A Thought-Leader In Family & Children’s Dance Classes | Houston, TX
Frame Dance is a thought leader in dance education, inspiring the next generation of movers, makers, and world changers by offering dance classes for adults & children, multi-generational ensembles, professional performances, networking events, and film festivals. We are nestled between West U and the Museum District.
We believe in developing the whole dancer, teaching critical life skills such as creative thinking, leadership, collaboration, and resilience through our artful and playful dance curriculum at our studio and in partner schools.
Our adult modern dance classes are designed to offer you the joy and magic that’s possible when you create space in your life to move, to grow, and to share in the creative process with a like-hearted community.
For more than ten years, Frame Dance has brought radically inclusive and deeply personal contemporary dance to Houston. Led by Founder and Creative Director Lydia Hance, whom Dance Magazine calls “the city’s reigning guru of dance in public places,” the professional company is made up of six acclaimed co-creators committed to collaboration. Frame Dance has created over 50 unique site-specific performances and nine dances for the camera screened in festivals all over the United States and Europe. With an unrelenting drive to make dance in relationship to environment, Frame Dance has created dance works for and with METRO, Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, Houston Parks Board, Plant It Forward Farms, CORE Dance, Rice University, Houston Ballet, 14 Pews, Aurora Picture Show, and the Contemporary Arts Museum. Frame Dance’s productions were described by Arts + Culture Texas Editor-in-Chief Nancy Wozny as “some of the most compelling and entertaining work in Houston.” Creative Director Lydia Hance is a champion of living composers and is dedicated to work exclusively with new music.
I thought when I went back to school to get my MFA that I would be entering an uptight academic environment. I was so preoccupied with the idea of school and relocating my life that I forgot I would be entering a community of like-minded peers. In undergrad, even among dance majors, I was considered the “dance nerd,” In grad school I was surrounded by not only dancers but specifically “dance nerds,” people who wanted to explore, dissect and reveal as much about the art as I did. This community turned out to be a vital support group throughout the process of completing my degree. Having others to bitch to, socialize, laugh, and share my fledgling art with became essential for my survival during this stressful time. These bonds were not only a lifeline during the process but created many long lasting friendships and an excellent network that stands strong long after graduation.
The teacher/student relationship has evolved
When you enter a graduate program you have already passed a test in the eyes of the faculty. You have already completed one major academic step and have decided to continue onto another. There are fewer grad students for them to keep track of and you yourself are probably a much better student. For me this reduced a lot of the intimidationI felt with my undergraduate professors. Continue reading →
It started when I wanted to see what came up on Google if I typed in “MFA dance programs.” What came up was a list of what are possibly the largest and most well known MFA
programs– and those with their SEO figured out. I sat there staring at the first hit, and then scrolled down wondering which school I should click on first. I clicked, and apparently unclicked my self-confidence. (Could they see me through the screen? Were they laughing at my ignorant query into their top tier elite institution?) That suffocating, diminishing blanket that hovers and squeezes you whenever you walk into an audition came right back over me. I thought I had grown larger than that blanket, but apparently I’ve just felt mostly comfortable for some time. I hadn’t felt that vulnerable exposition in a while.
That little anecdote is really leading to two things:
1) Applying for programs is scary. You are brave. Auditioning is scary. You are brave. Interviewing is scary. You are brave. Doing things where you put everything on the table– where you go all in– and might not get anything back is terrifying. I’ve known some people to LIVE on that feeling. I, however, want to shrink into the smallest version of myself. I’ve always wanted more courage because that shrinking feeling is the absolute worst. If you’re a shrinker like me, practice putting yourself in places that are scary. People tell you to “fake it til you make it” but I can’t think of too many things more miserable than wearing a false self. So I try to go back to the place where I do feel confident, where I feel like I am my full self, and pull of those things into the new, scary place. It takes some discipline to not let the fears run rampant.
2) Let’s do something that pushes us out of our comfort zones this year. I mean really, actually pushes you. I think we all take some small and fairly safe risks. But it takes courage and motivation to really push yourself. And maybe it’s only one thing this whole year. And I want to know what it is. Share, because you will inspire someone.
