Dance in Saratoga Springs
Page 2
The Saratoga County Fair flourished during the patriotic 1940s. In addition to exhibits of livestock and produce, popular entertainment was important to lift everyone’s spirits. On the vaudeville stage, the revue “Salute to Freedom featured a flock of the world’s most beautiful girls dancing in gorgeous gowns specially designed for this production.”13
In the 1950s, the Saratoga Day Lily Festival was introduced. Reminiscent of the Floral Fêtes, this new festival was another effort to repair the city’s reputation and boost local morale. The Katrina Trask Garden Club and the Civic League sponsored the festival that marked the 150th anniversary of Congress Park. Mr. John H. MacGregor was the author and director of a lavish historical pageant performed outside in Congress Park. Dozens of young women danced and sang in honor of Flora, the Queen of Saratoga Springs, and her court.14
Dance as entertainment has been documented in Saratoga Springs since the early 1800s. Dance as performance art came later. Skidmore College, serious dance teachers and, eventually, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center are segments of the whole picture. All these components are intertwined in the developing story of dance in Saratoga Springs.
Chapter 2
SKIDMORE COLLEGE DANCE DEPARTMENT
Miss Lucy Scribner began The Young Women’s Industrial Club of Saratoga Springs in 1903. The school offered girls a curriculum that included courses in fields that were considered acceptable for young women at that time. They studied typing, book keeping, textile arts and music, and the girls learned folk dances in physical education class. This secondary school was renamed the Skidmore School of Arts in 1911. Dancing in the style of Isadora Duncan was particularly popular, and dancers were featured in the May Day festivals and other celebrations.
Skidmore College for women opened its downtown campus in 1922. By the 1950s, the campus had extended to over eighty buildings on Circular Street, Union Avenue and several side streets. Dance was still an informal physical education activity that took place in the gymnasium.
The college presented visiting dance artists at some of its public events. In 1929, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn performed at a benefit for Skidmore College sponsored by the Physical Education Club.15
During the 1950s, the Skidmore Music Series presented a performance of the José Limón Dance Company, and the Skidmore Dance Club presented Martha Myers in the Spa Little Theatre.16
Skidmore’s “new campus” was constructed on a one-thousand-acre property that was deeded to the college by trustee J. Erik Jonsson. Groundbreaking began in 1963, and by 1968, much of the new campus was functional. The current coeducational campus opened in 1971, and soon after it included a studio facility designated especially for dance.17
May Day celebration dancers, 1930s. Bolster Collection, Saratoga Springs Historical Society.
SKIDMORE DANCE PROGRAM BEGINS
Dance was incorporated into the academic curriculum in 1969. The first full-time dance faculty member was Isabel Brown, a Vassar College alumna with an MS from Smith College. Professor Brown had training in ballet, modern dance and the south Indian classical dance form Bharatanatyam. Jody Lunt was engaged as a part-time dance teacher. Dance classes took place in the Regent Street gymnasium and in the Lake Avenue Armory building. Initially, only modern dance was taught, but in 1971 Isabel Brown introduced courses in classical ballet, Bharatanatyam, jazz and dance history.
Although dance was still included in physical education, the dance major was established the following year. Students majoring in dance chose from three areas of concentration: General Dance, Pre-Professional Dance Therapy and Teaching. During this period, two renowned modern dancers from the Martha Graham Dance Company, Mary Hinkson and Ethel Winter, taught as guest artists.
Notable among the first dance alumnae are Lila York (1970), Jeanne Bresciani (1972) and Robert Tracy (1977). Ms. York is a former principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. She travels internationally staging Taylor’s work and choreographs for major ballet and modern dance companies. Ms. Bresciani is the founder and director of the Isadora Duncan International Institute and travels around the world to lecture and perform. She has maintained a close relationship with the Skidmore Dance Department. The late Robert Tracy performed with Rudolf Nureyev and Friends in New York City, and he maintained a life-long friendship with Mr. Nureyev. Tracy was a well-respected dance writer whose work appeared in Vanity Fair, the New York Times and other publications. Robert Tracy authored three books on dance: Balanchine’s Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses (Simon and Schuster, 1983); Goddess: Martha Graham’s Dancers Remember (Limelight, 1987); and Ailey Spirit: The Journey of an American Dance Company (Limelight, 2004).18
Professor Isabel Brown, the first dance faculty member. Photo by Emma Dodge Hanson.
