Dance has such a unique and prolific history at 92Y. What are you most excited to bring to the Harkness Dance Center as its new Director of the School of Dance?
The Harkness Dance Center at the 92Y has certainly been a catalyst for generations of artists and educators in the dance field. I am excited to be joining this historically important center and play a key role in setting the trajectory of dance and education at HDC for the next generation of students and artists. Particularly at this critically important juncture coming out of this devastating pandemic, I find myself with a unique opportunity to help revitalize dance and dance education. The dance field was decimated, as was much of the cultural and artistic world, during the pandemic. I think the 92nd Street Y is playing an important role in the broader field-wide effort to bring dance back to life. We are trying to support as many artists, students, teachers and families as we can.
I’ve always wanted to defy the conventional understanding of what it means to have a successful career in the arts. As a working artist and administrator, I bring a set of skills to the table that are often viewed as being at odds with one another in the dance field; being on the stage and behind the scenes simultaneously. My ability to do both through my career to date has been something I am proud of and passionate about sharing with other budding artists and administrators. As Managing Director and Executive Director of The Yard (a 49-year-old performing arts center on Martha’s Vineyard) for over a decade, I spent a great deal of time rebuilding an organization that had fallen into disrepair before my tenure. With my Artistic Directing partner David R. White and Director of Island Programs and Education Jesse Keller Jason, I supported artists, led the creation of a dance-making and creativity model program for the public school system, mentored artists and interns, shepherded the early stages of a capital campaign, all while teaching and choreographing and performing. My time with The Yard shaped much of my belief system in the arts, my skills as an artist and leader, and my goals for “what was next.” My time growing up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont shaped me as well, teaching me the lessons of hard work and perseverance necessary to forge one’s own path, connecting with people and nature along the way. My parents instilled a sense of community commitment, leadership, fortitude and kindness as central tenants of any successful path in life. I think I’m bringing to bear all of these things in my new role here at 92Y.
I find myself with a unique opportunity to take all my past experiences, strengths and weaknesses both, and craft something important. The Harkness Dance Center’s wealth of history, current programming and leadership at its core, is truly exciting. Erin Lally, Director of Dance Education Laboratory and Taryn Kaschock Russell, Director of Harkness Dance Center, and I have already formed what I call our “bad-ass” women’s coalition of leadership. Together in HDC, connecting the School of Dance to DEL’s philosophy of creative dance making and education of the whole student as well as to Harkness’ Artist-in-Residence and Performance programs, is invaluable and unique in New York City. The School of Dance at the 92nd Street Y is going to be a program that connects its students to these incredible resources every single day. The rich tapestry of dance at 92Y has so much potential. This is what I am most excited to be working on here; cross-pollination of artists, students, curriculum, and dance for all.
What programs will be offered this fall?
The School will have a full range of dance program offerings both for children and adults. We are re-launching the children’s program in the fall with a brand-new tap curriculum, a full ballet program, hip-hop program, contemporary jazz class and modern dance program. We are starting with what I consider to be the basic levels of classes needed for students to progress from age 4 through 18, with the goal of growing the programs offerings as enrollment and interest grows. I am working with past 92Y children’s program faculty who will continue in the program and have brought in new faculty in all departments as well. The new ballet faculty members (Elizabeth Yilmaz-Dobrow and Ayaka Kamei) are both current dancers with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and bring extensive performance and teaching experience to the table; our new hip-hop faculty includes two incredible female hip-hop artists (Mai Lê, Founder/Artistic Director of LayeRhythm and Tatiana Desardouin, Founder/Artistic Director of Passion Fruit Dance Company) both of whom have worked with 92Y’s Center for Arts Learning and Leadership as well as the Harkness Dance Center. Our two new tap faculty (Leonardo Sandoval and Nicholas Van Young) are both current members of Dorrance Dance and have been in residence at Harkness Dance Center working with DEL and HDC for the past year — and Leonardo is part of the currently running The Future Dance Festival through HDC. And I’ll be joining the modern dance faculty teaching Horton-based modern for ages 8-plus. Additionally, the children’s school will be hosting a series of guest classes every Wednesday afternoon with visiting artists from all genres of dance, including, I hope, some professional development and administration classes for our older students. These classes will be open to different sections of the student body throughout the year and I look forward to announcing the roster of teachers who will be joining us in this guest program soon. Explore our new fall children’s classes.
