Hometown: Woodstock, VT
Current city: Seattle, WA
Age: 52
College and degree: 2 years at UCLA 1979 – 81; BFA from the University of Utah in 1992
Graduate school and degree: Ohio State University MFA 1994; I was 32 when I graduated
How you pay the bills: I work at the University of Washington as an associate professor and the director of the dance program. I also still teach at festivals and workshops and choreograph at schools and for companies around the world.
All of the hats you wear: Dancer, choreographer, teacher, chair, wife, doggy owner, friend – social life is very important to me. I believe in balance.
Non-dance work you have done in the past: Fitness/waitress/produce manager at health food store/sales for hand blown glass gallery/flower arranger
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Describe your dance life in your….
20s – In my 20s dance WAS my life. I came to dance late. I began in college (a few classes in high school). I received a scholarship to a dance company in NYC for a summer, went there, and never left NYC. I dropped out of college at 19 and stayed in NYC for 7 years, working as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. I have always taught, even as a child, so it has been an important part of my life. My network was amazing back then in NYC – I was part of the PS 122 scene as a dancer and was around some of the major artists of the time; I worked with many wonderful people from David Dorfman to Chris Burnside and had my own pick up company. I was educated by the now legendary Laurie Uprichard on how to produce my concerts (via DTW).
30s – In my 30s I returned to school and felt like the luckiest person on the planet. I think it was when I was able to mature as a dancer and artist and was able synthesize my knowledge thus far. I got a full fellowship to OSU so I didn’t have much debt when I got out. HINT – GO TO GRAD SCHOOL AS AN OLDER STUDENT. YOU BRING SOMETHING TO THE DEPARTMENT THAT THEY WANT AND THEY WILL OFTEN OFFER YOU FUNDING. I think that, for the most part, getting an MFA when you are 22 is a waste of money and a lot of people will disagree. But I think grad school is more meaningful if you have wisdom under your belt.
I got my first job out of grad school at a performing arts school in Florida of all places and it was an amazing school even though it was in the middle of nowhere. From there, a job at University of South Florida. My 30s were filled with a LOT of teaching and making dances and traveling to teach and make dances.
40s – I got my dream job at 40 in Seattle at the University of Washington and knew I had found home both geographically and in terms of my job. I continued to make a lot of dances, perform and work with wonderful dance artists, travel all over the world to make work and teach. I teach at a program with a ground breaking MFA program and a BA program. Our BA s often double and triple major so their lens is broad and they don’t live in a vacuum. I love my mentorship role and learn much from them everyday.
How has travel informed your work as a dancer and artist?
VERY Much. Went on a Fulbright to Istanbul two years ago that changed my life. Have spent time in Paraguay both in a conservatory and on the streets in a community center in a village. Have performed most recently with Mark Haim in Paris, at ADF and at the Joyce in NYC which, at 50-52 was not something I thought I would be doing. You are never too old! Meeting people is the most enriching part of the experience, and discovering new cultures.
What are the key skills a “modern dancer” needs in 2014?
Wow – you need to know how to do everything. I think eclectic training is key. Versatility. I would say this is true for ballet too. Hip hop, contemporary (whatever that means), Gaga, yoga, pilates, gyrotonics, ballet, contact improvisation, dancing with and without socks :) – no joke. Somatic practices, anatomical awareness, and an understanding of your own body. How does my body work most efficiently? What are my strengths and what are my physical limitations, and how do those become strengths? For example, one of the most incredible dancers in the Doug Varone company had almost no outward rotation, but he didn’t try to force it. He worked with it and you would NEVER look at him dancing and say, “gee, he doesn’t have any rotation.”… choreographic skills. Most choreographers today work on some level with dancers asking that they make material and then the choreographer crafts the material. One of the key skills you need to have is agency – I know, that doesn’t seem like a skill, but you need to know where you draw the line. What am I willing and not willing to do both physically and emotionally? Everyone has a different line. You are your own agent and you need to advocate for yourself. Do not let yourself be taken advantage of. I learned early on that I did not do well with authoritarian, sexist choreographers. I knew that I had to be in a more democratic environment. Other friends I know thrived in those environments and didn’t mind putting up with those things because what they were getting from these now legendary artists was incredible. I just didn’t have the patience. You need to know these things about yourself. Don’t want to wrap your leg around your head for a choreographer? Don’t.
How have somatic practices informed your work – as a performer, teacher, and choreographer?
Hugely. I teach experiential anatomy in technique class, and I incorporate many somatic practices into my classes. Study them all, discover what works for you, and employ them often!
What is on your plate/on your calendar for the next year’s time?
Hahaha. Well, as chair, we are prepping for our 50th anniversary of the founding of the dance program and the 25th of our MFA program with a year of celebrations. We have a BA revision in progress to make the BA more flexible for our students. As an artist, I am making a new dance on Cornish Preparatory School dancers in collaboration with musician Paul Moore, and making a new work next spring at the Florida Dance Festival. As a teacher, I am teaching my normal load in winter and spring and will travel this fall to Istanbul again to teach and give a talk, and make a solo on a graduate student there. I will be teaching at festivals, including one in Italy. As a researcher, I am co-authoring a paper on language in the technique class, and, separately, looking at how choreography that is not overtly emotional, creates emotive responses for the viewer. Those are a few things.
Can you talk a little bit about your interest in writing on dance?
I am interested in embodied writing. Some of us do embodied writing in technique classes. I teach a course called “The Creative Process” that does many things but one thing we spend time on is moving and describing movement both on ourselves and on others, and on writing about a moment in a dance rather than a whole dance. Student reviews of dance are painful to read if they don’t have the building blocks first. They read a lot about how to write about dance. I am interested in a scaffolding approach combined with intuitive language. I am interested in the lexicon of each dance (as written about so beautifully by Marcia Siegel in “Rethinking Movement Analysis"). I do free writes daily in my history course and then ask students to analyze their writing at the end of the quarter to see what surfaced as they gained content knowledge and improved their writing skills. This is a topic I could write about for many pages. But my real interest is to help people be better at writing about what they see for historical and preservation purposes.
In 2014, what is your relationship with technology (as a dancer, artist, marketing your work, etc)?
I collaborate with others technologically at this point. I can’t keep up on changes but love to work with digital/media artists. For work, I use the basics. I designed an online course for our department, for non-majors, that was a huge and wonderful undertaking and good for my brain. It is in its fourth year, has 145 students per quarter with a waiting list of about 100.
How would you describe the modern dance scene in Seattle?
Vibrant, diverse, thriving, exciting, constant.
Final advice to young dancers:
Several years ago my father and I were talking (he has been my greatest advocate and fan), and I said, “I can’t believe I had the nerve to move to NYC at 19, and start my own company when I was 21. What was I thinking?” and he said, “You didn’t know any better not to.”
I think that sums it up. Don’t talk yourself out of things. Just do them. Don’t say, “Oh, this can’t be done,” or, “Oh, it will fail.”
Read the first half of Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland regularly.
And read this: http://www.artistsu.org/making/#.VCCrzfldWSr.
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Brava Jill & Jen...so proud of both of you. Phyllis
Posted by: Phyllis Haskell Tims | 10/11/2014 at 09:56 AM
Jennifer,
I remember you from the early 90s at UofU and am now in Portland, OR. Maybe we can connect. wendy@wahkeenaarts.com
-Wendy Thompson MFA '91
Posted by: Wendy Thompson | 05/22/2015 at 01:58 PM