BUILDING A DANCE FACULTY AND A CURRICULUM
Everyone in the dance profession knew that Saratoga Springs was the summer home of the New York City Ballet. There was also a growing awareness of Skidmore College and its developing dance program. This was due in part to the caliber of the college’s guest artists and Oleg Briansky’s popular summer ballet school.
In 1973, Skidmore College added a famous name to the faculty, and the professional dance community really took notice. Melissa Hayden, the preeminent ballerina from the New York City Ballet, joined the dance faculty after receiving an honorary doctorate from Skidmore College. In her studio on Broadway, she taught Balanchine technique to Skidmore students, as well as public ballet classes and a BOCES program for talented schoolchildren. Ms. Hayden also initiated the Skidmore Dance Month, a summer intensive program offering ballet with Ms. Hayden, Ole Fatum (Denmark) and Juan Anduze (Puerto Rico); modern dance with Paul Sanasardo; and Bharatanatyam with Isabel Brown. She insisted on professional-quality pianists in the studios and brought in Robert Ashby from New York City and Russian pianist Leo Kakurin for ballet and Ralph Gilbert for modern classes. Melissa Hayden left Skidmore in 1976.
In what was originally the athletic field house, a new dance facility opened in 1975. The dance faculty now had two large, state-of-the-art studios with very high ceilings, sprung floors, full mirrors, grand pianos, two small offices and dressing rooms. Performances were occasionally held in the adjoining gym that was adapted with a portable stage and lighting. At that time, the only theater on campus was a temporary space built adjacent to the gymnasium. This intimate “black box” was used by the Theater Department while the much larger Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater was being built.
Skidmore ballet dancers in the studio. Photo by Steve J. Nealey.
That temporary building is still very much in use and has evolved into the Skidmore Dance Theater. Administered solely by the Dance Department, the Skidmore Dance Theater has enabled the department to offer forty to fifty dance performances per year on its own stage.
A new assistant professor of dance, Elisabeth Carroll, joined the faculty in 1976. She was well known in the profession as an important dancer and a particularly fine ballet teacher; again, the dance world was impressed with Skidmore College. Trained in France and Monte Carlo, Elisabeth Carroll had performed as a soloist with the American Ballet Theatre and later became a principal dancer with the Harkness Ballet. Her husband, Felix Smith, also joined the faculty and taught jazz, partnering and choreography. In addition, Smith served as production manager for performances. During the January term, Elisabeth Carroll and a select group of ballet students traveled to Monte Carlo to study at the Princess Grace Academy of Ballet.
Moss Cohen, another well-known dancer from the prestigious Martha Graham Dance Company, joined the modern dance faculty in 1980. Cohen introduced the dynamic Graham technique to the curriculum. Mary DiSanto-Rose, PhD and DEd from Temple University, joined in 1981. She specialized in two diverse areas: dance education for the young child and staging the works of modern dance pioneers, such as Doris Humphrey and José Limón.
Mary DiSanto-Rose, associate professor of dance. Photo by Emma Dodge Hanson.
With a faculty o
f strong technique teachers in both ballet and modern dance, Skidmore dancers progressed rapidly. Kenneth Topping was a student who discovered dance at Skidmore with Professors Brown, DiSanto-Rose and Cohen. After graduating in 1984, Topping went on to perform for many years as a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. He then led the Graham Ensemble and served as the director of the Martha Graham School.19
During this period, dance was a program of the Department of Exercise Science, Dance and Athletics. The dance program was integrated into the college-wide curriculum by offering courses in liberal studies, non-Western studies and arts requirements. These courses expanded the reach of dance to hundreds of students across the campus. “Stravinsky and Balanchine: Union of the Minds” was a course introduced by Isabel Brown and Isobel Williams. Professor Charles Joseph, an expert on the work of Igor Stravinsky, later joined Isabel Brown to teach this course. Several New York City Ballet dancers were brought to campus to speak about their firsthand experiences working with Balanchine and Stravinsky. Another liberal studies course, “Women, Creativity and the Performing Arts,” was taught by Mary DiSanto-Rose, Carolyn Anderson and Wilma Hall. Dance contributed to the non-Western curriculum with classical Indian dance and African dance forms. The majority of dance technique classes fulfilled the new all-college arts requirement.
