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dancea student publication of the goucher college dance department

vol. 26, no. 2 | Spring 2011

GOUCHER COLLEGE

This January, I spent three weeks on a Goucher intensive course in Ghana. The experience began with a pre-course semi-nar at Goucher that was designed to give us some background to help prepare us for the trip. Although our trip leaders, Lindsay Johnson and Kaushik Bagchi, did a wonderful job feeding us helpful information, I still had absolutely no idea what to expect upon our arrival in Ghana.

We arrived at Kotoka International Airport in Accra after a long, exhausting flight, and packed onto the bus that would be our home on the road for the next three weeks. In addition to our little group of 20, we were joined by our Ghanaian guides, Christine and Wisdom, and our bus driver, Kwame. Driving through Accra, it was immediately clear to me how very different Ghana was from any place I had ever been. The streets were packed with cars, goats, and people going

about their daily business. Ghanaian vendors carrying assorted goods on their heads crowding against the windows of our bus to sell us water, chocolate, dirty slingshots, MTN phone cards, maps, and plantain chips.

After a few packed days with visits to muse-ums, historical sites, and markets, we loaded our things onto the bus again and began a six-hour journey to Keta, a small fishing town in the Volta region. On our first morning in Keta we were graciously invited to attend a traditional libation ceremony at Christine’s family’s home. The ceremony was in a small, outdoor courtyard that quickly filled with Christine’s family and at least a dozen chil-dren. Throughout the ceremony, traditional prayers were seamlessly blended with Chris-tian prayers, as libations (Schnapps) were al-ternately consumed and poured out onto the ground. As the ceremony came to a close, everyone got up and danced together; this

was the manner in which all ceremonies and gatherings were to end throughout our trip. On our second day in Keta, we had a drum and dance workshop with local dancers. The dancers openly encouraged us as we flapped our arms, attempting to copy Agbadza, the traditional dance of the Ewe people.

From Keta, we traveled to Kpetoe, a small Kente-weaving village, and from Kpetoe on to Ho, the capital of the Volta region. In Ho, we visited Wli Falls, the largest waterfall in West Africa, and the Tafi Monkey Sanctuary.

Our next stop was Kumasi, the seat of the Ghanaian government in Central Ghana. My most memorable experience there was our walk through the vast Kumasi market, which stretched across several miles of the city. The market consisted of narrow alleyways

A Winter in GhanaFiona Cansino ’12

Left: The group gathers after a traditional ceremony. Right: Experiencing traditional movement.Photos courtesy of Charlie Rooney

“A Winter in Ghana,” continued on page 2

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John Hoobyar, Courtney Colarik, and Lizbie Harbison in rehearsal with Connie Dinapoli.All photos courtesy of Ashley Evans

surrounded by small vendors stalls, tightly wedged, one next to the other; the stalls were filled with everything from fresh fish and poultry to colorful jewelry and bolts of cloth and everything imaginable in between. I quickly made the decision to breathe through my mouth as the mixed odors of fish, raw meat, sweat, and sewage assaulted me. The alleyways were flooded with people quickly making their way to their next destination with pots, trays, and baskets perched precariously on their heads. If I had not kept the person in front of me in sight, I would have quickly been swallowed up in the crowd. It still amazes me that people go to the Kumasi market every day and are able to navigate that impossible maze.

From Kumasi we traveled to Obuasi, a gold-mining town, and then to Cape Coast. After spending a couple of days with the group, we paired off and went into our home-stays. During the five days we spent with our host families, we only saw the rest of our group during our morning drum and dance workshops at the Center for National Culture (CNC). My host family lived in a modest

home, with several goats, chickens, and a small, endearing dog named Risky. My roommate and I ate meals at a small table in the courtyard, while Simon, our host father, ate in the living room, and Peace and Rosemond, our host-mother and sister ate in the kitchen. It felt very strange to be separated in this way from the family, but it was clearly the way they were accustomed to having meals. It took a couple of days to really get comfortable with the family, but by the time the home-stay was over I felt quite attached, and found it difficult to leave them.

On our final day in the home-stays, we performed the routine we had learned at the CNC for a small audience. We culminated the trip with a big dinner at Christine’s house, where we stuffed ourselves one last time with joloff, banku, fufu, and plantains, and finally piled onto the bus one last time, soaked in sweat from our final Ghanaian “dance party.”

