Duke Dance News!!
updated January 2007
BITTERSWEET YEAR FOR DUKE DANCE PROGRAM: HELLO TO MAJOR GOODBYE TO CLAY
Celebrating Clay: Duke University Dance Program bids fond farewell to Professor of the Practice of Dance Clay Taliaferro
The spring semester of 2007 will be a bittersweet one for the Duke University Dance Program. While we are thrilled to be celebrating the Arts and Sciences Council's recent approval of the major in dance, available to students for the first time this semester, we will be bidding farewell to Professor of the Practice of Dance Clay Taliaferro, who will be retiring after twenty years of dancing, choreographing and teaching at Duke. Having been on leave for the past year, Clay has returned to teach one final semester. He has been awarded Professor Emeritus standing upon retirement, and a dance scholarship or prize will be established in his name. To further celebrate Clay Taliaferro's remarkable career and service to the University, the Dance Program is dedicating its annual Spring concert to him; ChoreoLab 2007- Celebrating Clay (April 21 & 22) will feature several exciting guest artists, along with Taliaferro's own choreography.
Clay is a profoundly dedicated and challenging teacher. He challenges his students to grow intellectually as well as artistically and supports them through the difficult process of personal honesty required for deep changes. He thrives in a classroom situation where he is engaged in a process of awakening students to their own capabilities. Students that accept that challenge speak of how his teaching developed not only their knowledge of dance, but also their knowledge of themselves. He is as eager to work with students who have no background in dance as he is to work with advanced dance students. For him, watching a student discover and master knowledge is an endless fascination.
Clay Taliaferro first came to Duke University as an Artist-in-Residence in the mid-1980's at the invitation of Julia Wray, the former director of the Dance Program. His continuous service began in January of 1987, and since that time he has been a major contributor to the growth and development of the Dance Program. He has taught all levels of Modern Dance technique, initiated and taught a full-credit freshman seminar course, as well as a multi-disciplined Floor Barre class, among others. In addition, Clay has developed and taught a very popular dance course for senior citizens through DILR (Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement), which uses dance as a catalyst for rediscovering spirit and empowering a sense of personal essence and wellness.
Outside of his university career, he has had extensive involvement with American dance, earning an international reputation as an award-winning performer, teacher, and choreographer. In 1971, he was invited by José Limón to join his company, and served as a principal dancer and guest artist for more than ten years, performing all the major roles. After José's death, he served as Assistant Artistic Director to Ruth Currier for the Company. Besides his important tenure with the José Limón Dance Company, Clay was also Acting Artistic Director and principal dancer for the Donald McKayle Dance Company, a soloist with other major companies such as the Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company, the Lotte Goslar Company and Emily Frankel Dance-Drama Company, and co-founder/director of The Theatre Dance Trio. Clay has choreographed a sizeable body of work, and continues as a guest artist beyond the Duke University campus.
As a choreographer, Clay has created numerous works for both aspiring students and faculty alike. Recently he restaged a Limon masterwork, Choreographic Offering , for Duke's Modern Repertory Ensemble to critical acclaim. Last February, Clay's current and former students joined a packed theater of fans and professional colleagues (many of them dance legends in their own right) to witness his farewell performance with the José Limón Dance Company as the Moor in the Limón masterwork The Moor's Pavane . This performance of his signature role was met with a standing ovation.
Clay's contributions to the Dance Program extend far beyond the theater and the classroom, into the lives of his students and colleagues. Professor Keval Kaur Khalsa recently expressed her admiration and gratitude in a piece she choreographed for November Dances 2006, entitled Pieces of Clay . "I consider Clay my dance mentor," Professor Khalsa says. "The content of my modern technique class is heavily influenced by Clay's movement vocabulary and philosophy. I aspire to his expectations of and commitment to students, his curiosity and constant exploration." The choreography for the piece was based on phrases from various works choreographed by Taliaferro; Khalsa even costumed her dancers with costumes from the many pieces he has choreographed for Dance Program performances. Professor Khalsa has had the unique experience of being both a student of Clay's and his professional colleague. "Clay was the reason I ended up here at Duke," she says. "After meeting him and dancing with him in graduate school at Ohio State where he was a visiting artist, I decided I wanted to study and dance with him in New York. It was through Clay's classes at the Ruth Currier studio that I met Barbara [Dickinson, Director of the Duke University Dance Program]. After Clay got the job at Duke, he brought me down to perform a couple of times. I fell in love with the area, and he let me know when Julia Wray's sudden passing occurred and the Dance Program needed a replacement."
Dance Program Director Barbara Dickinson's words echo the thoughts and feelings of the entire Dance Program faculty:
"Some of the most precious times in my dancing career were when I was working in the studio with Clay -working through endless details of the movement, digging ever deeper into its qualities and textures. Clay is a genius in creating movement that uses a dancer's individual strengths and challenges her or his weaknesses. He is well known - perhaps I should say notorious - among dancers here and internationally for his ability to push and coax a dancer to achieve movement far beyond what the dancer thought she or he was capable of. It has been a rare privilege to work side by side with this man, to dance for him and with him. It is an even deeper privilege to be able to call him friend...Clay Taliaferro is approaching retirement, but he will remain a dedicated teacher, an active seeker of knowledge and understanding about the arts and humanity, and an endlessly creative artist long after he retires from Duke. He is impatient of rest and comfort; he is never satisfied with what he has achieved. He will continue to be a profoundly respected faculty member and teacher at Duke, and a revered artist in the discipline."
DUKE UNIVERSITY DANCE PROGRAM ANNOUNCES DANCE MAJOR
Date: December 13, 2006
The Duke University Dance Program is pleased to announce the establishment of a major in Dance at Duke University. Beginning in the Spring Semester of 2007, Duke University undergraduate students will have the opportunity to declare a major in Dance for the first time in the University's history. The Dance Program's proposal for the major was approved unanimously by the Arts and Sciences Council on Thursday, December 7, 2006. The Dance Program has offered a certificate and then a minor in dance since 1992.
The Dance major is designed so that students gain an understanding and mastery not only of dance creation and performance, but also of dance in its cultural and historical contexts. A student majoring in dance is required to complete a balanced course load of advanced level performance and history/theory courses, many of which emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of dance. By the conclusion of the senior year, a student majoring in dance will have completed a capstone dance project in research or choreography, and will have performed in the Duke Dance Program's performances.
With the opportunity to pursue a major in Dance at Duke University, an even larger number of students are expected to pursue their passion for dance at Duke. The dance major is one of the first institutional steps taken to fulfill the Strategic Plan's goal to "Transform the Arts", and will serve to strengthen Duke's reputation as an excellent institution at which to study the performing arts.
Student Spotlight...
The Dance Program would like to congratulate
the following students for completing the DANCE MINOR REQUIREMENTS:
Box 90686 