“COMPANIES ALL ACROSS AMERICA ARE STARTING TO SEE A CRITICAL TALENT GAP AS OLDER EMPLOYEES RETIRE. ARTS STUDENTS MAY NOT HAVE ALL THE TRADITIONAL SKILLS, BUT THEY HAVE THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE: CREATIVITY.”
You may have seen this article floating around on social media. Here are some key points, but I encourage you to read the full article! What a perfect response to anyone who sees art as a hobby. Use this article as a way to explain why the skills of an artist go beyond the art form and are key to the growth of business in our time. It’s always great to have language on hand when our value is questioned time and time again.
“Consider this: Today’s contingent economy has people moving constantly from one job to another, one type of work to another, one industry to a different industry. In fact, on average, a person between the ages of 25 and 45 will hold 11 different jobs in their lifetime. Thirty percent of us will work in more than 15 different jobs over the course of our careers.
Organizations far and wide—perhaps even yours—will compete intensely for workers who are adaptable, resourceful, and can quickly learn and apply new skills to a variety of challenges. Where can you find such workers?
One answer runs counter to much conventional wisdom: Ask an artist.”
“Is art school the next B-school? Hardly, though artists often possess the skills and temperament that business leaders regularly say are in short supply: creativity, resiliency, flexibility, high tolerance for risk and ambiguity, as well as the courage to fail.”
Ways to engage artists in the workplace:
Ask them to explicitly think about puzzles using their artistic hat/lens. Invite a local theater group to work with employees on improvisation exercises to free up their creative juices. Research has shown that when people engage in improv they later generate more creative ideas to a range of issues and challenges.
Figure out how to incorporate critical feedback into an ongoing process of improvement and innovation. Ask an artist to come in and run a “critical feedback” workshop for employees.
Have an artist facilitate a workshop where a creative task is emergent, shifting, and where new information requires adjustments and negotiation.
“Many people see artists as shamans, dreamers, outsiders, and rebels. In reality, the artist is a builder, an engineer, a research analyst, a human relations expert, a project manager, a communications specialist, and a salesman. The artist is all of those and more—combined with the imagination of an inventor and the courage of an explorer. Not a bad set of talents for any business challenged to innovate in a world of volatility, uncertainty, and change.”
The full article, “Is an MFA and new MBA?” by Steven Tepper can be found here.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what the MFA degree means for artists in our country right now. We’re living in a world so heavily driven by capitalism that any artist struggles with the effects of commercialism and mass production values. Is it really valuable to obtain a degree in the fine arts right now? Obviously, my answer is yes but it is worth recognizing the issues and struggles artists deal with on a daily basis. I’m going to approach this from the ways I’ve dealt with financing my own art, but please feel free to comment and add any advice you may have.
“Fine” art doesn’t necessarily (or hardly ever) generate a lot of cash flow. Artists aren’t usually creating in order to fund an end result, we are looking for an outlet of expression. Some artists are very interested in words of our critics and ticket sales, and some are not. It just depends on what kind of work you are making and why you’re making the work. Certainly the MFA program will give you a good bit of help in both of those directions. The feedback I received from my peers and professors in my choreography classes pretty much spanned the entire spectrum, ranging from questions of how the eyes were directed to asking questions directly to the dance, not me the choreographer (thank you Larry Lavender!) I found that considering my work through these multiple lenses was extremely valuable and gave me much more information about what kind of artist I am.
However you do view your art, if you can find a position at a University that supports creative work as research, you will probably find that funding opportunities are available for travel to conferences, festivals, performances, or wherever it is you decide to take your art. Of course, value is placed on adjudicated works, so when you are competing against other faculty for travel grants, it is important to consider. If full-time faculty work isn’t your cup of tea, it is possible to receive grant money, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult. Individual artists are mostly ineligible to receive grants from most agencies nowadays, you must be affiliated with a nonprofit corporation and an element of community outreach is becoming almost a requirement, with a few exceptions. This is great news for our youth and our communities as it strengthens our audiences and community appreciation for what we do, though it adds one more thing that gets in the way of just making the art. For anyone considering the MFA (or any artists in the field) I would highly recommend taking coursework in arts administration, particularly covering grant writing and non-profits. It was a course I have used time and again in working to fund my own travels and productions since I’ve left school.