On this trip all of my preconceived notions of Ghana, and Africa, were squashed. I found that although Ghana is developing, the people still manage to hold onto their rich culture and traditions. I found that Ghanaians are some of the friendliest, most vibrant, and most open people I have ever met. I also found that you can never have too much joloff.

A Winter in Ghana continued from page 1

Before Constance Dinapoli arrived at Goucher the weekend of February 18, there was much anticipation about the Paul Taylor piece she would set—and who would be chosen for the predicted small cast of danc-ers. Many dancers in the department had researched Aureole and entered the audition with anticipation, interest, and a little bit of doubt. An hour-and-a-half after the audition, 13 dancers had been chosen to participate in the residency. However, there was much confusion as to who would serve as an understudy and who was a member of the performing cast. In the end, it was declared that there was a primary cast and two sets of understudy casts. Even though only five dancers had the opportunity to perform, the process and experience of learning authentic Taylor work was greatly beneficial to all who participated in the residency.

Created in 1962, Aureole was considered Paul Taylor’s first major success. A combina-tion of ballet and modern techniques, the piece is performed to five movements by George Frideric Handel. When Aureole was first performed, it was an immediate contrast to the modern movement occurring in the dance world at that time. The light and airy movements are enjoyable to watch and fun to dance. According to Courtney Colarik ’11, the hardest aspect of this piece is finding the balance between strength in the legs and a soft, sustained upper body. Courtney attend-ed the Paul Taylor Summer Dance Intensive in July 2010 and referred to the intensive as a great experience.

Constance Dinapoli is a former member of Paul Taylor Dance Company and currently teaches dance at George Mason University.

At the meet-the-artist reception, Dinapoli talked about how Taylor worked quickly, de-manded attention in rehearsals, and how he loved beautiful dancers who worked well in a group setting. Her last performance, before she chose to leave Paul Taylor Dance Com-pany and start a family, was for the Kennedy Center Honors award that Taylor received in 1992. She described the company as a family and declared that the community was the part she missed the most about dancing with them, although she still keeps in touch with the company through the summer intensives, reunion performances, and reconstructions of Taylor’s work. Aureole by Paul Taylor was performed in Goucher’s Repertory Dance Ensemble Spring Concert in April.

A Taste of Our History Emily Polasik ’13

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On March 22, dancers from the Goucher Dance Department traveled to Burlington, NC, to the American College Dance Festival (ACDF), hosted by Elon University. At ACDF, the dancers had the chance to take classes in various styles, such as house, ballet, modern, rhythm tap, 1980s jazz, yoga, and somatics. They also had the opportunity to attend a performance by LehrerDance, three informal concerts, four adjudicated concerts, and a gala performance. Each concert consisted of works choreographed by faculty members, students, or guest artists. This year, Goucher showcased works by two undergraduate students, Arlynn Zachary ’11 and Elise Cowin ’11, as well as by Goucher’s Fall 2010 guest artist, Jennifer Archibald.

A typical day at ACDF began at 7:45 a.m. and ended around 5 p.m. During each time slot, nine different classes were offered, and every day the class schedule changed. On the first day of the festival, the majority of the Goucher dancers took the master class taught by LehrerDance. Throughout the class, the dancers encouraged and cheered each other on, creating a welcoming and energetic atmosphere.

Elise Cowin’s and Jennifer Archibald’s works were performed in the second adjudicated concert on the second full day of the festi-val. Both pieces received a great response from the audience. The adjudicators were intrigued by Cowin’s intelligent and quirky piece, titled Caution. They compared it to historical events, and were curious about the rank of the choreographer (faculty, student, etc.). Archibald’s Chasing Shadows was also well received. The adjudicators were im-pressed by the dancers’ intense performance as well as the intricacies of the choreogra-phy. Arlynn Zachary’s work, Can You Feel IT? was performed in one of the three informal concerts and also received positive feedback from the audience.

Chasing Shadows was chosen to be per-formed in the gala concert held on the last night of the festival—an enormous honor. The dancers performed well in the gala con-cert, and again were commended for their stage quality, professionalism, and technique.

