Artist Profile #99: Donna White (Salt Lake City, UT)

Photo: Diane Cotsonas

 

The Path to Here: An Interview with Donna White

From Blog Director Jill Randall:

In April 2014, I had the opportunity to interview Donna White in person, before she retired from the Department of Modern Dance at the University of Utah. (Donna still continues her work as Associate Dean in the Graduate School.) Donna was a beloved professor of mine. In particular, in my toughest moment, she was the one that did not turn me away, but offered to help figure out how to connect my dance training with my work in the community. For this, I am eternally grateful. Because of Donna and her belief in dance – and me as her student – I have stayed in the modern dance field these past 18 years. 

Here you will read Donna’s story about becoming a modern dancer, touring, teaching, and developing into an arts administrator. Whether you personally know Donna or not, readers can still appreciate reading about her journey over the past five decades.

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Donna M. White has been on the Modern Dance faculty at the University of Utah since 1996. She served as Chair of the Department of Modern Dance for 8 years, from 2002-2010, and stepped down from that role to accept the appointment of Associate Dean of the Graduate School beginning July 1, 2010. Along with her duties as Associate Dean, Donna remains on the faculty of Modern Dance where she is a Professor with tenure.

A native of Phoenix, Arizona Donna trained in New York City and later received both her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Utah. She is also a Certified Laban Movement Analyst (CLMA) and has completed PhD course work in Performance Psychology. As a professional performer and choreographer, she danced and toured extensively both nationally and internationally with the Ririe- Woodbury Dance Company (Salt Lake City, UT) for twelve years and also danced with Tandy Beal and Company (Santa Cruz, CA) for many years. Donna has been the recipient of a National Endowment Individual Choreographer's Fellowship and has choreographed for many dance departments, solo artists, and companies including, Ririe-Woodbury, Repertory Dance Theatre, Utah Ballet, and Performing Dance Company. Donna has been a guest teacher at numerous workshops and institutions including the University of Hawaii, Tulane University, the Beijing Dance Academy, and the Staatliche Ballettschule in Berlin, Germany.

While serving as Chairperson of the Department of Modern Dance, Donna became increasingly interested in academic administration. She has completed two leadership development courses at the University of Utah and also attended the Management Development Program (MDP) at Harvard's Graduate School of Education in 2004. Donna has presented papers on curriculum design and leadership at the International Dance Education Forum sponsored by the Beijing Dance Academy and at the Academic Chairperson's Conference in Orlando Florida. She recently served as a dance panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, as President of the Council of Dance Administrators (CODA), and was invited back to Beijing in August 2010 to present at the 18th International Congress on Aesthetics at Peking University in August 2010. As the Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Donna regularly attends the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS) annual meetings, and serves on the WAGS Board as a Member at Large. 

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From Ballet Dancer to Modern Dancer

I came here to the University of Utah as an undergraduate – to the old dance building about 1969. I came to be a ballet major and my teachers were Gordon Paxman, Madeline Gavers, and Bené Arnold. Meredith Bayliss – a teacher at the Joffrey School of American Ballet in NYC – recommended the program. At that time, Utah was the only University that offered an academic degree in Ballet. 

After high school, I moved from Phoenix to New York City to study ballet. It was the golden era of the Joffrey Ballet Company and School– Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino were doing all of their cutting edge work and also featuring choreography by modern dance choreographers such as Anna Sokolow and Kurt Jooss. Seeing such an amazing variety of work awakened in me the possibility of very abstract choreography with ballet technique. I loved it. I had never considered modern dance before because I just hadn’t seen such exciting work performed by truly inspiring performers. 

I missed an academic setting though and I missed the west. Miss Bayless said to check out the University of Utah. It was the middle of the year. It was a quarter system back then.

Gordon Paxman was the first person I met. I auditioned for class placement and got into the upper level of ballet technique and pointe. After a couple of quarters, I wandered over and took some modern classes from John Wilson. He must have been new at the time. I attribute a lot to him. He was in that lineage from the University of Wisconsin. 

He just inspired me. I changed my major and became a modern dance major. I met Joan Woodbury and Shirley Ririe. My head was turned around just by working with them in their choreography classes and in improvisation. I remember seeing a concert of Choreodancers, up in the old studio in the old dance building. Like a little New York loft. This was the precursor to Ririe-Woodbury. They had all of these slide projectors – ala Alwin Nikolais. It was the psychedelic era! Everyone was experimenting. 

I remember this show they did and thought to myself, “I want to do that!” As they started to form their company and have gigs here in the state of Utah and regionally, I got asked to learn some of the repertory and got my foot in the door. I started that when I was a junior.

