Dancing Through Disciplines: Exploring the Bard College Dance Program

The Bard College Dance Program offers a comprehensive and multifaceted approach to dance education, integrating rigorous training with artistic exploration and social engagement. The program emphasizes not only technical proficiency in various dance forms but also encourages students to explore dance as a means of personal expression, community building, and critical inquiry. Through partnerships with international institutions, residencies with renowned artists, and a commitment to addressing social issues, the Bard Dance Program cultivates well-rounded dancers who are prepared to make a meaningful impact on the world.

A Foundation in Diverse Dance Forms

The Bard College Dance Program provides students with a solid foundation in a variety of dance genres, including ballet, modern, jazz, and various ethnic forms. This broad exposure allows students to develop a versatile skill set and appreciate the rich diversity of dance traditions. The curriculum also delves into the historical and cultural contexts of dance, examining its role in shaping societies and reflecting human experiences.

Helen Wicks, a graduate of the Bard College Dance Program, was influenced by Bill T Jones, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, and other major modern dance choreographers.

Marrying Art and Activism

In an era marked by political turbulence, social injustices, and global challenges, the Bard College Dance Program recognizes the importance of using art as a catalyst for change. Students are encouraged to explore the intersection of dance and activism, using movement to respond to the world around them and address pressing social issues.

Leslie Morales, a Bard College senior, exemplifies this commitment to social engagement. Inspired by her family's experience with COVID-19 and conversations about vaccine hesitancy, Morales is using her senior project to research unethical medical practices and express her findings through dance. Her work delves into historical moments, such as the use of impoverished Puerto Rican women to test birth control pills in the 1950s, highlighting the importance of medical ethics and informed consent.

Several strategies may be used to combine schoolwork with activism:

Universities have started incorporating classes that merge arts and advocacy into their curriculums.
If your program requires you to complete a senior project, use it to respond to a social issue through research and movement.
At Loyola University Chicago, students formed a dance honor society to engage with their community.
Mobilize your peers. Invite other dancers who are passionate about the same issues to be part of a flash mob, or reserve studio space to start your own choreography incubator. Activism doesn’t have to be formal to be meaningful.

International Partnerships and Residencies

The Bard College Dance Program fosters a global perspective through collaborations with international institutions and residencies with renowned artists. These partnerships provide students with opportunities to engage with diverse dance traditions, learn from leading practitioners, and expand their artistic horizons.

Beginning in fall 2023, the Bard College Dance Program is launching a two-year partnership with Villa Albertine, a cultural institution that supports exchanges in arts and ideas between the United States, France, and beyond. Each semester, artists selected by Tara Lorenzen, director of Bard’s Dance Program, and Nicole Birmann Bloom, Villa Albertine’s program officer for the performing arts, in collaboration with Centre National de la Danse (CN D, Pantin, France) and other French choreographic centers, will teach technique and repertory courses in Bard’s dance curriculum.

During the spring semester, a choreographer will conduct a one week creative residency in the Luma Theater/Fisher Center with a public showing for the Bard community and masterclasses for the student body. A unique component of this partnership allows Bard dance students to participate in the international dance platform CAMPING at the CN D in Pantin, France, each June. CN D is a public institution created in 1998, devoted to the preservation of choreographic and dance culture. Its distinctive CAMPING dance festival gives students the opportunity to work with choreographers from around the globe, perform their own choreographic projects, and develop teaching practices by conducting morning classes with their peers.

This fall, choreographers and performers Marcela Santander (Chile/France) and Volmir Cordeiro (Brazil/France) will join the Dance faculty in Annandale-on-Hudson.

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Since 2009, the Bard Dance Program has hosted an in-residence dance company or performing arts organization bringing professional technique and composition to the academic program in the form of teaching, educational licensing projects, master classes, full-Company production residencies, and public performances.