Dancers Represent Goucher at ACDFShawnia White ’11

Top: Goucher dancers and faculty members at ACDF. Courtesy of Elizabeth Ahearn Right top: Seniors Tara Kearney, Emily Rorty, and Courtney Colarik prepare for a performance at ACDF. Right bottom: Elizabeth Ahearn fixes Julia Corrigan’s costume. Photos courtesy of Courtney Colarik

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Top: Georgia Speier rehearsing “Torn.” Courtesy of Billie Weiss

Bottom: (L-R) Natalia Maldari, Carly Callahan, and Muriel Mills in rehearsal.Courtesy of Ashley Evans

“It sort of began with my love for real women,” says Ashley Evans of her upcoming thesis, Looked At but Not Seen. “I wanted to explore the conflicting messages that women struggle with daily.” The thesis, comprised of 14 dancers in five separate pieces, has been in development since September and was presented on April 1 and 2. Rehearsals typi-cally began with exercises designed to get the cast in tune with one another, or inspirational readings and thoughts about women and their identities. Each piece explores a different aspect of feminine identity.

“The first piece, called ‘Heart, Beat, Sound,’ is about the different parts of a woman’s identity and how often these pieces are pulled apart, leaving her with the feeling that something is missing,” Ashley explains. “The second piece, ‘Daily Silent Searching,’ is about the concept [that] a woman must be either perfect and pure or sensual and seductive… but really these adjectives make up all women.”

The third piece is about the media’s influence on women and their appearance. The piece uses magazines as props, since Ashley’s thesis was also partially inspired by the contrast

between women’s magazines and the rest of the world. “Why not get tons of magazines and cover the space with them?” she asked herself. From this, she created “Torn.” She gave each of her dancers a word or character trait that causes them to each react differently to the magazines and then to experience and develop a relationship throughout the piece. “We discovered how each one would use a magazine, how she would pick it up, how she would read it or move it. The magazines have been really fun to work with, because you can slide them, stack them, rip them, throw them, and fold them in so many ways.”

With the fourth piece, Evans starts to come full circle back to her original idea, filling the void that each woman feels. The last piece is about reuniting the parts that pulled away from each other during the opening piece.

Ashley’s inspiration has come from a number of ideas and written works about the struggles of women, their images, and the expectations laid on them in every aspect of their lives. She pulled thoughts from her dancers at the begin-ning and throughout the rehearsal process, having the all-female cast write down issues they have struggled with as women in their own lives. She linked academic and personal lives, as well as spiritual, religious, and secular ideals we give ourselves and each other.

An Exploration of Real WomenNatalia Maldari ’11

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Pure Life. This is the mantra of Costa Rica and is the best way to describe my study-abroad experience. I decided to study abroad during the fall of my senior year, and although this option is unconventional, I am happy I de-cided to do so. I first learned about the Cloud Forest School, where I would ultimately teach for six months, in a pile of my younger sister’s alternate-year brochures, and knew immediately that it was the place for me. Situated on top of a hill overlooking all of Monteverde (and, on a clear day, the Pacific Ocean), the school couples environmental education and sustainable practices with the more traditional elementary education curriculum. This privately funded bilingual school provides scholarships to over 75 per-cent of its students.

I was placed in a fourth grade classroom, where I was able to observe, assist, and even-tually teach every academic subject in Eng-lish. This variation on student teaching was exactly what I was looking for, since it was difficult for me to complete a double major in dance and elementary education while studying abroad for a semester, something I had always planned to do.

When I started at the school in August, I had no intention of dancing. Luckily, I found a little yoga studio, but knew that a formal dance class would be impossible to find in Monteverde. In September, I noticed that the school had placed an advertisement in the monthly newsletter asking if any parents or teachers would be willing to teach a “mini-course” to the high school students for three weeks. I mentioned to the administration that I was a dance major and could teach a mini-course in a variety of dance types. The students were very receptive to the idea, and

my mini-course became so popular that I was asked to teach for the rest of the semester. I became the resident dance teacher at the elementary school and taught creative move-ment workshops during indoor recess and private dance classes to various students. I eventually taught four different courses in hip-hop, modern, jazz, and yoga and gave pri-vate tap and hip-hop lessons. Whether I was organizing school-wide freeze dance compe-titions or choreographing the teacher dance for the talent show, dance remained a huge part of my life. I never imagined that I would be teaching dance in Monteverde, Costa Rica, when I first applied to the program.

I realize now that Goucher’s Dance Depart-ment has prepared me to be thrown into any type of real-world situation, and although I do not plan to make dance my profession, I will always be able to draw from my dance background and experiences. I also realized how universal dance is; although the students spoke English, their dance vocabulary was very limited, and I was unable to translate many of the ballet terms into Spanish. However, the universal language of move-ment was our key to communicating. This bond connected me to each student even if a language barrier separated us. I hope to someday return to the Cloud Forest School to teach in the elementary school and maybe even start a more formal dance program in both the elementary and high school!

