A shift in the whirlwind at Butler University: dance head Stephan Laurent steps down - Michelle Jarvis will replace chair of dance school while he is on sabbatical

Dance Magazine, Sept, 2003 by Marina Brown

What dance frontiers remain for Stephan Laurent to explore? The longtime chairman of Indianapolis's Butler University dance department has decided to investigate the possibilities. After fifteen years as head of the respected department, Laurent stepped down at the end of August. He is succeeded by Michelle Jarvis, a Buffer graduate and faculty member. Following a one-semester sabbatical, Laurent will resume teaching at Butler as a faculty professor.

Swiss born Laurent, 55, first charted new territory when he left a successful ballet career in Europe, where he danced with Scapino Ballet of Amsterdam and other companies, to earn a dance degree in the U.S. "I would have felt stultified just being a dancing machine," he says. "I wanted to grow as a person and a dancer and there simply weren't any academic dance programs in existence in Europe at that time." He earned a BFA from Southern Methodist University in 1974, then returned for an MFA (summa cum laude, 1979), and has divided his time between the stage and the classroom ever since.

After three years as assistant professor of dance at the University of Wisconsin, Laurent returned to theater for six years as artistic director of the Des Moines Ballet (now Ballet Iowa). At Butler Laurent found that he could pursue his dance education goals and create major theatrical productions all in one place.

Butler's dance program, Founded in 1951, is one of the oldest in the U.S. By the time Laurent arrived as chairman in 1988, it needed rekindling. As a first step Laurent attained accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Dance, an exclusive group of fifty-seven national organizations that includes the Joffrey Ballet School, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and Florida State and Temple Universities. He also developed a BFA in performance (which requires two-thirds of the credits to be in dance), a BS in arts administration, and revamped the department curriculum.

"[Laurent] seemed to be doing everything at once," recalls Harry Kerwin, a professor at Butler for twenty-five years and now professor emeritus. Not only did Laurent publish numerous scholarly articles, he added two modern dance teachers and courses in Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals. He's choreographed sixty productions for the Butler Ballet, the university's pre-professional company, as well as works for the Des Moines Ballet, Repertory Dance Company of the Southwest, and the Scapino Ballet, while maintaining a full-time teaching schedule, lie even developed the department's Web page.

"Stephan is a whirlwind," says Rochelle Zide-Booth, a recently retired Butler professor. "Under his leadership, this department has soared." Zide Booth explains that she's referring not only to enrollment, but to the quality, of the program. "He leads by example," she says, "And that means we all work incredibly hard!"

Today, Butler's dance department (www.butler.edu/dance) has six full-time faculty and an enrollment of one hundred for flail 2003. In addition to the BFA and BS degrees, the program offers a BA in dance with a pedagogy, concentration. Laurent believes that the personal attention afforded Butler's students is a big plus. lie would like to see an increase in the number of foreign students, now at six, and more talent scholarships, which currently number in the mid-twenties.

Artistically, Laurent's ideal is a fusion of ballet and modern dance. "In general, I think Stephan brought us forward from the 'romantic' interests of his predecessors to a more contemporary place in dance performance and in the classroom as well" says Kerwin. He cites some of the body science" and body-placement courses that Laurent championed, and his love of melding modern movement into narrative ballets, something exemplified by Laurent's last major production as department chair, The Willow Maiden.

This production, premiered by the Butler Ballet in April 2003, is a four-act, two-hour, elaborately plotted story ballet with libretto by Laurent's wife, Ellen Denham and original score by Butler music professor Frank Felice. At a time when many university dace departments face budget cuts, Butler has not shied away from investing in major ballets. II committed to underwrite The Willow Maiden's $100,000 production budget--a tab that was subsequently covered entirely by ticket sales. "The university has always been financially supportive of the dance department and its students," says Laurent.

Peter Alexander, dean of Butler's Jordan College of Arts, says the support is warranted. "Resources follow programmatic excellence and the dance department has long been recognized as one of the best programs in the university," he says.

With Jarvis newly at the department helm, some faculty members predict greater emphasis on a modern style but are confident that Butler's balletic traditions, will not be sacrificed. "[Jarvis.] understands the trajectory of the dance world," says Alexander. "I believe we're in good hands."