For those artists that do depend on ticket sales and contributions (commercial or otherwise) the issue of creating art that is “accepted” is a very real one. The internet has made things so readily available that people can make a few clicks and have world class dancers right in front of them for free. Television has commercialized dance in a way that is boosting support for dance in a positive way, but also in a way that is confusing and misleading for many. In competitive shows like So You Think You Can Dance, audiences see brilliant dancers perform short dances (2-3 minutes) that tell entire stories on high production budgets and they can understand them! It’s not really SYTYCD’s fault – its commercialism as a whole. We get blasted everyday the same – ads, music, tv shows. Its simplified and you understand exactly what you’re supposed to. This makes things incredibly difficult for the abstract artists who aren’t always making art specifically “about” something, thus causing problems when we do get people in seats and they expect to see what they saw on television. I’m not saying there isn’t merit to what the choreographers and dancers do on SYTYCD, because they truly are amazing at creating captivating, well performed, well rehearsed dances in one week for two minutes. It is making our jobs a little more difficult to feel that we have the freedom to say what we want to say in more time and with much less money.
Sarah Wildes Arnett is Founder/Artistic Director of SWADanceCollective and Assistant Professor of Dance at Valdosta State University in Georgia. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Dance Choreography at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2012 and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Sarah’s interests are interdisciplinary as she enjoys integrating her talents in film-making, photography and music composition into her choreography while also expanding boundaries of genre and style. She continues to perform professionally with various companies and artists in the southeast. Most recently, she has performed and shown work at the MAD Festival (Atlanta), Alabama Dance Festival (Birmingham), NC Dance Alliance Annual Event (Greensboro) and RE:Vision by Forward Motion Theatre (NYC). http://www.swadanceco.com/
As those of us who have worked in show business are well aware “the show must go on.” It is amazing when you think about all that needs to get done in a production like an MFA thesis concert, but miraculously it all happens. This was a helpful attitude to take when I was working on my own concert. I had no idea how all the work would get done, but I knew that somehow it would all come together. And of course it did. Remember this when you are at your wit’s end and about to freak out about not finishing your work for the show. One benefit of having a concert as a final project is that you have no choice but to get it all done. The dates have been set long in advance and cannot be changed. This is one advantage that those seeking other kinds of terminal degrees do not have. I have friends who have been working on their PhD dissertations for years. The have no specific end time so it can be drawn out. We, as performers, have the benefit of having a set date to be done by, a finish line to look towards. When you are in the thick of it and your life has consisted of this crazy schedule for years it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel but remember grad school is not real life. Your concert and your degree will happen. Hang in there!
The project is still a part of the learning.
While your final project is a reflection of your overall work in graduate school it is still a part of the learning process. There is this sense that Continue reading →
For those of you who may be new…The “MFA Monday” series features the advice of Masters of Fine Arts. Enjoy their thoughts on the process of attaining an MFA!
by Angela Falcone
Oh grad school…
Being a current first year M.F.A. candidate/student at Texas Woman’s University, I have quickly learned the heightened expectations of a graduate student. One of my professors, Sarah Gamblin, said one afternoon, “you must do everything to the nth degree.” After she mentioned this revelation about graduate school, my life has been turned upside down. I am in my second semester of what everyone calls the “first year” and the journey has been everything I have expected…challenging, stressful, and rewarding. Not only am I tested mentally and physically every day, I am one part of a community striving to better themselves as artists and as dancers. Below are three revelations I have had about this journey…so far.
1. You can never “over do” an assignment.
I have always been an “A” student throughout my academic career, but I have never had the pressure of succeeding and/or being challenged to this degree. If you think you are doing the assignment “correctly,” better think again. I have quickly learned the expectation of an assignment is truly infinite. If it is one blog entry for .5 points of your overall grade, you better be writing that blog as if it is your proposal for your final paper. Having adapted to this type of expectation over the past semester, I am rapidly becoming a better writer, thinker, innovator, and creator. I am so thankful for this revelation!