¡Pura Vida!Allie Rodis ’11

Fourth grade students at the Cloud Forest School in Costa Rica.

Merril Doty ’12 spent three amazing months in England last fall. She was able to dance all day on a beautiful historic campus with trees, foxes, and a lake—only a 20-minute ride from Central London. During her visit, she went to performances by the Cun-ningham Company, Rambert Dance, and Jasmine Vardimon Dance Com-pany. For a theatrical experience, she saw Michael Gambon in Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett. The amount of dance, theatre, and music in the city was astounding, and Doty feels as if she barely scratched the surface of London’s art scene. She also went to Edinburgh for a weekend, and saw the beautiful city at its sunniest; in November, when all the plants were still green, and the air smelled sweet from the wafting sea breeze.

Doty (right) and a friend eat authentic fish’n’chips in London. Courtesy of Merril Doty

WHERE ARE OUR DANCERS THIS

SEMESTER?

Lizzy Purcell ’12, Chelsea Murphy ’12, Erin Quarles ’12, Stephanie Walker ’12, Hannah Wasielewski ’11, Lucy Wild ’12, Marah Wilson ’12: Italy, dance

Kelsey Hobbs ’12: Senegal, international relations

Across the Pond

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A Lovely Expression of MovementCarly Callahan ’14

Zippora Karz, former soloist for the New York City Ballet, came to Goucher College in February to choreograph a work on our dancers. She proved to be an inspirational person and choreographer, and all who had the opportunity to experience her in either class or rehearsal will agree that her love for dance is admirable and motivational.

Her journey as a dancer was not an easy one. As a young dancer chosen by Peter Martins to join the New York City Ballet, she worked her way to the rank of soloist as the company was grieving the loss of George Balanchine. Her performance career with the elite com-pany was defined by her struggle with juvenile diabetes. This was a debilitating disease for Karz and eventually forced her to retire from performing altogether. Eventually, she decided to tell the story of her struggle in a book, titled The Sugarless Plum: A Ballerina’s Triumph Over Diabetes.

After resigning from the company, Zippora was asked to stage Bal-anchine ballets in various venues across the country. In fact, the first time she staged a Balanchine ballet was at Goucher in 1999, when she staged both Concerto Barocco and Serenade. Goucher serves as a memorable place for firsts, as the residency this spring represents the first full-length work she has choreographed. Her work, titled Shadows and Light, showcases simple, elegant, and beautiful movement.

Zippora’s ballet does not have a particular story behind it, just the love of dance and the joy it brings to us. The music was composed by a friend of hers and is a melodious expression of stringed instru-ments. One of Zippora’s main goals during her time here was to get us to express the love we feel for dance through our movement. In one rehearsal, Zippora told us, “Dancing should make you feel beautiful. It gives you a sense of beauty in the movement your body can do.” The freedom she sees in dance gave us a higher level to strive for with our own movement and is manifested in her choreography.

Left: Sophie Kurek in rehearsal. Right: The cast performs at Meet the Artist. Photos courtesy of Mariah Halkett

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Senior Independent Projects: Essential EntitiesMuriel Mills ’11

This semester, five graduating seniors—Courtney Colarik, Lizbie Harbison, Georgia Speier, Shawnia White, and Arlynn Zach-ary—have been hard at work creating independent-study projects for dance choreography. These choreographic studies set on Goucher dancers will culminate in a performance at the end of the semester to showcase the students’ original work.

Courtney Colarik’s working title is Vs. Host. Colarik was inspired by recent events, including the controversy over Planned Parenthood funding, to explore how the emotions behind an abortion affect a community. She abstracts emotions related to purging oneself of something foreign through movement, including the use of gestures and partnering to emphasize con-nection and community.

Lizbie Harbison’s study is entitled Three True Things. The choreography is divided into three vignettes, inspired by three passages from No One Belongs Here More Than You, a collection of stories by Miranda July. The choreography explores different kinds of relationships, including acquaintances and close friendships, and

how one interacts with others. Harbison is also experimenting with the use of text in her piece.

Georgia Speier and Shawnia White cre-ated a dance outreach program at Dallas Nicholas Elementry School in Baltimore for a yearlong independent study. Speier and White took Goucher dancers every week to Dallas Nicholas to work on a collabora-tive dance with the children. In the dance, Goucher dancers are animals, such as flamingos, crocodiles, monkeys, and lions, while the children are safari hunters. In addition, the Goucher students are helping the Dallas Nicholas students write stories that explain the choreography.

