Oklahoma City University Offers Dance and Arts Management Majors a New Option
Oklahoma City University's Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Arts Management isn't just training dancers and managers. A new program will teach students how to teach dance.
The American Dance Master Teacher Training Program will be open to undergraduate and graduate students and will train students to teach ballet and American jazz and tap and own and operate a not-for-profit or commercial dance studio.
Mary Price Boday, who spent the last six years as the artistic director of the Illinois Ballet and the Central Illinois Dance School, will head up the dance pedagogy program, which debuts in fall 2006.
"Our new degree will provide students with a breadth and depth of study in dance pedagogy never attempted by other dance programs," said John Bedford, dean of the Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Arts Management. "Consequently, we expect the program, in time, to have a profound impact on dance education.
"Oklahoma City University has already had a major impact on dance performance," he said. "We have graduates in Las Vegas, performing on cruise ships, in Broadway musicals .... We also have graduates in the front office of entertainment organizations - managers. But it has been our intention to also prepare teachers in American dance."
Bedford said officials will tailor the program to the needs of individual students so 18-year-old high school graduates can complete the program along side older dancers transitioning from performing to teaching.
"The future American dance teacher who attends Oklahoma City University's comprehensive master teaching training will receive a strong liberal arts education and much more. This unique program will offer pragmatic training in how to develop successful performers and manage a well-run, successful business," said Jo Rowan, chairman of OCU's dance department.
Bedford said there will be no required dance technique classes, but all students graduating from the program will have substantial knowledge of tap, jazz and ballet technique through either
previous training and experience or
special technique and analysis
classes offered at OCU.
Dance pedagogy students also must take business classes, including courses in economics, marketing and accounting and dance studio management. They also will be required to take mass communications classes in advertising and press releases writing.
They will take more courses in dance history, choreography and anatomy and physiology than students in the university's other dance degree programs.
"Many universities say they're teaching dance pedagogy, and they kind of touch it, but they don't really get into it in depth," Boday said. "We will be doing so much more. You're starting a business, and you want to be successful at it and make money at it, so
weutilize expertise in the other
schools on campus."
Bedford said school officials wanted to establish their other two programs - dance and arts management - before launching a new one, but a dance pedagogy program has always been in their "strategic plans."
"Throughout my travels as ballerina and master teacher, I have been aware of a serious need for a dance training program aimed at students who wish to become successful teachers of American dance," Rowan said. "I have wanted to add an American master teacher's training program to our school for quite a long time. With the addition of
Professor Boday, we will be able to
fill a void that hasn't been addressed in higher education."
The Robert and Rudy Priddy Charitable Trust of Wichita Falls, Texas, provided initial funding for the program. The foundation plans to give the school $382,000 over the next three years as part of a $4.6 million grant to the university. "The Priddy Trust presented us an opportunity to begin a world class dance
teacher program," Rowan said. "With their support, we can have an impact on the quality of dance instruction
in North America."
Boday received two Bachelors of Fine Arts in ballet and modern dance and a Master of Fine Arts in drama with a dance emphasis from the University of Oklahoma. She taught dance at several universities and also performed with the St. Gallen Stadttheatre Ballet and the Zurich Ballet in Switzerland, the University of Illinois Dance Ensemble, the Cornish Dance Company in Seattle and several dance companies in New York City. Boday will begin recruiting students in the spring. Kay Sandal,
former Tulsa Ballet dancer and member of the National Ballet in Washington, D.C., will assist Boday with the program.
"Teaching dance is a career that lasts a long time," Boday said. "You can teach until you're in your 80s and 90s, but performing careers are much shorter."
For more information, call Boday at (405) 208-5523.