Dancing as Smart as They Can

In one scene from the florid ‘80s dance movie “Flashdance,” the working-class wannabe ballerina, Alex, decides to audition for a classical dance company. Standing at the end of a lineup of prim and proper aspirants, she hears the stern-faced receptionist handing out applications and commanding: “Be sure to list all your years of dance education.” Self-taught Alex is clearly intimidated by pedagogical prerequisites she can only imagine. But at least the receptionist doesn’t add to Alex’s feelings of inadequacy by suggesting that applicants list the year they graduated from college.

There’s a reason for that. Historically, many aspiring dancers--especially those in ballet--have tended to see university as more an obstacle than an opportunity. When you’re raring to go on the stage, why sit still with a book, why get a degree? Although modern dancers have often gone to college, for the majority of professional dancers, it hasn’t been the norm to spend four years studying literature or biology between grand jetes.

But times change. In the post-’60s spirit of “having it all,” there are those who think that professional-level dance training for many genres can coexist with academic higher learning. You’ll find a number of them at one of the largest dance departments in the country, at UC Irvine.

As might be expected, some of the 145 UCI dance majors want to be teachers, but there are also many would-be Pavlovas and Paul Taylors, as well as those who wouldn’t mind bobbing behind Janet Jackson on MTV or touring with the latest incarnation of “The Phantom of the Opera.”

But is the university the right place to train professional dancers? In some cases, it must be. UCI has produced recent graduates who have joined Momix, the Martha Graham Dance Ensemble, Cirque du Soleil, Hubbard Street Dance Company, the Rockettes and the casts of several top musicals. Consistently ranked among the top 10 dance departments in the country by several dance magazines, UCI has even started turning out ballet dancers--one who is now in the Nashville Ballet and one who danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

Last year, for the first time, the department mounted its own evening-length ballet, “Cinderella,” set by full-time faculty member David Allan, a Canadian choreographer with an international reputation. It attracted the notice of Toronto dance critic Michael Crabb, who said that “you could have been forgiven for mistaking [the UCI dancers] for a seasoned professional ballet company. College dance has never looked this good.”

This week, the UCI dance department’s winter concert, “Dance Visions,” plans to put its best feet forward again, this time reflecting a few different styles and eras of dance history. Ballet is still on the program--Allan’s “Fiesta” (1993) and Balanchine’s “Serenade,” which was originally made for students in 1934. But the program also includes an up-to-date jazz-rhythm-swing piece by guest choreographer Billy Siegenfeld, a vintage solo revived from a politically active era of dance-makers in New York, and “Games,” a modern take on children’s play choreographed in 1951 by full-time faculty member Donald McKayle.

Will it look like a student concert? Former Balanchine dancer Jillana, who has set “Serenade” for UCI, says it will definitely look professional--”Otherwise I wouldn’t let it go onstage.” McKayle recalls that when he taught “Games” to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, he actually had them play jump-rope and jacks for a day to “let go of some professional polish” and get in a playground mood. This time, he says, laughing, “it will be nice to see kids doing it who are closer to the age of the people it’s about.”

In a high-ceilinged rehearsal studio on a sunny January afternoon, two blond UCI dance majors in black leotards are trying to gnarl their hands and embody the exhaustion of a homeless woman. They’ll both perform “Tenant of the Street,” a 1938 solo by Eve Gentry, and for now they’re learning it together. In silence (faint street noises will eventually accompany the piece), they each stand in profile, taking a tense, caved-in stance and turning their heads toward the audience with a fierce, accusatory stare. They inch across the floor, eventually falling, drifting into a reverie, then breaking it suddenly by pounding the air like a broken prizefighter.

The solo has retained its relevance through the decades--homelessness having never gone away--and is now being staged from notation by UCI department chair Mary Corey. In only their third rehearsal, tension and poignancy are already in the air. The young dancers seem dazed by the effort.

“This is a challenge for them because of the acting involved,” Corey says during a break “It’s really hard at their age. It’s a bit technical now, but it’s coming.”

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UCI dancers prepare for such a moment in a number of ways that emphasize the philosophy of the dance department--eclecticism. Unlike many university dance departments, which value modern and postmodern dance almost exclusively, UCI has always had a strong ballet focus alongside various strains of contemporary dance. In the studio, students do jazz, tap, modern, character, Spanish, African and Indian classical dance, as well as choreography. In the classroom, they learn about dance history and theory, dance science, notation and new technologies. When they’re not performing in a string of dance department concerts, they often dance in musicals produced by the theater department.

In terms of diversity, the tone was set in 1965 by the university’s founding dance department chair, Eugene Loring, a choreographer who moved smoothly from the East Coast concert dance world (his “Billy the Kid” was in the American Ballet Theatre repertory) to Hollywood musicals (“Funny Face” and “Silk Stockings”). Loring had lived through times when ballet and modern saw themselves as feuding overlords of the concert dance world and other kinds of dance were often ignored. But perhaps he saw the future--these days fusion is the rage.

