Separating Yale's dancers from their dance

The piece, to be performed this weekend at the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA), explores ways in which dance mimics, complicates, and complements music--or in some cases, replaces music altogether. The project seems just as much about choreography as composition. But then, that's the problem: there's no listing for "Dance" in the Blue Book. Yin, like other seniors doing academic work in choreography, dance history, or dance criticism, used the art history and music departments to nourish her interest. "Since there's no dance department, this is the way to do it," she said. This weekend's performance, entitled "Choreographer and Composer: An Evening of Collaborative Works," will feature Yin's project, two other pieces, and a New York University professor as guest speaker. Together, it amounts to what Yin hopes will be an annual event: the Yale College Dance Forum, a chance "for people to present their work and explain what went into it."

At a rehearsal, Yin watched carefully as dancers staged one portion of her "Electric Blue Jello Cauchemare No. 11," in which five different groups danced to five different soundtracks. Yin's choreography made sense of the music, articulating rhythmic correspondences and layering motives on top of each other. As befits the forum-style presentation, the piece is purposefully thoughtful. "I thought it would be good to push the intellectual side of the dance," Yin said. "There are lots of people doing projects--it's never really concentrated together. This is trying to concentrate the work on campus."

Yet the breadth of academic work on dance, as Yin is quick to point out, can't be adequately represented even in a weekend. Dancers have found a place for their interests in classrooms, from Science Hill to Street Hall. Across campus from the ECA, Naomi Koppel, TC '99, is pointing and flexing in front of a screen of computer code, explaining her senior project to a class on computerized music. A computer science major who dances with Taps and A Different Drum, Koppel has found another way to get credit for choreographic work--and especially innovative work, at that. "Nothing like this has been done before," Koppel said, "especially at Yale."

Koppel's project began when she wondered if she could reverse the normal process of composition; that is, make music follow dance instead of making dance follow music. Koppel put colored sensors on the major joints of a group of dancers, who then began a controlled improvisation. A computer translated these movements into coordinates, and these coordinates into musical phrases. As Koppel writes, "The end product will free the dancer to choreograph whatever s/he pleases with confidence that if the desired music does not exist already, it can be created simply by dancing for this camera." Koppel plans to present her work at A Different Drum's spring show.

Another YaleDancer, Jenny Lagerquist, PC '99, comes at dance from a completely different direction. An art history major, she was casting about for senior essay ideas--"I wanted to do something that was really important to me"--when she "happened to read a dance history book that talked a lot about artworks." She approached Art History Professor Jonathan Weinberg, who pointed out that the Yale University Art Gallery houses many of Barbara Morgan's photographs of Martha Graham. Lagerquist plans to discuss these pieces from the perspective of both Graham and Morgan, and to write "not only about the aesthetics of the photograph and the issues of the female photographer in that period, but what the dancer would be thinking about and why the two would get together."

Though Lagerquist is more than pleased with Weinberg's guidance, both Koppel and Yin regret the lack of a dance instructor or mentor to help them. "There are three sections to my project, but only two out of three get faculty support," Koppel said. "As far as the dance goes, I was 100 percent on my own." Yin concurs that without instruction, "you have nowhere to really grow here." For Yin, that's a secondary goal of the Forum: "The administration can begin to think about establishing some kind of program."

Recent years have seen progress--if in baby steps. The theater studies department has always incorporated movement training into its acting and production workshops. Several colleges have begun to offer seminars in choreography and technique. And this semester, the theater studies department offers a history of dance class for the first time in recent memory. Its instructor, Nadine George, BK '93, remembers her own frustrations as a Yale undergrad: "There weren't any opportunities. There were a few college seminars, but as far as the history was concerned, there wasn't much being offered." George came back to Yale after earning her doctorate elsewhere. "They asked me what I wanted to teach," she said, "and I wanted to teach dance history." The department was "nothing but supportive," George said, providing the mirrors, barres, and flooring she needed for a curriculum combining history and exercises to illustrate different topics.

The result is just the kind of enrichment dancers have been looking for. "My knowledge had only been through my experience," YaleDancer Pamela James, JE '01, said. "I had no idea about the different things written on dance. The class definitely helps me see dance from many different viewpoints." George has found more than enough interested and enthusiastic students. "I had to turn away students and I had to let in more than I originally wanted," she said. "I wanted a much smaller class, but everyone had written such wonderful essays and I had such great applications."

Such enthusiasm has both students and faculty thinking about the next step: establishing a more substantial place for dance in Yale's academic offerings. Other faculty members with interest and experience are poised to lend their expertise. Joseph Roach, a professor of theater studies and the Director of Graduate Studies in English, chaired theater dance programs at Sweet Briar College and Washington University in Saint Louis and taught at New York University's department of performance studies; he said he's "interested in the area
of theater dance."

William Deresiewicz, an English professor and former critic for Dance Magazine and The Village Voice, said that there's "a good chance" that he will teach a course in art criticism soon, "probably the year after next." He is also interested in teaching a history of modern dance class, "assuming a serious interest on the part of the students."

As for the place of current and future offerings, students and faculty agree that a dance major--or even a program--is an ambitious goal right now. "I think the proper place for it is in a department of its own, fully funded and valued like any other department," Deresciewcz said. But he added, "That's not likely to happen anytime soon. Clearly, then, the best home for it now is in theater studies." Roach also favors dance as a sub-
set of theater.

Yin noted that there are classes pertinent to dance in departments from art history to literature to computer science, making it difficult for students who want a self-created dance curriculum to locate such classes. "Just group classes in the Blue Book," Yin suggested. While George agreed that the study of dance is "interdisciplinary," she added that "it makes more sense to have a centralized program of study. If theater studies could get a budget for it that would be wonderful."

Budget concerns are, of course, the problem. David Krasner, theater studies director of undergraduate studies, said that he plans to offer a history of dance class again in the next few years, unless funding cutbacks force George to teach acting or directing instead. Additional classes, or a dance "track," are "not likely," he said, "unless we receive more funding."

For now, Yale's dancers keep watching for small improvements. "Change is slow in coming to this campus," Koppel said. The work of some seniors is helping to speed up that change.

Photo of Sidra Bell, SY '01, the protagonist of choreographer Mimi Yin's, PC '99, piece, by Julia Tiernan.

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