I am also excited about our adult dance program. We are continuing many of our existing classes next year as well as adding an exciting new Lindy Hop/Swing & Solo Jazz program led by Caleb Teicher, Nathan Bugh and Gaby Cook on Monday and Tuesday nights. Hosted in person in Buttenweiser Hall on Tuesdays from 7-10 pm each week, Teicher, Bugh and Cook will teach three levels of Lindy Hop & Swing dance and on Mondays will host two levels of Solo Jazz. I’m particularly excited to bring this program into the 92Y as this community of teachers and students have been looking for a “home” for these classes in New York City for a long time. Social dance has a long history at 92Y over the years, and I am absolutely jazzed (pun intended!) to continue that history with the next generation of teaching artists and professional practitioners in the genre. Our new fall season adult classes will be available for registration on August 4 on our website.
What’s most exciting to you about the new directions dance performance and education are taking?
In both performance and education, I’m most excited about expanding the understanding and practice of diversity and inclusion of dance forms. The world is in an important period of questioning, hurting, and working on hearing and healing one another around issues of race, diversity of ideas and representation in general. The arts have always been a part of cultural expression, questioning and understanding through the ages and I think in this moment dance and dancers are going to benefit from the opening up and sharing of more diverse forms of dance, language, cultural understanding and expression. Focusing on a school and a performance practice that is listening to what true representation is in different genres of dance feels like the most important work I can do in this moment for students, parents, community and artists alike. There is so much more we can and will offer to students to expose them to the history and cultural understandings of the numerous vernaculars of dance in the world. I consider the emphasis on historical honesty and representation in the arts to be incredibly important. The 92nd Street Y will engage in a meaningful and forward-facing way in this ongoing cultural discussion.
The pandemic aside, what are some of the biggest challenges facing dance educators today? How can the School of Dance help to face and overcome them?
Like any educator, this cultural moment calls for reflection and evolution in teaching practices, historical accuracy in representing forms of dance, and where and whom they come from. I truly believe the faculty I’ve brought together at 92Y to relaunch the school are representative of a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and bring to bear a huge amount of dance and cultural knowledge to share with our children and our adults.
What kind of environment and atmosphere can parents of children who are interested in taking dance classes at 92Y expect to find?
Inclusiveness. Joy. Fun. Rigor. Creativity. Dance and Music. I think the atmosphere is going to feel how I like things to feel everywhere in my life; full of laughter and creativity and respect.
What kind of community are you hoping to build at the School of Dance?
I am hoping to build a community of artists from birth to 101 who feel like the School of Dance at the 92nd Street Y is their dance home, their community place. I am also hoping to build a community of interconnectedness between Dance Education Laboratory’s resources, teachers, and students, Harkness Dance Center’s artists-in-residence and performance artists and the School of Dance’s students and teachers who engage with one another on a regular basis. A group amongst this whole network that will inspire one another through regular sharing, teaching, watching, dancing and conversation. 92Y has a unique opportunity in the dance center of New York City to be a dance community base unlike really any other.
Do you have a message you’d like to send out to our dance community?
Join us. Come back to dance. Our doors are open to you and yours, whether you like to dance, watch dance, learn about dance, or teach dance. There is a place for you in Harkness Dance Center and we can’t wait to have you walk through our doors this fall!
Experience Alison’s performance work in this short film, “The Blue of Distance,” that she and creative partner Jesse Keller Jason made with film artist Danielle Mulcahy.
Registration for our fall children’s in-person dance classes is available now. Registration for adult in-person classes will be available on August 11 — check back to sign up!