The Allure of Dance

Dance holds a unique appeal, captivating audiences with its ability to express emotions, tell stories, and transcend language barriers. The Bard College Dance Program recognizes the power of dance as a performance art and provides students with ample opportunities to showcase their talent and hone their craft.

Dance is as much a part of the world’s artistic history as literature, music, or the visual arts, and its beauty is just as varied and complex. Dance majors are usually already devoted to their art, having taken dance classes from a young age. Dance programs are generally competitive, as is the case with most performance programs. Be prepared to submit a videotape of your past performances.

Preparing for a Dance Career

For aspiring dancers, the Bard College Dance Program offers a comprehensive curriculum that prepares them for a variety of career paths. Students can choose from concentrations such as choreography or technology, allowing them to specialize in areas that align with their interests and goals.

Developing a Personal Voice

The Bard College Dance Program encourages students to develop their unique artistic voices and explore their individual creative potential. Through choreography workshops, performance opportunities, and mentorship from experienced faculty, students are empowered to express themselves through movement and create original works that reflect their perspectives and experiences.

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Zaccho Dance Theatre: A Case Study in Site-Specific Aerial Dance

The Zaccho Dance Theatre, a Bay Area site-specific aerial dance company directed by Joanna Haigood, provides a compelling example of the innovative and boundary-pushing work that can emerge from a dance program like Bard's. Zaccho Dance Theatre has been making work on culturally significant subject matter since 1980. The company's production, "Love, a state of grace," exemplifies the integration of dance, spirituality, and social commentary.

Love, a state of grace

Performed in one-hour cycles, the work allowed audience members to move through the space below at will, and to engage with a series of rituals and meditations, designed by artist-theologians Yohana Junkar and Claudío Cavalhaes. Love Lifts Us Up A Study of SurrenderJanuary 10, 2022An interview with Zaccho Dance Theatre artists Veronica Blair, Ciarra D’Onofrio, Suzanne Gallo, Saharla Vetsch, and Helen WicksZaccho Dance Theatre is a Bay Area site-specific aerial dance company directed by Joanna Haigood that has been making work on culturally significant subject matter since 1980. In February, the company will premier Love, a state of grace at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Here, Zaccho Dance Theatre artists Veronica Blair, Ciarra D’Onofrio, Suzanne Gallo, Saharla Vetsch, and Helen Wicks share how the piece is a spiritual study of surrender, as well as how the apparatuses they dance on augment the meditative quality of the work.Love, a state of grace will premiere on February 11, 12, 17, and 18 at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. For more info, visit zacchograce.brownpapertickets.com.

The piece was originally about the history of violence in sacred spaces. Most of our research focused on bombings and shootings in churches, synagogues, and mosques. Through conversations with Joanna, my understanding is that a lot of what was coming up in the research was the responses to the violence and the community healing that happens after. Joanna was focused on this theme of love. COVID happened, and that shifted the work. Throughout the pandemic, the piece began to focus more on how love gets us through difficult times.

Veronica Blair feels the piece as a “come to Jesus” moment. What would be the process of choosing to believe in something bigger than ourselves? I’m not necessarily referring to religion, but the act of choosing to surrender to nature and a higher sense of self and of being connected with others. There are elements of surrender in the piece: this big beautiful swing we use, a 100-foot tall ladder that reminds me of Jacob’s Ladder, a quieting meditation area we call tensegrity which will be a plexiglass platform that people can walk under and where our movements above are as if we’re creating a mandala. So there are many different elements of the show and they speak to me in a way that expresses the ultimate surrender, letting go of frivolous thoughts and processes that are ingrained and that we live under.

For Helen Wicks, this work is about the relationship between discipline, love, and the role of surrender. I let go of my religious upbringing because of my physical practice; the discipline of my physical practice took over. I was conscious of that, but it became clearer during the residency we had last January. Through the practice of acrobatics and dance, I surrendered to the need for air, process, and ongoing training. I physically feel surrender when I dance on the 70-foot swing in the piece. In terms of love and spirituality, surrender is present. It’s something I practice accessing while flying on the swing.