Arlynn Zachary focuses on contact impro-visation and partnering in her independent study. Zachary films all rehearsals in order to gain inspiration from the dancers’ move-ments. The movement on the videos is then applied to experimental choreography for her piece.

In May、 Colarik, Harbison, and Zachary presented their works in the Todd Dance Studio. Speier and White presented their

project at the matinee of the Goucher Repertory Dance Ensemble Spring Concert in April, followed by an evening perfor-mance at Dallas Nicholas Elementary School in Baltimore.

It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday. Physical thera-pist, Bonnie Schulman explains that she is “basically putting out physical fires” as she works to correct senior dancer, Megan Heimann’s ankle injury. Schulman spends her days “trying to coax tendons, muscles, and

bones into a happier place,” and then she finds ways to help her patients keep them there. Often times, her patients come into her office with a diagnosis, but she is most concerned with how a problem occurred. Schulman’s philosophy is that she cannot just give her patients an exercise to help an injury. She gets to the root of the problem and cor-rects it from there.

Today, Schulman is working at Goucher in the morning and at her office, which she describes as a “little boutique practice,” all afternoon. In her free time, she tries to get in dance classes, swimming, yoga, and walk-ing, so that she can stay physically fit herself. Schulman explains that she has sore hands and arms very often at the end of the day from all the work she does on her patients.

But how did she get into the field of physi-cal therapy? Schulman began dancing at the age of three as a way to correct her flat feet. Although dance did not rectify the situation,

she does believe it has kept them from get-ting even flatter. Schulman went to college and studied to become a schoolteacher. After five years of teaching, she took time off to raise her daughter. During this time, Schul-man had been teaching exercise classes. Doing this made her realize this field was something she was interested in, and applied to physical therapy school. While at school, she was a single parent teaching exercise at night and going to classes during the day. Initially upon earning her degree, Schulman worked at hospitals, nursing homes, and other places where her physical therapy services were needed.

Because dance is still a large part of Schul-man’s life, she treats many dancers and really knows her stuff. Now, she has a private practice of her own, and the Goucher Dance Department is fortunate to have her on hand to provide exercises that help dancers with alignment problems as well as injuries.

A Day in the Life of Bonnie Schulman - Physical TherapistGeorgia Speier ‘11

Bonnie works on a student’s ankle in the Schon Dancer Wellness Center. Courtesy of Georgia Speier

Clockwise from top left: Georgia Speier and Shawnia White; Courtney Colarik; Arlynn Zachary; Lizbie Harbison

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Dance Department Calendar of Events April–July 2011

Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16Goucher Repertory Dance Ensemble Concert7:30 p.m., Kraushaar Auditorium

Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30Todd 361 Series3 p.m. (April 30) and 7:30 p.m. (April 29 and 30), Todd Dance Studio Theatre

Sunday, May 1Chorégraphie Antique, the Dance History Ensemble of Goucher College, and the dance history class “American Dance Traditions”2 p.m., Todd Dance Studio Theatre

Friday, May 6A Night of Independent Projects7:30 pm, Todd Studio Theatre

Senior dance majors Courtney Colarik, Lizbie Harbison, and Arlynn Zachary complete their independent projects with a presentation of their original choreography.

Sunday - Saturday, July 10 - 23Goucher Summer Arts InstituteThis two-week, intensive day and boarding program offers training for intermediate through pre-professional dancers and musicians, ages 12 through 18.

Online Registration is now open!

For detailed program information, registration procedures, and required forms visit: www.goucher.edu/summerarts

If you have any questions about the institute, please contact Linda Garofalo, director, at (410) 337-6493 or via email at linda.garofalo@goucher.edu.

A Day in the Life of Sara Workeneh – Dance TherapistAshley Evans ’11

Each fall, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, 10 to 12 students gather in the dance studios for Sara Workeneh’s dance therapy class. The two-part course serves as an introduc-tion to dance/movement therapy for students interested in knowing more about the field and possibly looking to pursue it as a career. For many of her students, Sara is a peaceful presence who gently nudges her students to grow and discover more about themselves. She often becomes a permanent role model in her students’ lives.

However, Sara does a lot more than teach at Goucher. Her full-time job consists of working with adult, neuropsychiatric patients on a be-havioral unit at Sheppard Pratt in Towson, MD. On an average day, Sara runs three therapy groups, as well as works with individual patients, doing activities geared toward im-proving the patient’s ability to interact safely and calmly. She also takes daily notes on each patient and attends scheduled meetings with

the psychologist and charge-nurse on the unit to coordinate treatment. Aside from her full-time job, Sara also has a beautiful daughter, Meheret, who keeps her busy.