2. It is not the “what” that is important anymore, but the “so what.”
I am one of the many students at TWU that went straight from undergrad to graduate school. In saying that, I have quickly realized within my very first class, I need to dive deeper into the topic at hand. Regurgitating information (like a banking system education) is not the expected anymore. When stating anything, I now know I need to find connections, anomalies, dichotomies, and/or possible links between any and all things, no matter the significance (because everything means something). I am still working through the kinks of this revelation in my writing.
3. Process! Process! Process!
My background mainly consists of drill team training, which is coined (in the dance community) as a genre that does not challenge process and is completely final-product based. I would like to shift this paradigm and invite improvisation and collaboration into the drill team process. Normally when I choreograph, I would have every detail planned out ahead of time, but now, I am well aware of the possibilities of improvisation and provocation (Larry Lavender’s term). This semester, I have had many revelations in my own choreographic process. I am granted four hours a week with my dancers, which is just enough time to play, experiment, create, and collaborate. The process of creating work has truly been stimulating and invigorating.
These revelations have truly shaped the artist I am becoming. I hope to one day be able to succinctly articulate how the impact of dance has had on my life, but until next time…
Angela Falcone, a Houston native, graduated from Friendswood High School in 2007. She was a member of the drill team, the Friendswood Wranglerettes, where she held the title of Grand Marshal. After graduating, she followed her dream and tried out for the Kilgore College Rangerettes. She had the honor of being chosen as the Freshmen Sergeant and Swingster her freshman year, and received the greatest honor of being chosen as Captain her sophomore year. Following graduation from Kilgore College with an Associate in Fine Arts, she was accepted to the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds a B.F.A. in Dance. Angela currently attends Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas where she is pursuing her M.F.A. in Dance. She is specifically interested in shifting the paradigm of high school drill team by reinvigorating the choreographic process and bringing a somatic awareness to high school dancers’ bodies.
Surprising things I discovered when entering Grad School
I would make friends.
I thought when I went back to school to get my MFA that I would be entering an uptight academic environment. I was so preoccupied with the idea of school and relocating my life that I forgot I would be entering a community of like-minded peers. In undergrad, even among dance majors, I was considered the “dance nerd.” In grad school I was surrounded by not only dancers but specifically “dance nerds,” people who wanted to explore, dissect and reveal as much about the art as I did. This community turned out to be a vital support group throughout the process of completing my degree. Having others to bitch to, socialize, laugh, and share my fledgling art with became essential for my survival during this stressful time. These bonds were not only a lifeline during the process but created many long lasting friendships and an excellent network that stands strong long after graduation.
The teacher/student relationship has evolved.
When you enter a graduate program you have already passed a test in the eyes of the faculty. You have already completed one major academic step and have decided to continue onto another. There are fewer grad students for them to keep track of and you yourself are probably a much better student. For me this reduced a lot of the intimidation I felt with my undergraduate professors. While I had (and still have) great respect for the faculty who guided me through my MFA program I sensed a more open relationship with them than I had past teachers. I believe this allowed me to ask for help in my learning process more readily and, in turn, gave me the most out of the program.
It’s not only about making the art.
I thought that majoring in choreography would be all shop. I would create pieces and receive feedback to make them better. Having received my BFA only 5 years prior I don’t know why I didn’t realize that the program would be so well rounded. I teach non dance majors now as an adjunct professor and explain to many undergraduate students why this dance class they are taking for a fine arts credit helps them become more well rounded. On arriving for my MFA orientation I was reminded that we would be looking at choreography from more than the perspective of the choreographer creating the work. We looked at it from an audience members point a view, where the work stands in our culture, and what the choreographer’s life entails. Somatics classes informed me about my body and technique classes gave it new and inspired ways to move. It wasn’t just about spacing, timing and costumes. While few credit hours are spent outside the department (9 out of 60 in our department) you do have the opportunity to explore other fields. I took Global Arts, Multicultural Education and Exercise for Older adults, all of which significantly help me in my jobs today. I arrived thinking I would only create choreography leave ready to start a company. I came out with a more open mind about where dance stands in our world. While creating work on occasion my current bread and butter lies in getting others, college students both in and out of the arts, children at local dance studios, and adults from beginner to professional to expand their knowledge of dance. Much like the MFA program did for me.
