Heartland hotspot: university faculty models performance careers for students.

NOT THAT LONG AGO, it was common for young dancers to dismiss university programs as second-rate tracks to performing careers. But increasingly, college and university dance departments are challenging that perception. By including professional dancers and working choreographers on the faculty, schools like the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provide students with a vital link to the larger dance world.

When professor emeritus Beverly Blossom came onboard at UIUC in 1967, she brought her experience as an original member of the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theater and an independent choreographer. While teaching, she continued her professional activities, as do current UIUC faculty members who also choreograph or perform beyond campus: Cynthia Oliver, a former member of David Gordon Pick Up Company and Ronald K. Brown/Evidence; Renee Wadleigh, who danced with Paul Taylor; and Sara Hook, a former Nikolais Dance Theater soloist.

Leaving New York for the rural heartland might strike some big city artists as a disappointing assignment, but for Hook, it made a lot of sense. "It wasn't as much of a transition as people think, because I was already doing an awful lot of teaching. I'd taught at The Alley School and at Princeton, and I began to get the desire to be part of a program on a larger level, at a place where I could really make a difference. What attracted me to the University, of Illinois was a mission I detected there--to create dance professionals who are able to contribute to the field in multiple ways, not just create the next generation of virtuosic dancers."

WHILE OLIVER notes that the UIUC students are more advanced than those she's encountered at other colleges, she does miss having seasoned performers to render her work. But she doesn't miss New York. "I loved New York when I was there, and then I was ready to leave. I wanted to collect my life and put it all in one place. I didn't want to have five jobs all over town and still be broke."

Piecing together a career like that can be enervating. But combining teaching and choreographing/performing is no piece of cake either. "It's difficult no matter where you are," observes Wadleigh. "But dance faculty can seek funding from the university that makes it possible to do projects that would be financially prohibitive as independent choreographers heading up a small dance company."

What's more, students can provide the vital resource of dancing bodies, something that can be hard to maintain when operating solo or with a pick-up company. "I use my technique classes as a laboratory for working out physical ideas," relates Hook. "And I can use the composition classes as a laboratory to try choreographic tactics and methods relevant to my current choreographic projects."

BLOSSOM says the school took its first step toward greater artistic credibility when it moved dance from the physical education department to the College of Fine and Applied Arts in 1968. "The second thing was they added ballet to the curriculum," Blossom says. "So there was more emphasis on technique."

That technical emphasis is dependent on what the faculty and guest artists bring. "One of our strengths," offers Wadleigh, "is that there is no dominant aesthetic here. For example, I danced with Paul Taylor, but I was always a fan of Cunningham. My teaching has its roots in Cunningham, but it is also influenced by release and somatic work."

For Brooklyn-based Darrin Wright, who earned his BFA in 2002, the exposure to a variety of styles at UIUC readied him for a career, quite common these days, of performing with a string of companies, rather than just one. "I think the university did a good job of not making me a specific type of dancer, but someone who can pick up and do different things," says Wright, who has worked with Susan Marshall and Jane Comfort, among others.

While both the undergraduate and graduate programs focus on performance and composition, students also study other subjects, including kinesiology and somatics, and labanotation. They also have opportunities to perform with guest artists brought in by the department, and visitors booked into the university's Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, one of the most active venues in the state. Between the two, students have been able to learn pieces by Nijinsky, Graham, Limon, Twyla Tharp, Doug Elkins, Tere O'Connor, Susan Marshall, Mark Morris, and Lar Lubovitch. Last fall, they performed a work Ralph Lemon created in residence, and this spring they'll premiere a new work by the New York-based collaborative team, ChameckiLerner.

"We're trying to serve the students' interests," says Wadleigh, "but we like to get in their way a bit, make them reconsider how they do things."

Current graduate student Nic Petry arrived at UIUC from Princeton, where he studied ecology and environmental science. A football player who came to dance late, he exemplifies one type of student Wadleigh et al are particularly interested in--one whose path to dance may be a bit irregular, but whose commitment may be all the more pronounced. "It isn't just dancey dancers who interest us in the grad program," says Wadleigh. "It's smart people, creative people. Actually, we like an unlikely candidate."

"Having just started dancing in college, I wanted to take a rigorous technique schedule and so I'm doing that," relates Perry. "But I've been astounded at the level of creative work that I've been brought into."

"You really get focused on your work here," he says laughing, "whether you want to or not."

Thomas Connors has written about the performing arts for The Voice, and the Chicago Tribune.