When asked why she chose dance therapy, Sara explains, “I love to move.” She also has always seen herself helping with the healing process of others. On a more personal level, Sara says, “I have always seen and felt for my-self the positive impact of movement, drama, and music on someone’s feelings; the ability to change a feeling, to feel complete, and to pro-mote a feeling of belonging and usefulness. The ability to express difficult feelings and to feel heard and understood is a palpable power of movement.” Much of her motivation comes from a poem hanging on a wall in her home that says, “I live not to save or protect my life, but to give it as fully and as freely as I possibly can; and oh, there is so much of it!”

Many students enjoy the study of dance/movement therapy because it combines professional, clinical/psychological ground-ing with the movement and expression of the body. For those looking toward the field as a career choice, Sara wants them to know, “This is a career path that is determined by an inner calling. If you passionately love moving, if you passionately feel drawn to helping others, if you believe in the power of movement to reach the inner seed of an individual, and if you believe that the mind-body connection is essential and a fundamental drive to the well-being and wholeness of each individual, then this is the path for you.”

Sara and her daughter, Meheret. Courtesy of Sara Workeneh

Elizabeth Ahearn was included in the 2011 Who’s Who in America for her work in Pilates. Her work continued when she authored a cur-riculum for Baltimore County Public schools this past summer, after teaching master class-es at the Pilates Arena Conference in Rome, Italy. Ahearn also serves as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of ACDFA, and was elected vice-president of the organization’s Executive Board starting in the upcoming academic year.

Michael Thomas has been traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to choreograph pieces for Miracle Dancer, an organization that sup-ports ovarian cancer research. He has also set works on the Collective Dance Company in

Baltimore, where he is a regular instructor. In August, he will travel to Taiwan to set modern and aerial works for Taipedia.

Chrystelle Bond began a biography on Lillian Moore, an internationally known dance critic and Goucher alumna from the 1920s, who trained with George Balanchine in New York City.

Juliet Forrest is currently teaching the Semi-nar in Dance Philosophy and Criticism course. As she leads the course this semester, she is discovering interesting ways to integrate knowledge she has gained from research for her upcoming book on dance composition.

When They Aren’t Teaching Us…Lizbie Harbison ’11

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Left top: Morris, age 15, in Chopiniana with Robert Maiorano. Left bottom: Morris, age 18, in Pennsylvania Ballet’s The Nutcrakcer. Right: Morris in Equinox by Lynn Taylor KorbettAll photos courtesy of Katie Morris

Profile: Katie MorrisHillary Blunt ’14

As a child growing up in Bethesda, MD, Katie Morris was given a choice: study either ballet or piano. Mostly because her piano at home was broken, Morris chose dancing and studied ballet, modern, and different types of folk dance at a “big beautiful studio on the second floor of a building in Bethesda.”

Her decision led to an extraordinary résumé. At age 16, Pennsylvania Ballet asked Morris to join their company as an apprentice; she danced professionally with them as a solo-ist, performing works by Balanchine, Tudor, Petipa, Limón, and many others. Despite these impressive accomplishments, Morris is the most proud of graduating from college.

“After seven years with Pennsylvania Ballet, I decided to quit dancing because I always wanted to go to college,” she says. “I didn’t dance at all; I wanted to do something com-pletely different.” After graduating with hon-ors from the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Ballet asked her to teach for the school. This shift opened many doors for Mor-ris, and her undiscovered passion for teaching eventually led her to Goucher College.

In her technique classes, Morris places emphasis on musicality and valuing the live accompaniment we are fortunate to have. “I was always taught to really appreciate [live accompaniment] and to really listen to the music,” she says. “If the music dictates energy,

the movement should reflect that. I really feel that I emphasize musicality a lot, and the live accompaniment makes that really easy.”

Morris adds that she has felt at ease with both the faculty and the students at Goucher since her arrival. “I’ve actually been very impressed with the faculty; they clearly are very gifted, all of them. I feel very comfortable working with them. The students are exceptionally focused, and take corrections beautifully and apply them well. They are very receptive to everything I have to offer. And I cannot emphasize enough the gifted pianists we have here.” On the feeling she gets from Goucher overall, Morris says, “It has a nice feel to it, a good energy.”

