Senior Marissa Jenkins sits crosslegged on the floor sewing pink ribbons on her pointe shoes as she crams for her political science midterm. Nearby, senior Ashley Siebert poses in a perfect split as a recorded organic chemistry lecture drones through her iPod. Junior Dana Kulik ices the blisters on her toes while typing a literature paper on her laptop. Each of these young women is a serious dancer and a dedicated scholar. Both passions are fostered through the unique experience of Duke Dance.
“The program is a great way to merge academics and the desire to expand on dance training,” Siebert said. “Particularly for those not willing to forego performing opportunities,” added Kulik.
Dance at Duke has become the gateway to technical training where the connections among music, dance and life can be understood and treated as one entity, thus bringing “the dancer” to fruition. This effort at integration brings “the studio side of dance and the academic side together to encourage thought and deeply investigate dance as an intellectual activity to further the understanding of the body as an expressive tool,” said Barbara Dickinson, director of the dance program.
The program is currently working to create a dance major through which “articulate dancers learn to speak through choreography,” Dickinson said. In Dickinson’s words, the department allows dance “to communicate a full-body sensitivity—the physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual understanding so [that] the connection with humanity and knowledge is translated into the arts.”
Situated behind the Marketplace in the Ark, Duke’s dance program has become a haven for the flow of creative energy. Along with ballet, modern and African technique, the program offers a number of other styles on a rotating basis. In order to incorporate the academic side of dance, history and theory courses are available as well.
“Here at Duke we have a group of students and faculty who are intellectually curious about dance. This provides a diverse pool of students and forms a community of both artistic and scholarly colleagues,” said Tyler Walters, associate professor of the practice of dance.
The program’s ability to instill a warm, nurturing atmosphere also bolsters the confidence of its performers. After a long and intense rehearsal period for choreographer José Limon’s A Choreographic Offering, professor of the practice of dance Clay Taliaferro brought his dancers to tears. “Thank you all very much for your hard work,” he said. “José would be proud.”
Taliaferro’s words generated camaraderie among the group and allowed them to know their work was appreciated. Insiders believe that often in the dance world, undermining self-confidence takes center stage while approval is rarely voiced. Frustration with consistency in movement, personal insecurities and the desire for perfection in technique can create a negative self-perception, which often leads to stifled creativity and an unhealthy preoccupation with thinness. “Positive body image in dance should come from each individual’s growth in [the] understanding of the self as the instrument of expression,” Walters said. The uniqueness of Duke’s dance program is seen in its ability to disassociate from “the promotion of training that emphasizes conformity to some arbitrary and unrealistic ideal of the human form,” Walters added.
The faculty’s approachability furthers the program’s nurturing environment. “I have seen teachers coach a student who is a beginner with as much diligence as someone who has had extensive training,” said M’Liss Dorrance, associate professor of the practice of dance.
“There is not a preconceived idea of what the dancer’s goals are. Teachers strive for excellence and yet the program is flexible [in] allowing students to pursue academics while keeping dance alive,” Dorrance said. The Duke dance program allows artistic passion to be pursued while understanding the academic side of dance. The ability to attract students who desire a prestigious education thus “creates a student and a dancer who is thinking. The dancer who is engaged in the world outside of dance is going to translate knowledge and make the deepest form of art,” Dickinson said.
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