Moss Cohen left Skidmore in 1987, and Antoinette (Toni) Smith, MFA in dance from Temple University, was added to the modern dance faculty. She specialized in a very different style of modern dance, and she introduced release technique, somatics and body-mind centering.
Isabel Brown had served as coordinator of dance from 1978 to 1990. Mary DiSanto-Rose became the first director of the dance program in 1990, which gave dance more autonomy, although it was still a part of the Department of Exercise Science, Dance and Athletics. Both Mary DiSanto-Rose and Antoinette Smith were active in dance advocacy organizations and panels, and they had a network of contacts and growing influence in dance in upstate New York.20
Felix Smith retired in 1991 and was replaced by Debra Fernandez. Professor Fernandez had already built a reputation as a choreographer for dance and theater. She was known locally as a jazz teacher for both the Briansky summer program and the New York State Summer School of the Arts. Originally a theater student, Debra Fernandez began her dance study at the University of South Florida, where she earned a BA in dance. In addition to teaching both jazz and ballet, she taught choreography and a course in music for dance.
Elisabeth Carroll retired from Skidmore in 1992. Another experienced ballet professional from the American Ballet Theatre, Denise Warner Limoli then joined the department. She was previously on the ballet faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the North Carolina School of the Arts. Professor Limoli focused on rigorous training and on expanding Skidmore’s ballet curriculum to include courses in pointe, character dance, men’s technique, pas de deux, repertoire and ballet pedagogy.
Debra J. Fernandez, professor of dance. Photo by Emma Dodge Hanson.
Denise Warner Limoli, associate professor of dance. Photo by Emma Dodge Hanson.
Mary Harney, artist in residence. Photo by Emma Dodge Hanson.
This decade produced many successful alumni, including Eric Handman (1991). After graduating from Skidmore, Mr. Handman performed with Doug Varone and Dancers, Nicholas Leichter and other modern choreographers. He earned an MFA from the University of Utah, where he is now an assistant professor of modern dance.
Mary Harney joined the modern dance faculty as an artist in residence in 2000. Ms. Harney received a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase. A native of Schenectady, she taught previously at Union College and for the New York State Summer School of the Arts. At Skidmore, Ms. Harney teaches modern technique, beginning ballet and choreography and is a prolific choreographer for dance concerts.
In the spring of 2007, Isabel Brown, Skidmore’s first dance professor, retired. Professor Brown was celebrated by a large gathering of dance alumni and colleagues. In the Spring Dance Concert, guest artists from the American Ballet Theatre appeared with the students of the Classical Ballet Workshop in Swan Lake, Act II, danced in Professor Brown’s honor.
Isabel Brown had been a constant driving force in dance at Skidmore College. In her own words, she “worked to establish dance in academe as a liberal arts course of study with its own curriculum, its own complex body of knowledge and its many possible interdisciplinary connections.”
After thirty-six years of building the dance curriculum, Professor Brown finally saw her dream of autonomy for dance realized. In 2005, the dance program left Exercise Science and Athletics and became the independent Department of Dance.
Rubén Graciani, associate professor of dance. Photo by Emma Dodge Hanson.
The most recent addition to the dance faculty is Rubén Graciani. Graciani earned an MFA in dance from the University of Maryland–College Park and taught previously at Ohio University in Athens. He was trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Juilliard School and SUNY Purchase. Graciani performed professionally with the Mark Morris Dance Company, the Joe Goode Performance Group and Company Stefanie Batten-Bland, among others. At Skidmore College, he has taught modern dance, partnering and choreography. An award-winning choreographer, Rubén Graciani has recently established his own dance company, RG Dance Project, in New York City.21
In addition to the studio courses, the dance faculty teaches dance history and the Senior Dance Capstone course. Dance history is taught in a two-course sequence, followed by the first semester of the Dance Capstone course. Students learn research techniques and the specifics of writing for dance in these courses.