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Goucher Dancers Moved by LightEllen Bast ‘14

Choreographic inspiration can come from the most unexpected sources, whether from the football field, the highway, or a children’s book. Dance Department Chair Elizabeth Lowe Ahearn found such unanticipated inspiration in a place Goucher students know very well: Towson Town Centre. While walking through the mall a few years ago, Ahearn saw unique lighting fixtures hanging from the ceiling like pendulums. Intrigued by their vertical structure and design, she then began researching light, its physical properties, and its social conno-

tations. Thus began the process of creating Moved by Light, a four-movement ballet set to string quartet music by Benjamin Britten.

Not surprisingly, stage lighting is central to the work. Instead of lights simply allowing the audience to view the dancers, the intensive lighting alters the performance space. Dif-ferences in movement quality and lighting between the four movements represent the multifaceted nature of light. The stark light-ing changes dictate both how and where the dancers can move on stage. For instance, in

the first movement, where the dancers are ini-tially defined by light, they must remain in the three columns of light while executing precise movements. In contrast, the third movement, a fluid pas de deux about reflection and diffu-sion, utilizes a fog machine so that the three pools of light onstage have a softer, more dispersed appearance.

Professor Ahearn’s work premiered at Goucher’s Repertory Dance Ensemble Spring Concert in April.

(L-R) Loren White, Carey McGuire, and Eve Holmes in rehearsal.Photo courtesy of Mariah Halket

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2010

Emily Adams is currently completing a two-year contract as a Pilates instructor at Goucher.

Gabriella Berkow will be attending Colum-bia University Teachers College, in the Mas-ters Program in Applied Exercise Physiology, beginning in fall 2011.

In August 2010, Elyse Morris joined the Seán Curran Company (Fall 2009 Guest Artist in Residence at Goucher) and is also working with Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion. Mor-ris resides in Brooklyn, NY, and works part time at the Juilliard Store (a music bookstore) while interning twice a week with the Folk Arts, Regrant, and Development departments at the Brooklyn Arts Council.

After recovering from back surgery, Sarah Nagle recently relocated to Astoria, Queens, and was offered a place in a scholarship program with Jennifer Muller/The Works with fellow alum Ashley Turenchalk ‘10. Nagle is also an arts administration intern with Keigwin+Company.

Upon graduation, Kellene Rottenberger moved back home to Long Island, New York. Aside from schooling local housewives at Zumba, she is working as an arts adminis-tration intern with Parsons Dance in Times Square.

Adriana Saldana didn’t wander far from Goucher. She is living in downtown Baltimore and is working for a physical therapy group. Artistically, she is dancing with The Collec-tive in Baltimore and Jane Franklin Dance in Arlington, Virginia. Saldana is also working toward a yoga teacher certification at Lifeline Power Yoga in Towson.

Ashley Turenchalk is working as the administrative assistant for Jennifer Muller/The Works after being a member of their scholarship program. In addition, Turenchalk is assisting and dancing with Roger C. Jeffrey.

2009

Angelica Daniele is working for Morton Street Dance Center and the Baltimore Bal-let, dancing for Full Circle Dance Company, and serving on the board for the Maryland Council for Dance. She is also the Mentor-ship Pilot Program intern for DanceUSA and is in her second year of graduate school at Goucher, completing a master’s of arts in arts administration. Her thesis, Performance:

The Collective and Introspective, was pub-lished in March 2011 by WriteLife, LLC. To order a copy visit https://www.createspace.com/3582265. Part of the proceeds will go to supporting Baltimore’s dance community.

Marilyn Mullen is living in Baltimore and dancing with the Effervescent Collective and the Collective Dance Company. She is work-ing as a first-grade teaching assistant at City Neighbors Hamilton, a new charter school in Baltimore City, and loves working at the school because of the focus on arts integra-tion and project-based learning.

Lynne Price is living and dancing in Balti-more and has recently been accepted into the University of Maryland’s M.F.A. program in dance, with a full scholarship.

In January 2011, Ariella Singer began nurs-ing school at Duke University.

Last season, Annalise Woller was a principal with Boulder Ballet but had to work several other jobs (teaching, tutoring math, etc.) in order to make a living. Recently, Woller was offered a contract dancing as a company member with Dayton Ballet (artistic direc-tor, Dermot Burke, Fall 2008 Guest Artist in Residence at Goucher).

2008

Alisa Pravdo is working as a physical therapy technician in Baltimore and began pursuit of her doctorate degree in physical therapy in June 2009.

