Hometown: Vincennes, Indiana
Current city: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Age: 63
College and degree: BS Physical Education, Dance concentration, Indiana University
Graduate school and degree: MS Physical Education, Kinesiology and Choreography concentration (age 35), Indiana University. Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Management (age 55), New Mexico State University.
How you pay the bills: Professor of Dance, freelance choreographer and teacher
All of the dance hats you wear: Teacher, director, producer, choreographer, grant writer, and researcher
Non-dance work you do or have done: Film costume designer, volunteer in elementary school literacy curriculum, serve on arts board of directors
——————————————-
Describe your dance life in your….
20s: I was going to school to get my BS degree, dancing in Marjorie Fargnoli’s dance company, co-founded the Windfall Dancers and Windfall Movement Center, and worked as an artist-in-education.
30s: I was teaching, choreographing, and performing with Windfall, and still worked as an artist in education. I also began working as an adjunct faculty at Indiana University (IU) and began my MS degree at IU. I joined Bill Evans Dance Company. Then I moved to New Mexico and taught at the University of New Mexico.
40s: I continued to dance with Evans Dance Co. Was also a dancer for Danzantes Dance Co. and Nora Reynolds Dancers. Taught modern at a local dance studio. Started as an assistant director and then became the director of a Montessori elementary school. Moved to Germany and worked as a rehearsal director, performer, choreographer for the Semperoper Ballet Company and teacher at the Palucca Academy of Dance. At age 44, came back to the US and guest performed with the Evans Company. I became the interim director of the African American Dance Company at IU while the director was on sabbatical. I also worked as adjunct faculty at Butler University in Indianapolis, private trainer, artist-in-education in Arkansas, and was a freelance choreographer, teacher and performer. Moved to New Mexico to take a job as the director of dance at New Mexico State University.
50s: I developed 3 areas of concentration for a dance degree at NMSU (Contemporary, Flamenco, and Ballroom). Developed a Master of Arts Degree in Teaching Dance.
60s: Still the director of NMSU Dance program. Still freelancing. Working on film projects.
What is on your plate/calendar for fall 2015 (teaching, researching, presentations, performing, etc)? Are you choreographing - professionally or at the university?Are you performing?
I am working on new choreography for our dance faculty concert, collaborating with playwright Mark Medoff on a new project, and redefining my role in the NMSU dance program. I will be traveling to SUNY-Fredonia to set a work on their university dance company.
How has your technique class evolved over the years….how has the class remained the same or changed as technique classes became more eclectic and as the influence of release technique and somatics became more common….
Over the past 10 years, working with Bill Evans, Don Halquist, and everyone who practices the Evans’s method, I have developed an ongoing, ever expanding teaching philosophy. Here are a few key points:
- That learning is an “inner education” and that dance is a philosophy.
- That I need to strengthen our students’ power of self-belief, feeling of self-efficacy, and the belief that they can accomplish what they set forth to do.
- That I need to encourage my students to rely on their inner resources, to use their intuition and the ability to extemporize and innovate in the face of uncertainty and ambiguity.
- That I need to build deep trust and respect among us, and help us get beyond the devaluing prejudices that we all hold.
- That I need to put us in situations that will cause us to reach deeply into ourselves so that we will evoke our higher nature and have us experience that we are all connected.
- That I need to allow us to learn from the entire experience; how to be flexible and adapt quickly to change and new environments.
- That I need to recognize the possibilities in my students and to honor their individual talents.
- And that I need to honor process above all else.
Advice to young dancers on teaching, learning how to teach, and the role that teaching might play within their careers:
Teaching is the mainstay of the way most dancers earn a living. I also want to say that when I began teaching, I became a better dancer. I encourage all dancers, young and mature, to share their passion of dance through teaching, too. For those that have not had much experience, there are so many places and people from which to learn the art of teaching.
Can you talk about care of the body in relation to teaching technique classes on a regular basis?
This is where I fall short. I don’t schedule enough bodywork sessions as this aging body needs. When I do, I dance with freer joints. What I do well is make sure I get the nutrition I need. What I don’t do well is consume enough water. What I do well is practice positive affirmations. What I don’t do well is use too much sugar as a source of energy and emotional comfort.
Non-dance movement practices important to you:
I love being in water, so I try to fit swimming into my schedule. I love the feel of being on a bicycle, makes me feel young. These activities renew my spirit.
The value of non-dance interests and hobbies:
I love to make jewelry, knit, sew, and read.
Can you talk about a setback, sacrifice, or challenge you have tackled as a dancer over the years?
The biggest challenges are the ones that happen with aging. My flexibility and muscular strength have decreased. I find myself grieving at times over the inability to have my once full range of motion, the ease of landing, the thrill of spiraling to the floor, the quickness of learning, the stamina, the svelte body. But I don’t dwell in that space for too long because in spite of this, my spirit still finds ways to soar as I lovingly dance with my aging body and mind.
Last performance you saw that really inspired you:
At the Bill Evans Teachers' Institute (summer 2015) at Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts: 3 concerts were presented with amazing performing artists (young and not so young) doing meaningful and richly designed choreography which has propelled me back to the studio to work on a solo concert.
What are you reading right now?
Pedagogy of Hope by Paulo Freire, Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh, and Landscapes of Learning by Maxine Greene.
Final thoughts: Hope/belief/love of the profession:
I hear so many self-doubts and fears from so many dance students and professionals. So I always return to the quote by Gandalf: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
------
To read Debra's piece entitled "Go Home," click here.
Debra also contributed to a series of reflection questions for the fall semester (with Leah Cox, Elizebeth Randall, and Jill Randall). Click here.
-----------------------------
Comments