The Dance Department offers students unlimited opportunities to create work, which is a major focus of the dance curriculum. Students practice their craft in the improvisation classes and then move into the Choreography I and II courses. The Senior Dance Capstone course is the final opportunity for the dance major to produce a major work. After graduation, many Skidmore dance alumni have continued their own choreographic projects, and several have taken the big step of starting their own companies.
Although ballet and modern dance technique courses are the foundation of the training curriculum, there are other forms included as well. Ethnic forms such as African and Indian dance, tap and jazz styles, yoga and Pilates courses and anatomy and injury prevention complete the curriculum. These classes are taught by a group of experts such as the master drummer from Ghana, Yacub Ady; Veena Chandra from north India; experienced Broadway performers Debra Pigliavento and Tina Baird; Meghan Del Prete (2002), a Level Five certified instructor in Romana Pilates; and Sarah DiPasquale, a licensed physical therapist who specializes in working with dancers.
One unique aspect of dance at Skidmore College is that all students on campus are able to participate in the department. Any student may enroll in an appropriate level technique class and perform or choreograph alongside the dance majors. The majority of dance majors at Skidmore College pursue another major as well, so the dancers have a variety of influences that enhance their artistic exploration.
Skidmore dancers have excelled in many fields after graduavtion, such as teaching, arts administration, lighting design and physical therapy, as well as performing and choreography. Dancer, choreographer and professor Eric Handman, class of ’91, expressed his thoughts on his time at Skidmore College:
Without knowing it, I began learning how to teach while learning how to dance at Skidmore. My most memorable teachers were collegial, authentic, grounded, dynamic and undogmatic. They empowered me to uncover, discover and recover myself. What seemed like their knowledge at the time, feels like their wisdom now. They taught with character. Eventually it ignited mine. An enduring lesson from Skidmore: you teach through your character, and your passion gives value to what you teach. The value the Skidmore community placed on making art was just as transformational for me as the art itself. And the importance of being considered a valued member of a me
aningful community was the most empowering and life-changing feeling. That experience is what I want for my students. It’s in my bones because of my time at Skidmore.22
In addition to the dance faculty, the Department of Dance has a musical staff that plays for ballet and modern dance classes and often performs live in the dance concerts. Musicians Ashby and Kakurin, who came to Skidmore College with Melissa Hayden, both left in the early 1990s. Judith Fitzner Atchinson was the primary modern accompanist when Michael Limoli joined as ballet pianist in 1992. Carl Landa became director of music in 2000 and brought in Patricia Hadfield, Carol Ann Elze-Sussdorff, Adrian Cohen and the late Oleg Moston.
In technical production, Felix Smith and Don Mandigo worked in lighting design and stage management. Lori Dawson, MFA from Amherst College, was a lighting designer in New York City before being hired by Skidmore College in 1998. As the technical director, lighting designer and manager of the Dance Theater, she has developed and greatly improved the dance theater facility. Ms. Dawson created the course Dance Production, a comprehensive course for dancers to learn about lighting design and producing dance performances. Peter Kobor is the stage manager for the Dance Theater and assistant to the technical director. He works concurrently in the Skidmore Theater Department and has designed lighting for dance performances both in the Dance Theater and in the Zankel Music Center. Peter Kobor credits his close friend, the late Zachary Solov, as his mentor in theater arts.
GUEST ARTISTS
Throughout the years, the Skidmore Department of Dance has invited dozens of important professional guest artists to teach technique and to choreograph new work for the students. Some of these artists had already been introduced to Skidmore College through the summer dance residencies of the Office of the Dean of Special Programs. Others were professional colleagues of the dance faculty and were engaged directly by the department. Guest artists visited the dance history classes, and many gave public lectures/demonstrations in the Dance Theater.