Jenna Simon lives in Brooklyn NY. She is dancing as a soloist with DeMa Dance Com-pany (www.demadancecompany.com), and is also dancing for Israeli choreographer Lior Shneior and for Goucher alum Emma Batman ’08. Simon teaches ballet at Logrea Dance Academy in Westchester, NY, and takes classes in the city whenever she can.

Whitney Rickards has been working admin-istratively for Janice Garrett for the past two years in San Francisco, California. Rickards and Garrett are currently in the midst of re-shaping her former company, Janice Garrett & Dancers, into a new performing arts entity to include her fellow choreographer Charles Moulton: Garrett+Moulton Productions.

Asya Zlatina is in her third season with Koresh Dance Company. She lives in Philadel-phia and is traveling a lot around the U.S. and internationally with the company.

2007

Ingrid Abeleda relocated to New York last fall after spending a few years dancing in England. She is in her first season with Elisa Monte Dance (EMD) and spent the first part of January performing in Luxembourg and Italy. EMD is currently preparing for a performance at the Joyce Theatre; informa-tion can be found here: http://www.joyce.org/performancestickets/calendar_detail.php?event=352&theater=1

Kat Richter recently graduated from Roehampton University in London and is cur-rently living and dancing in Philadelphia, PA.

2004

Jessica Stephenson is currently dancing with a new company, Ledges and Bones Dance Project, based in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

2001

Kathleen Seiler gave birth to little girl in Scotland in March 2010.

1999

Meital Waibsnaider Kyley is now an immi-gration lawyer and gave birth in April 2010 to a boy, Asher, and a girl, Lila, in New York City.

1996

Francesca Jandasek is now a certified Gyrotonic® instructor and is working at the Elements Fitness and Wellness Center in Georgetown, Washington, DC.

Caroline Copeland is currently attending the graduate program for dance at Sarah Law-rence College. She was also asked by the Bos-ton Early Music Festival to co-choreograph the next festival opera, Staffani’s Niobe, in 2011. (www.carolinecopeland.com)

1992

Amy Marshall Dance Company (AMDC) recently celebrated ten years. An interview in the Art Times Journal was published last August. (http://www.arttimesjournal.com/dance/Jul_Aug_10_Francine_Trevens/Amy_Marshall_Dancers.html)

Alumnae/i News

dancea student publication of the goucher college dance department

GOUCHER COLLEGE

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Editor in Chief: Kitty Dean

Contributors: Ellen Bast Hillary Blunt Laura Brown Carly Callahan Fiona Cansino Ashley Evans Lizbie Harbison Tara Kearney Natalia Maldari Muriel Mills Emily Polasik Allie Rodis Emily Rorty Georgia Speier Shawnia White

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Young Dance Educators Experience a Taste of the ProfessionLaura Brown ’12, Tara Kearney ’11, and Emily Rorty ’11

With the help of the Friends of Goucher Dance and Rick Southerland, dance education students headed out west last October for the National Dance Education Organization Conference in Phoenix, AZ. As secretary of the Executive Committee, Southerland was attend-ing the conference and thought it would be beneficial for his students to attend, as well. The organization creates connections between dance educators across the United States and the conference, in turn, helps to bring new information to students, teachers, administra-tors, professors, and other professionals. This year the conference specifically focused on creativity, innovation, and 21st-century skills, a hot topic in the education sector.

The NDEO conference hosted a variety of lectures and workshops that were presented by dance education professionals. The hardest part of the trip was deciding which ones to attend; with Southerland’s advice, we choose events that sounded engaging and practical to our future classrooms. One of our most memorable experiences was Anne Green Gilbert’s workshop, “The Brain Dance,” which

taught us the importance of the mind-body connection and how to incorporate it into the classroom. Another insightful workshop was “Moving Through the 50 States and Capitals,” with Ann K. Meeder. Together, we learned how to teach certain concepts through the integra-tion of movement and song, in this case the geographic locations of each state and their capitals. One of the most inspiring moments of the NDEO conference was watching Ann Hutchinson-Guest, the dance-notation expert, sway to the rhythm of the music in a lecture.

Being surrounded by expert dance educators and others with a passion for dance, we felt welcomed and empowered to continue to learn from everyone at the conference; we hope to become well-rounded and passionate novice dance educators. With its wide spec-trum of presentations, the conference was an excellent opportunity not only for learning but also for networking and conversing with dance educators from around the country. Together we explored all avenues within the field of dance education and realized that dance edu-cation goes far beyond the classroom.