The Dance department used to bring summer residencies such as Martha Graham, Paul Taylor and Limon Dance Company. However without the infrastructure, it became too difficult to produce such events. The College would benefit from having a person in charge of organizing such residencies as well as festivals, and find a way to integrate them into the curriculum of each department. For example, if students registered for a summer intensive/residence, they could receive course credits, which would lighten their schedule during the year. We could set up applications to support under privileged participants and offer full or partial scholarships, work-study grants etc.
One festival that we have already been approached to organize, is the prestigious American Dance Festival (ACDF); ACDF is the most popular and well-attended College dance festival in the country. It is a great marketing tool since it attracts a lot of high schools and undergraduate students. As of now Mills doesn't have enough facilities but, with a person in charge, we could easily partner with UC Berkeley or Holy Names College.
All the more reason to very seriously start working towards building a theater space specifically designated for dance and theater.
ReplyDeleteA summer session could bring in lots of students, host festivals as mentioned above. We could found an accelerated master of fine arts degree attainable through two or three summer sessions of intensive study (such as Bard and Hollins)