Touring the Country with the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company  (RW)

Senior year – in the spring – we went to New York and auditioned for the dance touring program and the artists in the schools – two NEA programs. This was the hayday of the NEA. We performed in Nikolais’s’ studio at the time. Merce Cunningham was in the audience…and Deborah Jowitt (I was mentioned in her review of the Company in the Village Voice!). It was a pretty intimidating audience. Joan was narrating since she had had knee surgery. It was a lecture/demonstration and Merce Cunningham got up and headed toward the door. Joan recalls almost saying, “Wait, don’t go.” But he was just getting up to hang up his coat! 

Ririe-Woodbury got on both NEA rosters, The Dance Touring Program and Artists in the Schools.

I graduated that spring and ended up with a 40 week contract. I didn’t realize how fortunate I was at the time. That kind of contract is a rarity now, and when I tell my students that story, they are amazed. RW toured all over the United States performing and teaching. We even had 2 week residencies some places, which is now unheard of. My life just went in this direction…I didn’t know how much Shirley Ririe, Joan Woodbury, Dee Winterton, and Phyllis Haskell would impact me. Dee was my teaching partner in the company. I worked with Dee most of the time.

He mentored me. I was really nervous teaching, especially with kids. I didn’t know what to do if I couldn’t teach plies and turnout. I came from this ballet background and was like a fish out of water. I saw Dee work miracles with some of the hardest of situations. I am still inspired by the classes he taught and where he took those kids. It was magic. And also – watching Shirley and Joan teach. Sometimes we were all together teaching, leading workshops. As company members we were right in there.

I was watching these master teachers – Shirley, Joan, and Dee. It doesn’t get any better than that. I still consider them to be masterful teachers whose philosophy went in deep. I was drawn to this place, drawn to them….I started to realize that things come to you after the fact. 

Phyllis Haskell and I danced with the Company for many years and then she became Department Chair in the Department of Modern Dance here. Later, when she became Dean of the College of Fine Arts, I became Chair, and we just kept working together in one way or another for decades.  She mentored me as a young faculty member and later as an administrator. I’m now the Associate Dean of The Graduate School for the whole University and I still call Phyllis (even though she is now retired) to talk through issues that I need to deal with. I have greatly valued her as a friend, colleague, and mentor in my life.

Later, while I was a faculty member in the Department, I made a lot of connections with how Betty Hayes, Shirley, and Joan designed the curriculum. They did an amazing job! It is a curriculum with a core philosophy that has lasted for seventy five years!

They felt that “dance is for everyone.” I used to question that. I had a more elitist attitude, “There are only certain people who should be onstage dancing.” But they opened up this idea for me that if you are truly inside what you are doing – fully intentional and embodying that - you are beautiful. And you are an artist. 

Then Anne Riordan was here as a faculty member. She was teaching dance to physically and mentally challenged adults. She worked with that same philosophy of dance for everyone and formed a group called Sunrise featuring this group of dancers. It was sensational and I remember that philosophy of the department coming alive and being so inspired by Sunrise walking the walk, so to speak. I believe dance is for everyone and there is real power in what dance can do to transform lives. 

All of that experience changed me. What if I had gotten into a ballet company and gone in another direction?

These experiences really informed me – as a parent, teacher, administrator – it was really, really deep. 

Alwin Nikolais came and did a residency and a concert at Kingsbury Hall sometime in the late 1960’s or early 70’s. It blew my mind. I had never seen anything so amazing and different, crazy and wonderful. We had master classes with company members and Nik himself. I was on fire about his art, his philosophy and his process or way of making art. It was all so exciting.

Then Tandy Beal and Jon Scoville came to the Department, as guest artists. She had danced with Nik. I had classes with her and met Jon and I became really connected with both of them.

The Telegram : Working with Tandy Beal

When I left Ririe-Woodbury, Ken (former lighting designer for the Company and now my husband) and I were traveling in Europe. We went to the American Express office in Paris to pick up messages (this was long before the internet and cell phones) so we would communicate via telegrams. I got a telegram from Tandy saying, “I need a dancer – Stop - Could you start working with me in December in California?” I got back from my honeymoon and said good bye to my new husband and went to California where I started working with Tandy. It was December 1977. Tandy introduced a different company model – project based. She would consolidate rehearsals and touring. The dancers would show up, live at her home….we were like hippies in a commune. I did this for a couple of seasons – maybe 6 or 8 weeks each season, then I came back to Salt Lake and started graduate school in the Department. 