Amanda Diorio is an adjunct faculty member at UNC-Greensboro and Elon University. She teaches adult classes open to the public at the North Carolina Dance Project where she is also a member of the board of directors. Amanda holds an M.F.A. in Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a B.F.A. in Dance from Temple University. She has taught, produced, and choreographed dance extensively in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Florida and North Carolina at universities, studios, public and private schools and community centers. Specializing in Contemporary, Jazz and Hip Hop techniques she enjoys spreading peace, love and understanding through her teaching of dance, choreography and culture.
Good Morning! Framers, I am so pleased to bring you Megan Yankee’s next installment of MFA Monday, a rich interview her with colleague and friend Erin Law. Enjoy!
After the Master: Interview with Erin Law, M.F.A.
I am happy to present my interview with Erin Law this week. Erin and I met at Denison University where she was teaching as a visiting assistant professor in the 2012-2013 school year. We have since traveled to Burkina Faso (West Africa) together to perform a work by Sandra Mathern-Smith. Her warmth and expertise is something I greatly admire and I cherish her friendship and mentorship. If you have any questions for her, please email me at meganyankeedance@gmail.com and I will happily forward them to her. Enjoy!
M: How are you using the knowledge and experiences you gained in grad school now (outside of work)?
E: I think mainly the knowledge and experiences I gained serve as a reminder to stay true to myself no matter what. In school I had the opportunity to delve in deep, to explore and discover my aesthetic voice. I think that in this world that often devalues art as a valid form of work, it is important to stay connected to self and to have integrity in the face of adversity.
M: Do you have a regular movement practice (even if it’s atypical)?
E: I am sure to move (consciously) every day in some way, even if it’s not exactly how I desire. I have enjoyed walking a lot recently. I like to connect with the environment that way. Sometimes I do small dances while making copies, others I stray from the path that leads directly from point A to point B…
M: What was your focus in grad school?
E: I focused on improvisation as performance. Through collaboration and experimentation I discovered many modalities through which to become more specific and rigorous in improvising as a soloist, part of a group, and as a contact dancer. I also focused equally on developing my skills as a sound artist. I did this so to face my fears and self-judgment and also to be able to make things that I could post online without worrying about how copyright laws apply to the presentation of my work (live or online). Although it was my last semester I discovered film through a composition class we took and I fell in love with it. So while it wasn’t a constant focus when I was there, I have continued to explore it in my independent professional work.
M: How/did your employment status shift after grad school? What was the job search and application process like for your current position?
E: Each school year following graduate school, my employment status has shifted. After graduate school where I was a Teaching Fellow, I moved back to Tennessee and did some adjunct work at Middle Tennessee State University. This was a huge turning point for me as a dance educator because I was asked to teach Dance Appreciation as a general education course. I had to learn quickly how to shift from depending largely on my body as a teaching tool to becoming an engaging lecturer. I found that the vast array of things I had been exposed to in graduate school combined with my training from Integrated Movement Studies (Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis) served me here, because it prepared me with the skills to create meaningful hands-on activities for very diverse groups of students. I then became a Visiting Assistant Professor at Denison University as a sabbatical replacement the following school year. This was my first opportunity to work full time teaching both theory and technique courses, creating choreography, and advising students. This gave me the chance to expand on things I had been developing over the last several years of my teaching career in a very supported and focused manner.
This year has been the most challenging in terms of finding meaningful work. I have experienced a lot of potential opportunities, rejections, and a great sense of humbling. I am proud of myself for my perseverance.
I feel, despite the lack of fruitful employment after a year of searching, a freedom to imagine new and different pathways for myself in the near future. I am still applying for academic positions but I am also interested in freelancing and collaborating with dance artists with whom I really want to work.
M: What is your opinion regarding the state of adjunct positions in the US?
