In November, celebrated jazz dramaturg, choreographer, and teacher Melanie George is taking the reins at Marymount Manhattan College’s dance program as chair and producing director, bringing with her three decades of wisdom from a career inside higher education and throughout the industry.
“I have so much enthusiasm for working with these students and this faculty,” George says. The founder of Jazz Is… Dance Project and associate curator and director of artist initiatives at Jacob’s Pillow, she also directed the dance program at American University, worked as an assistant professor at Rutgers University, and guest lectured at Harvard University, the Yale School of Drama, and The Juilliard School.
Choreography by Jazelynn Goudy. Photo by Jaqi Medlock, courtesy Marymount Manhattan College.
George’s Vision for Marymount’s Dance Program
George’s appointment comes during Marymount’s ongoing merger with Boston’s Northeastern University. Soon, Marymount’s campus will become Northeastern New York City, and Marymount students will gain access to Northeastern’s global array of research and academic resources.
“Marymount is obviously in a really unique time,” George says. But, she says, “this new era does not mean ignoring the past history. Marymount already has an incredibly successful program.”
The dance program currently includes BA (concentrations in dance studies, dance and media, teaching dance arts, and body, science, and motion), BFA (concentrations in ballet, choreography, jazz, and modern), and minor tracks. Students have access to seven studios, two performance spaces on campus, world-class faculty, study-abroad opportunities, and internships.
George’s vision for the future meshes this impressive scaffolding with a real-time understanding of today’s dance industry. “A lot of how dance higher ed curriculum has been conceived for many, many decades is around this idea that you’re going to join a company,” George says. “And, honestly, there aren’t very many of those big companies (anymore) in the way that we knew them.”
Marymount, she says, has a chance to set a cutting-edge example for how to reflect today’s reality, training students “to be ready, to prepare them to be entrepreneurs.”
Choreography by Tiffany Rea-Fisher. Photo by Jaqi Medlock, courtesy Marymount Manhattan College.
Marymount’s Outstanding Faculty
George’s vision already aligns with Marymount’s faculty, many of whom work alongside Marymount alumni in New York City and beyond, and keep their ears to the ground for what the next generation of artists may need.
“I’m really trying to get (students) to be extremely curious about all the things they’re interested in, all there is to do in the field of dance,” says assistant dance professor Jamal White. “That way they don’t feel like they have to do one thing.”
White, for example, draws from a background in classical, modern, and contemporary dance. He’s danced with BODYTRAFFIC, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Rasta Thomas’ Rock the Ballet, Missouri Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey II, and Collage Dance Collective, along with participating in commercial dance work, choreographing, and teaching across the country.
“Because of the versatility (of my background), I was able to jump in and out of the different areas of the field,” White says. Now, he wants the same for his students.
For George, this is especially true in all the real-world experiences Marymount can give its dancers. “It’s not just what’s happening in the classroom,” she says. “It’s literally everything that’s going on around them all the time.” In addition to rehearsal and performance opportunities, those in the BA and BFA tracks work with professional choreographers each semester. This fall, Limón Dance Company artist Savannah Spratt is teaching Suite from A Choreographic Offering, based on Jose Limón’s 1964 tribute to Doris Humphrey. “They are so young and eager to learn,” Spratt says. “Knowing that they’re part of our New York City dance community is so great.”
Jamal White Rehearsal. Photo by Molly Ouret, courtesy Marymount Manhattan College.
Marymount’s Opportunities Create Employable Dancers
While George wants to maintain these opportunities for exposure—and perhaps even expand the amount afforded to each student—she’s also interested in teaching students about the behind-the-scenes curatorial work of what makes a good dance concert.
“They should be learning from the rep, not just while in the rep,” she says. “It’s not the show-up-and-dance model. There’s an arc to a really good concert, and it has to do with where you place pieces. I want everyone to understand that the needs of a large ensemble piece are different from the needs of a smaller ensemble piece.”
Insights like these are what produce an employable dancer.
Marymount seeks ever-curious students. “If you’re curious about the entire field of dance, if you have a wonderment about all that it has to offer—creation, concert dance, jazz, vernacular jazz, West African, any diasporic form—if you’re interested in all those things, Marymount has a place for you,” White says. “We’re teaching the next generation of dancers how to go out and have so many tools in their bodies.”
George can’t wait to guide Marymount’s next generation of dancers. “It’s really important that we step into what is going to become with hope, with optimism, and use ingenuity to become inventive in the way that we do it,” she says.
Learn more about Marymount Manhattan’s department of dance and how to apply here.
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