Suzanne Gallo shares that on that swing, there is definitely surrender. I concur with Helen that dance is my spiritual practice. There’s no separation. I am my most pure in moments of dance.

Saharla Vetsch shares that while practicing on the ladder, I’ve been thinking of it as a labor of love. Working with this new object in this new way is very complex, but in its purest form it is a labor of love.

The performance was originally supposed to be in August 2020, and then it was rescheduled for January 2021, which didn’t happen either, but we were able to rehearse in Grace Cathedral that month as a residency, pre-vaccines but masked up. We rotated between the different stations - the swing, the ladder, and tensegrity - getting comfortable with the height and the totality of the space. It was a big test for the riggers. They are working real magic making this piece possible.Sometimes they played the organ during the residency, and it made the rehearsals very spiritual. Because we’re inside a cathedral, the organ music permeates the whole body. The show will feature organ music. Audience members will experience the vibrations hollowing the space and clearing the mind. For me, the music encourages humility and not getting into technicalities.

Rehearsing in the cathedral was unlike anything I’d done before. The calm and quite while playing on the ladder and looking up at an enormous stain glass rose was awe-inspiring. It was unavoidable that it would be a spiritual experience for myself and others.

In general, the Bay Area has been pretty inclusive. I got my start here as an aerialist. I’ve studied in France, Florida, and South Africa when I was with the circus, but in terms of my development as an artist and finding my voice in the medium, a lot of that has happened in San Francisco. Nationally within the circus community, there has been an awakening, sometimes rude, to the point that people are now actively looking to hire BIPOC performers. I’ve been having a lot of conversations with producers and directors about how things have been in the past and the direction they would like to move their company or studio. I do find myself playing more of the protagonist and main character roles, whereas two or three years ago that would never happen. You do see more people of African descent playing lead roles in media and entertainment. A radical awaking is happening with regards to representation, and the circus community is experiencing a shift in thought. I think five to 10 years from now it will be quite different.

In Helen Wick's experience, Joanna has been making work about race, culture, and gender, and asking hard questions from a historical perspective as long as I’ve known her. Joanna’s ongoing work to connect Bayview/Hunters Point community and youth to aerial arts at Zaccho is incredible and inspiring.

Hopes for the Audience

Veronica hopes that people take away a bit of hope. Not hope in a generic way but hope in humanity by seeing our bodies articulate this beautiful cathedral space. When we work on ourselves and raise our vibration, that affects others, even people we don’t know. I hope people feel hope within themselves and within others.

Saharla hopes people experience empathy. Empathy creates understanding. I hope people feel a generosity of spirit.

Suzanne hopes that doing site responding work, the whole proscenium stage is gone. We’re sharing time and space with the audience, which has a greater depth. Love is infinitesimal and encompasses many things. Sometimes it’s vulnerable and hurts to love deeply. Surrendering to that love is what I hope people take away.

Helen hopes that to the pain that exists with love, resilience is something I hope audiences can access or feel in some way, especially going on years of this pandemic.

Ciarra hopes that people get a taste of that surrender we’re feeling. With the choir and organs as well as the interaction of sharing the space, the audience is part of the spiritual experience. Especially after this pandemic when we’ve been so separated, I hope people feel connection and a sense of community. What is so powerful is that the audience will be moving throughout the space during the show. This installation style performance invites the audience members to become part of the performance, ritual, and spiritual experience that we are all creating together. This coming together as a collective and community to build a space of healing and love is especially powerful after two years of social isolation.

The Importance of Art

We need art, and we need people to experience art. People need to be engaged and energized by the prospect of live performance. It is kinetic. It is the oldest way, from storytelling around a fire, to instrumentation, dance, and acting, it is how we connect to people in large groups. It’s a healing modality; we can use it to heal people and share inspiration.

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