E: I preface my personal commentary by saying I have not researched the state of adjunct positions here, so I am coming from my own frame of reference as well as hearsay from fellow adjuncts. First, I believe it must be a very different experience depending on which school and region one works. I think there is a double edged sword with adjunct work: there is less institutional responsibility, freeing me as an artist to do other things with my time but then there are no health benefits, the pay is very poor and the teaching load can still be incredibly demanding. I have enjoyed having less institutional responsibilities this year, it has allowed me to do other things with my time. Then again, as someone who enjoys investing in my students, I find myself naturally inclined to advise and mentor students; it provides me great fulfillment. This is where boundaries are fuzzy because it is not part of my job description, I am not getting paid for it, but there I am doing it anyway. I think adjunct positions—specifically in dance—only exacerbate our masochistic cultural tendency to work (or in some cases, toil) for free “all for the love of dance.” It can create in me a sense of resentment and devaluing of my own skills. It is certainly not a sustainable source of employment, but I can see how it could be useful for some.
The thing I struggle with is that adjuncts and tenured professors could be providing the same level of quality teaching but are not receiving the same benefits for their work.
Adjuncts are left out in the cold when it comes to issues of health insurance, travel benefits, and general accessibility to the perks an institution can offer. We all need to be compensated fairly for our work and that is not happening.
M: How are you using the knowledge and experiences you gained in grad school in your current position?
E: I have several jobs right now so this question has different answers depending on which job I am discussing…I will start with my day job. I support a high school English teacher who is blind. This was her very first year teaching and she had a lot to learn. Although it was not part of my job description I found myself having philosophical discussions with her all year about how to approach teaching …I think I served her as a type of pedagogical advisor. I have helped her to consider how learning can be a hands on activity and a kinesthetic experience. I have been able to bring the analytic skills I acquired in graduate school to my job evaluating her work as well as the students’ work.
In my adjunct work, the connections are much more straightforward. As I discussed before the exposure to so many different contemporary artists helped prepare me to teach Dance Appreciation. I also feel that getting to teach and take several semester length technique courses in graduate school allowed me to understand the flow of a semester and how I wanted it to progress for my students.
I think one of the most instrumental or significant/sentimental ways in which my experiences in grad school affect my current work is in my independent choreography.
I feel much more adequately prepared to take on big projects and take really big risks. I am not as attached to my work and don’t treat as this precious thing that is an appendage of my own body anymore and I owe that to the critique process I experienced in grad school.
I seek out critical feedback which is something I never did before in Nashville.
M: Roughly how many times have you performed or presented your work since you graduated. How does this compare to the amount of times you did so during and before graduate school?
E: I have presented work about nine times over the last three years since I graduated. This includes the production of three dance films, two of which were presented as part of live performances. During graduate school I performed or presented work one to two times per semester over a total of four semesters. I was definitely making work and/or involved in others’ work during graduate school more intensely than when I left. A marked difference in the timeline of producing work is that I now seek my own opportunities to present work and thus decide (within reason) my own deadlines/show dates, whereas in graduate school, these things were essentially determined for me. In this way it feels equal. Before graduate school I presented work as part of annual or semesters’ end dance concerts more frequently than seeking alternative or site-specific performance spaces. I adhered more to a studio’s schedule than my own desire to make work. I enjoy that I am liberated from that now!
M: Is there a project you’re itching to get started on?
E: I am very excited to start on a project that I will present at the end of July. Earlier this year I had an anxiety dream related to work and it featured me digging through bags of underwear and markers. My friend (and collaborator) suggested I shed the anxiety aspect of the dream and explore the specific images of underwear and markers in a dance. That resonated with me immediately so I started dreaming up ideas. I am looking forward to working with a few improvisers to develop a performance score with these items and mainly the freedom they represent to me.
Erin Law is a movement educator, improviser, choreographer, and performance artist based in Nashville, Tennessee who is determined to both challenge and bring harmony to her community through dance. Recently she has completed a yearlong Visiting Assistant Professorship at Denison University where she restaged a choreographic work and taught Somatics, Understanding Dance, Laban Movement Analysis, Contact Improvisation, Senior Research, and Cultural Studies as sabbatical replacement for Dr. Gill Wright Miller. Previous engagements include an adjunct professorship at Middle Tennessee State University and Assistant Director of the co-curricular Vanderbilt Dance Program.
