Defending Duke Dance

Although Wheeler Frost's March 3 column "Get rid of the shamanism major" claims that "[Duke's] problem is that we are infatuated with providing diverse and various outlets for learning about anything possible," the term "liberal" comes from the Latin "pertaining to the free man" (OED). A liberal arts education, then, implies not only academic rigor but freedom.

I agree that University study should entail "concern with the most important truths we may be able to grasp," but there are diverse lenses through which to approach these truths. If dance isn't a worthy lens, what about theater studies? Art history? Literature? To ignore any of these disciplines would be to ignore the immense impact they have on this world.

To deny students the opportunity to study dance is to ignore its use as expression and protest by slaves on southern plantations, to ignore the revolutionary artistry of Balanchine or Graham, to ignore the notion that art-any art-has power that is not only intrinsic but political, religious, cultural and social. Whether Frost personally sees dance as "among the best of what has been thought and said"-and thus worthy or unworthy of study as a major-is irrelevant.

For an "elite liberal arts college" like Duke to have a dance major invokes the very "liberal" ideals Duke was founded on. In his 1984 final address to Duke faculty, then-president Terry Sanford said "I do not want us to fear individuality, to stifle one whiff of free expression or to ever lack the sureness of the self-confidence that has permitted us to go our own peerless way." With the dance major, Duke continues in this courageous tradition of educational freedom.

I would suggest Frost broaden his horizons and accept that dance has been and continues to be a worthy field of study, especially at a university like Duke. And, if he has some spare room is his fall schedule, perhaps he should think about taking a dance course.

Liz Brady

Trinity '08