Quality of Illinois dance program growing by leaps and bounds
By Melissa Mitchell, News Bureau Staff Writer 217-333-5491; melissa@illinois.edu
The path that leads from the UI campus to the hub of the dance world – New York City – might just be a little shorter in the future for students and alumni of the university’s dance department. That’s because the department – with assistance from the Office of the Provost – has engineered the construction of a human bridge. That living, breathing link is Tere O’Connor. Arguably one of the most innovative dance makers working today, the award-winning O’Connor is known for his formidable presence on the New York and international dance scenes, where his signature works, with their edgy and provocative, non-narrative spins, are often embraced by audiences and critics alike. The choreographer’s many honors include a 1993 Guggenheim fellowship and three New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards. In April, O’Connor is curating “The Nothing Festival,” a two-week run of performances by eight dancers at New York’s Dance Theater Workshop.
Festival Dance 2007 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1-3 Colwell Playhouse Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Highlights of this annual sampler of recent faculty work include a new work by Sara Hook and New York choreographer David Parker; the premiere of a collaboration by Cynthia Oliver, Ollie Watts Davis and the UI Black Chorus; and dances by Erika Randall, Linda Lehovec and Rebecca Nettl-Fiol. |
In addition to creating works for his own company, O’Connor has received commissions by dancers and companies from around the world, including Mikhail Baryshnikov. Though his appointment officially began last fall, O’Connor arrived on campus this semester. That’s because the position allows the choreographer to keep one foot positioned in the academic realm, the other in the professional dance world. Such appointments are fast becoming part of a growing trend nationwide, according to dance department head Jan Erkert, a choreographer, teacher and author who also joined the UI faculty, from Chicago’s Columbia College, last fall. The new, more fluid appointments enable artists to remain active in their fields while also feeding their creative spirits in resource-rich environments and serving as models for developing, younger artists.
“Generally, the level of dance in universities is improving because more well established artists are beginning to turn to the university as a place to do work,” Erkert said. “Universities are beginning to open their guidelines to include what the arts are … instead of just saying, this is what we are and the arts have to fit into it.” Erkert said the UI is gaining a reputation in performing arts circles for its holistic approach to supporting artists – within academic departments and in tandem with the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
“How we’re different – and I think it’s really exciting – is that combination,” Erkert said, which is taking place in large part through the efforts of Krannert Center director Mike Ross and his staff. “Mike is building a tradition of process-based art, bringing artists in to workshop for long periods of time … fostering new work. “Great art isn’t created if artists are only asked to produce, produce, produce … artists need open spaces to research and explore new ideas,” said Erkert, who knows more than a little about the process, through years of experience with her own dance company. The hiring of O’Connor and Erkert, who had been a frequent guest artist at the UI, was part of a continuing campaign to boost the quality of Illinois’ dance program. Erkert credits former interim department head Sara Hook with negotiating the somewhat unusual terms of O’Connor’s contract. O’Connor said Hook’s broad vision for the department, and his potential role in contributing to it, “hooked” him from the get-go. “Sara was asking the right questions about what the department should be … ‘What’s next?’ ” he said. “She seemed to have a world view that was not dated … something more progressive.” And in that world view, he said, there was plenty of room for him to continue to explore his own brand of “research,” which in dance parlance, translates as the background work leading to the creation of a dance. “My own (research interest) is to say, ‘What can dance do?’ “ O’Connor noted that for him, “research and teaching are entwined.” But if the teaching side were to be unraveled and dissected from the research, what drives his teaching style, he said, is his interest in “getting inside the students’ heads.” From there, he functions much the same way a director interacts with actors. “I feel a responsibility to students … to guide them along their own paths … not necessarily toward my own area of expertise.” In addition to landing O’Connor at Illinois, Hook reeled in another big catch while interim head: a $10,000 grant to reconstruct dance legend Bill T. Jones’ 1989 masterwork “D Man in the Waters.” The grant, which also will support master classes and lecture-demonstrations at area schools, is from the American Masterpieces: Dance-College Component, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts with Dance/USA. The piece will be reconstructed and taught to UI dancers this fall by Catherine Cabeen, and performed at Krannert Center in 2008. In the meantime, campus audiences will have the chance to see the famed choreographer’s more recent work on Jan. 27, when the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company performs its evening-length dance “Blind Date” at 7:30 p.m. at Krannert Center. Erkert said Hook’s groundwork in securing the grant to reconstruct the earlier piece by Jones, along with O’Connor’s hiring, set the stage for endless possibilities during her own tenure as department head. “My agenda is to get the UI on the national map as a leader of new paradigms in dance and dance education, and Tere’s someone who can do that, Erkert said. “I want this to be the vibrant hub of art-making. And I think we’re well positioned to do so right now because of the extraordinary confluence of such a great faculty.” Erkert said that in addition to teaching dance composition, O’Connor is eager to work collaboratively with faculty members within the department and the College of Fine and Applied Arts, as well as with others from a range of disciplines. This spring, he’s teaching a composition course with landscape architecture professor David Hays in which students will explore questions about space and time. “Tere is also interested in curating avant-garde, grassroots artists, and we might develop a web-broadcast performance series, so students could share work from around the world,” Erkert said. Other ideas for tapping O’Connor’s talent and experience include the launch of an “MFA Semester in New York” program. As currently envisioned, O’Connor would serve as the principal mentor to participating students. He also plans to work with alumni in New York, starting this fall when he choreographs a work that they will then perform at Krannert Center. Still other potential projects could include the development of a community engagement program in the Champaign-Urbana area similar to the New York-based Theater Development Fund’s “Open Doors” program in which O’Connor participates. The mentorship program links top theater and dance professionals with small groups of high school students who have no prior experience with the performing arts. “Now that Tere’s on board, we’ll work together to see what to tackle first,” Erkert said. Whatever it turns out to be, it’s bound to move Illinois just a little closer to the center of the dance universe.
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