“I think the idea that you can be just one kind of dancer is going out of style,” Corey says. “Ballet dancers need to move in contemporary ways; modern dancers need a nice foundation of ballet; jazz tends to combine a lot of things. You have to be versatile to be marketable--and I think it makes for more interesting dancers anyway.”

One of the young dancers in “Tenant” is Anna Kaiser, a 19-year-old sophomore from Arcadia whose schedule is nothing if not versatility-oriented. In “Dance Visions,” she also performs in the jazz piece and in “Games,” using between-rehearsal notes to “keep connected” to each piece and make the switch between styles. Her acting courses in the theater department help her embody the role of a homeless woman, whereas her classes in world dance, ballet, modern, injury prevention, improvisation, calculus and economics--this semester alone--all contribute in a general way.

“I spend a lot of time on my homework because it allows me to connect to my intellectual side,” she says. “And I think that really helps round me out as a person and how I connect to the outside world. I don’t want to just rely on my technique, but to be able to rely on my brain, my people skills. I think you can tell when a dancer’s educated, and it’s more interesting to watch a dancer with depth.”

McKayle comes in to watch the next run-through of “Tenant of the Street.” He tells the performers afterward that he first saw this piece in 1948, when Gentry was his teacher in New York. “I think you’re getting the feel of it,” he says, describing the moment when the Tenant first stares painfully at the audience. “That gaze was so piercing, so much so, you feel you have to look away.”

When the dancers leave, McKayle talks about the advantages of signing on at a university. Working with pros is great, he says (he still travels widely to do this), but he also enjoys watching the progress and “inner transformations” that go on with UCI dance majors.

“I think this department has really lived up to the original concept of a conservatory within a university,” he says.

Is a college education, then, a good thing for dancers? “I recommend it very much,” he says definitively. Then, “Well, obviously you don’t need it, because a lot of dancers haven’t had it. But I think it develops a different kind of artist. The inquiry they do is important, and then they have a lot of other material to bring to their art form.

“I used to watch dancers--especially the little girls who grew up in the ballet--and listen to their conversation. They’d spend hours talking about their fouettes or their hurt ankle--I mean, their lives were so limited! And what happens to that child when she’s no longer a beautiful little dancer? I strongly recommend opening other avenues for them to step into.”

Across a courtyard, in another of the huge, impersonal-looking buildings that dot the campus, a rehearsal for Allan’s “Fiesta” is in progress. To a tape of rapidly pulsing Spanish guitar music, legs are tossed into high angles, skirts twirl, and pointed feet arrest suddenly, only to dash into more twists, turns and beats. It’s ballet that sashays in double time. But when one arm is pumped overhead with a bit too much flamboyance, Allan good-naturedly yells, “Give me rounded arms. I don’t want to see ‘Fame! I’m gonna live forever.’ ”

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On a break from rehearsal, Allan says he never saw himself as a tenured faculty member at a university before coming to UCI. Like McKayle, he’s a successful freelancer who appreciates having security and a home base, but he first worried about what he could achieve with student dancers.

“I was surprised at the accomplished level of dancing here,” he says. “UCI draws a talent pool I’m able to work with. I think it’s questionable to call it amateur. I have kids here who easily could be at the School of American Ballet in New York, but maybe they didn’t start early enough. Some of them will still go on to be professional dancers.” Not skipping a beat, he comes up with another alternative. “And some of them may turn out to be great patrons of the arts.”

“We don’t judge their goals,” Corey says in a conversation after the day’s rehearsals are over. “What we’re trying to do is give them the training that will allow them to make choices. You know, people talk about dance being a short career, but it can also be a long one, and you can do many different things.”

Next fall, the UCI dance department will continue to expand; ground will break for three new studios, one of which will convert to a performance space for informal student choreography showings. And should students tire of using their own bodies to dance, they can try their luck with virtual ones--UCI has one of the few college “motion capture” studios, in which sensors attached to dancers and computers allow for electronic creation of virtual figures. (Choreographers Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones and William Forsythe have all recently done projects using motion capture.)

Dance is still on the edges of realizing how computer technology will affect an art form so resolutely based on the human body, but UCI dance majors are being encouraged to keep up with the flow. And they’ll continue to trek from dance studio to classroom or laboratory. As Allan says: “A lot of kids here have the passion to know about dance. Sometimes they just want to put it through the brain first to get to their heart.”

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“DANCE VISIONS,” UCI Dance Department Winter Concert, Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. Dates: Thursday to Saturday, 8 p.m.; also Saturday, 2 p.m. Prices: $13 to $16. Phone: (949) 854-4646.