I ended up having my own company briefly during that time and then joining RW again after my masters was competed. I also continued to work with Tandy for many years to come. We toured to Hong Kong and China together. We went to the Spoleto Festival. I did a lot with Tandy. It was an amazing time. 

I just walked into these things. 

Back at the U for a Masters Degree

When I got my masters I wanted the time and space to make work. I had been in the company all those years. I wanted the time to immerse myself with guest artists and teaching and choreographing. Where else would you get it? I did not want the academic job. I didn’t go into it thinking career. I thought I would make work, start my own company. For my thesis, I started my own company. I wanted my own experience – trying to organize and administrate my artmaking. That was probably the first seed of administration.

I did just enough of it to realize that it was too much, so I went back to Ririe-Woodbury. The timing worked out so that the person who replaced me was ready to leave (Gigi Arrington). I think she was pregnant….Then I jumped back into my old roles and a lot of new ones. I stayed for about 5 more years. This was another golden time for RW. They had moved into their own space in the Capitol Theatre and we were rehearsing right alongside Ballet West then. It was really fun to meet the dancers, and members of both companies would peek into the other's studios to see what was up.  RW was getting a lot of touring work and starting to bring in outside choreographers from Pilobolus and other companies. 

Teaching at the University – One Thing Leads to Another

One thing lead to another. I remember Shirley stopping me at one point and saying, “Donna, the department needs somebody to fill in on a teaching assignment. I don’t know if you could work it out but if you do a good job, there might be a place for you.” Isn’t that funny? I am still a faculty member over thirty years later. I served as Department Chair for eight years and now hold a position in administration for the University. You just never know how your life is going to go! It’s a big adventure.

So I started teaching on a part-time basis, and it was around that same time that Abby Fiat started teaching here, also, on a part-time basis. 

I remember hearing the buzz about Abby’s classes. Soon after, our paths crossed, and our lives became intertwined.  Abby and I have lived so many experiences together and continue to do so even though we aren’t working together at the U any longer.

Hawaii

When I left RW the second time, another serendipitous opportunity came my way. Phyllis Haskell was a faculty member at the University of Hawaii by then, and she had an invitation to go to Hong Kong to teach for a year. She needed a replacement for a year, and I got the job. That was in 1985. So I had this great one year position – right after I left RW.  Again I left Ken here….he’s been a great husband and very patient.  To make up for being apart, we made it a point to have him visit Hawaii often and had some great times during that year. After that year was over, I really thought I would do freelance solo work touring and teaching but I was 37 by then and started to think I wanted a baby. “I want to unpack my trunk, settle down, and be with my husband.” I felt this drive to do that. Then, I had Ruby. I left the touring and performing life behind me.

I had so much touring and performing – so many opportunities. It was fabulous and exciting. I met a lot of great people along the way.  Now we had little Ruby and soon little Ian. I just moved forward and didn’t look back.

Connections and Roots

Talking about these life connections with people here at the University of Utah,…..it hasn’t been just a job. It has been my whole adult life. My heart strings are so interlaced with all of my mentors – Betty Hayes was huge influence, Shirley, Joan, Anne Riordan, Loa Clawson, John Wilson, Phyllis Haskell, Scott Marsh, Abby. It is all so wonderfully serendipitous.

When I look back, I feel like I was meant to be here. Miss Bayless in New York….”You should go to Utah.” One thing lead to another and all of the connections I made created deep, deep roots. 

Growing Into Administrative Work

I remember when Scott Marsh (Department Chair before me) was leaving. He recommended me as his replacement. I was stunned, floored. “I don’t know anything about administration or budgets. I don’t think I would be the best choice.”  But he and Phyllis (she was now Dean of the College of Fine Arts) believed in my and convinced me I could do this.

Here’s the thing. I really have had great colleagues; I had networked with people from different parts of the campus and now it was time to work with all of these people. I had a lot of support as I learned the ropes as an administrator.

I really enjoy problem solving. That process is so interesting and challenging too. Much like choreography too. There are some parallels in projects  - conception, development, and follow through. Thinking through order, dynamics….administration is about making things happen and it started to appeal to me. Then I got good feedback and started to feel like I was good at this. 

I had this new role, and little by little, I transitioned into a different space and started using my skills in different ways than I had as a performer, teacher, and choreographer. But they were things I knew and could bring to the table – running a faculty meeting, listening well, strategic planning all of it was a great challenge for me. Scott Marsh and Phyllis Haskell were amazing role models and mentors. I saw the best of the best in action. I aspired to approach my administrative job as an artist, as they had modeled, not to view it as a negative. 

