Jump for Joy—½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï Launches Dance Major
½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï has won an $800,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to strengthen its dance program with more classes, more workshops, and—pending approval from the faculty—a freestanding dance major.
“I am thrilled by what the Mellon Foundation’s support will mean for dance at ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï,” says Prof. Carla Mann ’81 [dance 1995–].
The grant will allow the college to expand faculty positions in the dance department from 2 to 2.5, enabling professors to teach 12–13 courses a year. It also sets the stage for us to offer a dance major—something ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï dancers have long hoped for. ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï will launch a search for a new tenure-track professor to begin in the fall. After that, the dance department will devise and propose a major.
The grant will also allow ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï to invite renowned dancers to campus for artistic residencies, during which they will put on master workshops, lectures, and performances.
Interest in dance among ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï students is strong and growing. In spring 2014, some 151 ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï students enrolled in dance courses. And while ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï has long allowed students to pursue interdisciplinary majors such as dance–theatre, dance–literature, or dance–classics, it has never offered a stand alone dance major.
“Dance is central to the liberal arts experience,” Prof. Mann says. “It sparks innovation across disciplines through the way it teaches students to interrogate historical, aesthetic, and social issues; to engage kinesthetically with space, time, and movement; to approach solving problems with creativity and rigor; and to pursue productively both individual and collaborative endeavors.”
With the opening of the Performing Arts Building, ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï now boasts outstanding facilities for dance, including a dedicated dance studio with a sprung wood floor, a flexible performance laboratory space named in honor of the late Prof. Massee, and a retrofitted stage in the old theatre building.
“This is going to be a remarkable time for dance at ½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï,” Mann says. “I can’t wait!”
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