursday-Saturday, Feb, 4-6, 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 Matinee, 3 p.m. Barnett Theatre, Sullivant Hall
AUDITIONS Undergraduate: Friday-Saturday, Oct. 23-24, 2015 Friday-Saturday, Feb. 12-13, 2016
Dance Downtown Friday-Saturday, Nov. 13-14, 8 p.m. Young People’s Concert Friday 10:30 a.m. Capitol Theatre, Riffe Center
Dance @ 30FPS Thursday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Film and Video Theatre, Wexner Center for the Arts
Graduate: Friday-Saturday, Jan. 22-23, 2016
Brazil Repertory Company Informal Showing Thursday, Feb. 25, 7 p.m. Barnett Theatre, Sullivant Hall Spring Concert Thursday-Saturday, April 7-9, 8 p.m. Saturday Matinee 3 p.m. Barnett Theatre, Sullivant Hall AUDITIONS AND COLLEGE DAY DATES FOR 2015-2016
College Day Friday, April 8, 2016 go.osu.edu/collegeday4dance
The Name of The Game by Ann Sofie Clemmensen, photo courtesy of Catherine Proctor.