When I had a sabbatical, a year after becoming Chair, I applied and was accepted to go to Harvard for a 3-week management development program. This program was the best thing ever. I was with an amazing group of people from all over the world – new chairs and program directors. That was in 2003 or 2004…..I learned so much and still reference those course materials today.   

The thing I didn’t realize when I moved into administrative work is that we, as dancers, have a lot of skills that transfer well into other avenues, administration being one of those. Administration is very dynamic – you get to make things happen, have influence. It is creative, challenging, and dynamic, or at least I was determined to make it that way. 

Going from being a dance administrator to higher level administration at the University has been really eye opening. Really great, and just opened my world. I loved my time as chair of dance. But I love working with all of these different leaders and administrators from the different departments and colleges across the entire University. It’s really been interesting. This is the end of my fourth year in that position. 

Love of the Learning Environment

I truly love the atmosphere of an institution of higher education. I love the stimulation, students, colleagues, events, dialogues and debates, controversies and problem solving, all of it. I love walking around the campus; it just has an energy that is palpable. I love engaging with new initiatives and constantly being exposed to the power of ideas, creativity, research, discovery, and inspiring accomplishments. I guess I love a lot about it.

To Be a Teaching Artist

I have quite a lot to say about this. I think “teaching artist” is an interesting term that has been coined more recently and reflects the fact that the roles of teachers and artists overlap and inform each other quite beautifully. I like the way it embraces the multiple dimensions of most faculty these days, many of whom work professionally as artists and also teach in universities. They are teaching and creating work (choreography, film, scholarship, community engaged projects, etc…). Gone are the days of the notion of, “Those who can, DO, and those who can’t, TEACH.” I always disliked that saying and I think this term - “teaching artist” - negates that idea. I consider teaching and administration as forms of art so I think this term captures that.

Success

I think success is how you perceive it in yourself. Having said that - yes - I have been extremely fortunate and successful doing what I love and working with amazing colleagues over the years. I love what I do, and that is success in my mind.

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Comments

[Ashley Boyack]

Donna, I loved reading your story. What a tremendous example you have been in my life. I dearly love you and treasure the many classes I had with you. My fondest years dancing were at the U. I loved every moment!!! I never wanted to miss ever, because my professors inspired every part of who I was. I always say, I was There when it was the BEST! Thank you for loving and shaping who I am.

[Phyllis Haskell Tims]

Thank you, Jill, for this wonderful post and all the others...wonderful, interesting work. Donna, Thank you for all the lovely comments and appreciation. Our lives have intertwined in so many ways for so many years and mine has been richer for that. I have loved watching your path from child dancer, to artist, to university administrator and have loved dancing with you all through that journey.
Phyllis

[tandy beal]

Thanks Jill and Thanks Donna!

How stunning to sit down and live back in to time with you Donna and all the vivid memories of art and friends and adventures and the stunning serendipity of it all. Wonderful to feel the full dimensions and reverberations of relationships and inspirations.

How grateful we are to have walked along the path by your side so many times....Here is to even more adventures and discoveries! (and fun!)

love and more love, tandy

[jon scoville]

Donna, It's a real treat to read what is, in essence, the outline of a life. And such a full and rich one. Your role in my own life -- both in the program at the university and in the joy and chaos of Tandy's company -- has always been large and nourishing. I have been truly fortunate to work with you with classes, music, family, and laughter. Big Hugs, Jon

[Kathleen Nowell King]

Dear Donna! a whole lot of dittos to start! But in the spirit of creativity , must say you are a force!!! And someone who generously gives others encouragement and belief in their unique gifts...love you always... even when time is the space between us...Kathleen
PS what's next? a creative reunion?!

[elizabeth brody]

Donna,
I loved your classes (and Abby's too) and I learned a lot from Ken--in lighting dance as well.
Your story is an inspiration --I didn't realize how young you were in 1982-1983!!
-elizabeth brody

[Ruby White]

Go mom go!! You are my biggest well of inspiration. I love you to the moon and back.

[Wendy Thompson]

Donna, You were my first modern instructor freshman year 1979 and you taught me how to be a student, a disciplined dancer and eventually a teacher. A model of open-minded curiosity, you are the quintessential life-long learner for me and your lessons still come to mind in my classrooms today. Congratulations on a professional life so well lived.
Wendy Thompson BFA'83, MFA '91.

[Shirley]

Donna, I have come to this story late. How generous and warm you have been to our history together. You paint a beautiful landscape around our passion.....DANCE. Yes, those early years were magical. We, all of us, were so fortunate to create new worlds of possibility. I have lived through all of this along with you and Ken and then Ruby and Ian. I just think we were fortunate to be born and to have lived during these glorious years.