Dancers in cap and gown: some leading California professors discuss what the present and the future hold for dance students

Dance Magazine, May, 1994 by Muriel Topaz

Topaz: It seems to me that the ballet training throughout the country now exists on a quite high level; twenty years ago it did not.

Scalin: They are coming in with good training - organized, sequential, and systematic; lovely alignment, clean and not mannered.

Penrod: But they are coming in from the private studio schools. Precollege schools are not addressing dance.

Schlaich: The issue is K-12. How can we possibly get the arts - and dance in particular - to be an integral part of that education?

Topaz: Joan said the key thing: We have to encourage our graduates to do that kind of teaching and to recognize it as a worthwhile use of their skills as well as a valuable contribution to the community.

Scalin: At Loyola we were able to get a requirement of a year of dance for our elementary education majors. When they go into K-6 they're not so frightened about doing movement experiences with their students. They also have access to resources; our music center has some wonderful materials for classroom teachers. And they know where to get excellent artists to help them out when they need assistance.

Schlaich: The other thing we are doing along those same lines is to offer a dance concentration to liberal studies students who are going into K-6. This is under the new California multisubject waver credential. It might help change things.

How can we change the misconceptions

that society has about

dance and dancers?

Penrod: We've got to educate the administrators. Show them that you can get jobs in dance and that it does lead to a fulfilling life. That's not getting through. Even at Irvine, where we have a strong program, the response is, "Oh, it must be so much fun to be in dance." They don't take it seriously.

Lawson: I think it's a bigger problem than that. People don't separate the dance from the dancers. The majority of people look at dance and think the person is making it up as he or she goes along. And that perception keeps us from being viewed as creative artists. It's awfully hard for people to understand that the product is separate from the person making the illusion.

Scalin: The best I can do is live my life in a way that other people can see. They are so surprised to hear an articulate, well-read, passionately committed person. We can't let ourselves be a secret; other people's ideas can be changed by watching us in action. And we can't just talk about it to the converted. Although I don't have the time, I do speak to the Jewish Community Center and to the PTA.

Schlaich: It goes back to the K-12 issue. If every person came through public schools with an experience with dance as well as with the other arts, there would not be an unconverted group.

How are we surviving the budget

cuts?

Schlaich: Some programs in California have been totally closed down. I am sure that's true of many other places, too. It is pretty scary because we are small to begin with.

Penrod: On our campus there is a task force which is recommending things like eliminating departments or merging schools together. We don't know what this task force is going to recommend. We hope we will survive, but we don't know. For the last three years we have had to cut seven percent each year. This year our dean came up with a $300,000 deficit, so we not only take a seven percent cut, we also have to make up the deficit. Where do you cut? We have already been cutting for three years.