Originally from Massachusetts, Law attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. and high honors in dance. She went on to the Integrated Movement Studies program to certify in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis (LMA) through the University of Utah and in the spring of 2011, Erin graduated from the Master of Fine Arts program in dance at Smith College (Massachusetts) with her MFA in choreography and performance.
In her independent work Erin is currently pursuing the integration of site-specific improvisations in movement, identity theory, sound, and film under the project heading salt_space. She is collaborating with fellow dance artists Janelle Bonfour-Mikes and Travis Cooper in a performance piece exploring both the repression and unleashing of humans’ animal nature with the working title “Underwear and Markers (We Are Animals)” which will be shown in late July 2014. Erin is delighted to have just returned from Burkina Faso, Africa where she had the honor of performing with Sandra Mathern, John Osburn, and Megan Yankee in Mathern’s multi-media work “I Am Relative to You” as part of Olivier Tarpaga’s 2014 Nomad Express Festival.
Megan Yankee’s MFA Monday arc began last week and continues next week!
Happy Monday Framers! Today we kick off a new MFA Monday arc written by the lovely and immensely talented Amanda Jackson!
MFA: Little and Big Things
Part 1 – Penguins, Collaborators, and Community… Oh My!
We’ve all seen him awkwardly permeating the web, penguining around in various social situations. He goes by Socially Awkward Penguin. While in grad school, my colleagues and I turned to the Internet abyss of memes and YouTube a little too often to escape stressful realities and enter other worlds of shock, awe, and wit. These moments of escaping together created bonds between us, albeit strange ones, that filtered into movement and theory classes, rehearsals and feedback sessions, and potlucks that doubled as times for mind-mapping. I would be withholding information if I didn’t tell you that some Internet gems even made appearances in our choreography.
Back to the penguin meme: The poor penguin offers an “Oh God No” reaction to a teacher that states, “Ok class, find a partner.” Although this is quite funny to me now as a teacher, the penguin’s offerings were slightly less relatable during grad school. Our cohort’s unique bonding experiences paired with TWU’s strong focus on Contact Improvisation made finding a partner more exciting than dancing solo.
We learned more about each other, through what I’ll call spontaneous movement puzzles, in extremely rigorous and generous class environments facilitated by our professors. We also learned through witnessing our partners’ thought processes and reactions as well as how they prefer to move and be moved, even beyond a physical sense. This is what drew many of us to the MFA program and to each other.
Back in 2010 a group of ten dancers from TWU, all in various stages of our MFA cycles, came together to form Big Rig Dance Collective – a Denton-based group that is now co-directed by myself, Whitney Boomer, Crysta Caulkins-Clouse, and Lily Sloan. The impetus for our collective was to create more outlets beyond the academic setting to develop a deeper collaborative process. Big Rig was also experimenting with new methods of inviting communities into our process through performances and workshops. We ultimately wanted more of everything and were eager to share with everyone! (As if our graduate work didn’t keep us busy enough.)
I share this with you because I think there is something intriguing about our grad school environment that encouraged our desire to connect communities through dance. Also sprouting from this environment were Muscle Memory, CholoRock, and Simple Sparrow. I am reminded of the energy that we all brought into this environment – It felt electric and contagious, an infinite cycle. In my mind, we fueled the environment just as much as it fueled us.
So in the spirit of community, I’ll leave you with some insights from my friend/colleague/co-director/fellow kitchen improviser:
“After I graduated and began working as an adjunct professor in the community, I was still as driven as ever to work in Big Rig, but I felt the harsh reality of being removed from the community from which Big Rig was born. All of my friends were still in grad school, and I was out. I missed out on the inside jokes, the basement banter, and simply the wonderful treat of moving and dancing with friends on a daily basis. It was very, very hard.
