College Studio Dedicated To Educator - Fannie Helen Melcer, Rhode Island College - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, April, 2001 by Patricia G. Cohen

When a mentor passes on, it is time to mourn, but also to celebrate a life and legacy. Dr. Fannie Helen Melcer mentored hundreds of students and colleagues at Rhode Island College, offering them new and unexpected ways of perceiving dance and dancers. Her approach to dance and dance education was inclusive and artistically vigorous. So it was particularly appropriate that Rhode Island College paid tribute to this influential educator by dedicating a dance studio to her in the newly completed John Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts.

In an evening full of dancing and reminiscing, members of the Rhode Island College Dance Company joined Clay Taliaferro & Dancers to celebrate Melcer's inspired teaching and commitment. Dr. Taliaferro, the well-known dancer and educator who was a close friend and artistic associate of Melcer, praised her "infectious generosity of spirit" and inspiration, which awakened unanticipated creativity in his own earliest choreographic efforts.

As part of the evening's Fannie Helen Melcer Memorial Concert, Taliaferro recreated a version of Dance in FM, a 1978 piece dedicated to Melcer, for the Rhode Island College Dance Company, adding a section that featured alumni of the company. The evening was made possible through the generosity of Melcer's colleague and companion Billie Ann Burrill, professor emerita and founder of the dance department.

After joining the faculty in the 1950s, Melcer became artistic director of the Rhode Island College Dance Company and was appointed director of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics. Her contributions included initiating the practice of bringing in professional choreographers to set dances on the company and instituting a public school touring program.