Until now, life as a would-be dancer at Georgetown was not unlike life in the state of nature: nasty, brutish and — if you were not among the best of the best — ego-crushingly short. The options for Georgetown students interested in dance were as follows: You could either be talented enough to make it through the rigorous audition process and gain access to one of the handful of faculty-instructed on-campus troupes,or, if you didn’t make the cut, you were left to take your pick from the limited options of unaccredited classes or find opportunities further afield.

The all-or-nothing state of affairs, said Anna Celenza, who currently heads the new performing arts department, was reflective of dance’s woeful underdevelopment at Georgetown. “We saw that music and theater are very strong, and dance was an area that needed a little more attention,” she said. “We wanted to create courses so that students coming to Georgetown who had danced before but don’t make it through the audition process don’t have to stop dancing for four years.”

In the final week of September, Celenza called a meeting to announce the creation of a new performing arts minor and the addition of a credited intermediate ballet course, both of which represent the department’s first steps towards building the dance program. Assembled at the meeting was a mix of both students who had been left out in the cold by the dance program as it was and the fortunate students who are members of the three faculty-instructed dance troupes housed by the Department of Performing Arts: Black Movement Dance Theater, Ballet Folklorico and the Georgetown University Dance Company.

Prior to the creation of the performing arts minor, dance, like all performing arts, was a concentration under the Inter-Arts minor, which lumped together both visual and performing arts. Those participating in the minor, which is already being offered by the new performing arts department, must complete six three-credit courses. Half of these courses are dedicated to intensive study of a discipline within the performing arts: music, theater or dance. The remaining three courses permit further study in a related field in the performing arts.

Also announced at the meeting, the addition next semester of an intermediate ballet class with an emphasis on dance technique intends to respond to the need for more opportunities for participation in dance. Faculty members such as Janet Taylor, the instructor of the no-credit Ballet I classes currently offered at Yates, believes students will get more out of them.

“Having taught my course for several years, I’ve noticed that attendance always goes down around exam time,” Taylor said. “I’m thrilled to finally hear that credited courses are being added because it will make students prioritize the class more highly.”
The lack of sufficient options for students wishing to pursue the performing arts at Georgetown has been an issue for years, and only at the end of last month did the university finally announce the creation of a Department for the Performing Arts when the performing arts department was created from the Departments of Art, Music and Theater. Talks of this split began as early as 2005, when the university opened the Davis Center for the Performing Arts in an effort to boost this aspect of student life.

Following this year’s fall auditions, leaders within GUDC created a petition asking for a wider range of classes both for existing members of campus dance troupes as well as for those without company memberships, which eventually led to the accredited ballet classes.

“Due to the tremendous growth in the demand for intermediate ballet classes, as well as the space limitation that GUDC currently has (of only 25 people versus the 40 that audition), we decided to start a petition for offering another intermediate ballet class on campus,” explained Jacqueline Stephenson (COL ’10), the acting assistant director of GUDC. “We went to other dance groups on campus at SAC Fair and the DPA Open House as well as to the… individual auditions [of other dance groups under the auspice of the DPA] to get as many people to support our petition as possible.” After the petition had collected over 80 signatures, GUDC presented it to administration within the DPA, who shortly thereafter decided to push for the creation of new options for dancers.

Though the general attitude of the dance community is one of enthusiasm at the potential for the expanded program, the decision is not without controversy. The beginning expansion with offerings for ballet has left some feeling undue preference has been given to GUDC, the department’s ballet ensemble.

“I think the classes and the minor are a great idea,” said Christina Francisque (MSB ’09), student director for Black Movement Dance Theater. “But singling out the agendas of certain dance groups in the department for promotion is not going to help promote diversity of expression in the DPA. GUDC did not include us in the development of the petitions, and frankly, I wouldn’t have let them into our audition if I had known they were only looking to help themselves.”

Stevenson denied any sort of preferential treatment toward her group, saying that the expansion of classes has only started with ballet classes and will likely grow to include more within the next five years as the minor becomes more developed. “The decision to add an intermediate ballet class first most likely reflects the initiative GUDC took in circulating a petition requesting this specifically,” she said. “GUDC members, as well as members of other dance groups, signed the petition, which reflects a community-wide desire for more intermediate-level dance classes on campus.”

The development of the new performing arts minor represents an overall drive on the part of the university to improve fine arts on campus. “Georgetown is not a conservatory,” Celenza admitted. “But that shouldn’t mean that our students shouldn’t get the same support that they’d find in a comparable academic department.”