Throughout the continual journey of figuring out what we want Big Rig to be in our lives, I have realized that community is first. This sense of community might mean remembering to see each other as friends first. It means developing a rich and rigorous dance practice with each other, in the midst of our crazy schedules and busy lives. I feel best when I stop and remember the first reason that we ever started collaborating: we liked each other. We liked each other’s ideas, energy, spirit, and creativity. Out of that likeable attraction comes some of our best work.” – Lily Sloan
So as you are researching MFA programs, I think it is equally important to research the MFA students. Are they doing work that interests you? Are they welcoming and supportive of what you can bring to the cohort? Are they people with whom you can spend long nights in the basement watching ridiculous YouTube videos? These MFA students can become some of your strongest supporters and collaborators throughout your time in grad school and beyond.
Amanda Jackson holds an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. She is a performer, choreographer, educator, stylist, and avid cooking improviser. Her work has been presented across Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Louisiana with a notable experience at Harvard University with collaborator, Matthew Cumbie. Amanda is Co-Director of Big Rig Dance Collective in Denton, TX and Adjunct Professor of Dance at Tarrant County College Northwest. www.ajdance.org
Happy Monday and thank you to the soldiers who have protected this country!
We’re back with the final installment by Amanda Diorio. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
There is not enough time to do everything under the sun.
Entering the MFA program at UNC Greensboro I anticipated having loads of time to take heaps of courses both in and out of the department. At the start 3 years seems like a long time. In the end it went by so fast I remember wishing I could have taken more courses than I had time for. If you come in with all your prerequisites met many programs are only 60 credits total for an MFA intended to be completed in 3 years. That translates to 10 credits a semester, which usually ends up being 3 academic courses and a technique class (this of course depends on your department). When I was registering for fall semester of the third year and looking ahead to the final semester in the spring I was discouraged that I had not had a chance to take every course from every teacher I originally wanted to. I was comforted looking back on how much I was able to do while I was there but there was still a feeling that I could have done more. I came to the realization that even though the time seems to drag when you are working on the 20 page research paper with little sleep in the long run it goes by quickly (if you thought high school and college went fast just wait). Think about this when you start your program. Try to decide what it is you want to your studies to focus on early. This will help you to create space in your academic plan and allow you to touch on the subjects that interest you the most.
Go at your own pace.
I have a bad habit of comparing myself to others. I tell myself I am not doing enough because so and so did so much more in my same position. This is not a good attitude to have in general but certainly not while trying to obtain a terminal degree. Know your own limits in regards to stress, work load and sleep deprivation and respect them. Like every individual candidates deal with the stress and time management in their own way. I was marveled at some of my friends who took on so many projects while pursuing their MFAs both in and out of the department. Some of my colleagues were fostering companies and other artistic ventures outside of school. Some of them had families going into the department while others planned weddings and were pregnant while working on their degrees. I could barely handle taking care of my two cats and myself while balancing the heavy workload. Working outside of the degree also varied, several people found outside employment while a number survived on student loans. Deciding to participate and perform in other student and faculty works is also a decision that affects how much time you have left for yourself and your course load. I found it comforting to live less than a mile away from campus to get that extra bit of sleep, quite a few of my friends found it more stressful to be so close and decided on a small (or not so small) commutes. Your family, tolerance for stress and strategies for time management all play a part in your decisions and individuals have their own set of circumstances that determine how they handle things. Do not compare yourself to others and decide that you are doing too much or not enough. Find what makes you comfortable and be proud of your accomplishments regardless. This is your degree and you should be able to obtain it in a way that makes you proud but also maintains your sanity.
Amanda Diorio is an adjunct faculty member at UNC-Greensboro and Elon University. She teaches adult classes open to the public at the North Carolina Dance Project where she is also a member of the board of directors. Amanda holds an M.F.A. in Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a B.F.A. in Dance from Temple University. She has taught, produced, and choreographed dance extensively in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Florida and North Carolina at universities, studios, public and private schools and community centers. Specializing in Contemporary, Jazz and Hip Hop techniques she enjoys spreading peace, love and understanding through her teaching of dance, choreography and culture.
Biggest Surprises of Grad School
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