At the "four−five−one" rhythmic clapping beat provided by dance instructor Mila Thigpen, 19 student dancers glide across the floor of the Jackson Gym dance studio, some with arms flailed out, performing whirlwind pirouettes, others swinging to the drums and saxophone riffs of The Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Take Five."
According to Thigpen, this is a typical practice routine for her Beginning Jazz class, a new addition to the 13 dance courses available this spring semester.
Tufts' dance program, established in 1983, falls under the larger umbrella of the Department of Drama and Dance. It has five faculty members, some of whom are part−time lecturers. Dance classes at Tufts can be used to fulfill arts distribution requirements. Some courses like Salsa can also fulfill world civilization requirements. In addition to welcoming both experienced and inexperienced students, the dance program also offers a five−credit minor, whose requirements include a non−Western dance course and an interdisciplinary course.
For the upcoming fall semester, available dance classes will range from Dance Movement and Creative Process to Beginning Ballet to North Indian Kathak, among others.
"This class is about helping students understand polyrhythmic forms within the body [because] the upper body isn't always doing what the lower body is doing," Thigpen said, describing her Beginning Jazz class. Traditionally, polyrhythm is unique to jazz, because it involves the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.
For her course, she draws inspiration from all mediums of jazz: from the 1950s style of Dave Brubeck and Ella Fitzgerald to Bossa Nova and contemporary pop and hip hop artist MC Solaar.
Thigpen, a part−time lecturer for the dance program, is still a practicing dancer herself. In addition to teaching the Beginning Jazz and Intermediate Salsa courses here Tufts, she currently works at two notable dance companies based in downtown Boston. She said that juggling both teaching and dancing at the same time can be stressful, but doing so can have its perks.
"Performing enhances my teaching and teaching enhances my performing," Thigpen said. She has been dancing since the age of three, and she graduated with a Master's degree from the Boston Conservatory.
Thigpen strongly recommends the class to anyone interested in jazz or dance, and she encourages students who have no prior experience to give it a try. Although her jazz class is an introductory course, she still expects her students to put in the effort.
"I don't like the word pressure, but there's an expectation for full participation for all the courses we teach," Thigpen said. "All my students are expected to move every time they come to class."
From a technical point of view, Thigpen has seen improvement from most of her students, even in her Beginning Jazz class. So far, students have attested to their improvement over the past semester.
"I'm thinking about what they need to experience in terms of how they want to improve as dancers — an opportunity to see their own development," Thigpen said. "Maybe there are stretches I do that are intense, but they will quickly see that they become more flexible and have more range of motion."
Sophomore Kaylyn Walton, a student in Beginning Jazz, echoed Thigpen's sentiment. "Mila pushes us, but only as far as we can go," she said.
The same principle also applies to Thigpen's Intermediate Salsa. Thigpen incorporates an element of social context into the course syllabus but keeps it at a level at which students can focus on the techniques of salsa. Senior Juan Pimentel feels that acquiring the technique was difficult initially.
"I never took any dance classes before, so it was hard in the beginning, but it gets better as you improve your technique," Pimentel said.
But the best part about her dance classes, Thigpen says, is witnessing the moment when "the light turns on in class."
"When a student has an ‘aha' moment, I would say that the student finally understands what I mean when I say, ‘Rotate from the hips,'" Thigpen said.
Junior Andrew Squier recalled that experience to be exhilarating.
"When I finally got my double−pirouette, it was such an amazing feeling," he said.
In addition to learning the technicality of dance principles, some students believe that Thigpen's jazz and salsa classes have helped them in other ways.
"It's a very expressive form that still has the technique that I'm looking for, and it works on technique," Squier said. Squier is a dance minor who will be performing in the Tufts Dance Spring Concert on April 10 and 11. "But it also works physicality and athleticism," he added.
Thigpen said that dance should be regarded more and more as a rigorous physical activity, but she added that dance, like certain sports, can also strengthen social bonds.
"[These dance courses] are a great way to condition yourself, especially if you're not into competitive class," Thigpen said. "But it requires you build a community in the classroom, and you would have a support system along the way."
Not all student dancers intend to minor in dance. Pimentel, an economics major, cited his reason for taking the class as curiosity and interest in his Cuban heritage, while junior Tomas Valdes, a political science major, gave different reasons.
"I intended to learn salsa that is danced here in the U.S. rather than back home in Colombia," Valdes said. "You also get to show off [your technique] at salsa clubs, and it definitely makes you more popular here at the [Tufts] parties."
The dance deparment's course selection extends beyond the Western Hemisphere, however. According to Kathak dance instructor Gretchen Hayden, a part−time lecturer at both Tufts and Wellesley College, it is uncommon for dance programs to incorporate such diverse dancing traditions.
Typically classified as "dance theater," Kathak originates from northern India and is unique in its incorporation of storytelling and theatrical elements. In addition to physical movement, Kathak uses instruments, vocals, hand motions and stylized gestures to recount Indian myths and stories.
Hayden first got involved in Kathak in 1972. While she was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, her spiritual teacher was invited to start a dance program at Ali Akbar College of Music in California. On a whim, Hayden decided to go.
"I just went out of curiosity, but I didn't know anything about Kathak," Hayden said. "But I went with an open mind and saw the class and was struck by it ... I decided to try it, and as I went into the study, I found it exhilarating."
Hayden eventually decided to center her life around Kathak, practicing it for 20 years before moving to the Boston area in 1992. She began teaching unofficially at Tufts in the 1990s at the request of students. In 1998, Hayden's proposal to teach at the Experimental College was accepted. The following year, with the support of Dance Program Director and Associate Professor Alice Trexler, Kathak was officially incorporated into the Tufts dance program.
"It's very rewarding," Hayden said. "I like the students at Tufts, and they seem, for the most part, to make really good progress."
She remarked that Tufts students are particularly eager compared to their peers at other schools.
"I don't find that on all campuses," Hayden said.
Because Kathak classes often fill up quickly, Hayden encourages interested students to sign up on the waitlist. While typical classes enroll high numbers of South Asians and women, Hayden stressed that everyone — regardless of dance experience or knowledge of Indian culture — is invited and welcome to take the course.
"I do my best to teach experientially so students get a good hold of the culture," Hayden said. "I think that gives them a different experience — the physicality of it and the intellectual part of it."
Trexler has been involved in dance since college, when she transferred to NYU and got involved in NYU dance courses and in dance companies around New York City. Her positive experience at NYU inspired her to consider teaching dance as a career.
"Once I was fully involved at NYU, I really got hooked on dance education and the power of dance to transform lives," Trexler said. "I continued through an M.A. and Ph.D. specializing in dance and creative arts."
Before arriving at Tufts, she taught ballet, modern dance and jazz at Wellesley and Bryn Mawr.
Trexler believes that dance classes offer multiple physical, emotional and cultural benefits.
"Students begin to master skills safely, according to their own physical limits and possibilities," Trexler said. "In doing so, they learn to appreciate the form they are studying."
Additionally, she believes that diaspora courses, such as Kathak and salsa, promote cultural awareness. Finally, dance helps students develop their writing, reading and speaking skills in addition to their physical ones, as it is a "holistic form of education," Trexler said.
In addition to teaching Introduction to Physical Theater (which can also be taken as a drama course) and Dance Movement and the Creative Process this fall, Trexler will also be involved in an interdisciplinary course called Viewing African−American Dance: Perspectives from Art and Science. Biology Professor Francie Chew will co−teach the class.
"[Tufts students] seem to enjoy the opportunity to interact with those who are not in their ‘sector' of social life on campus or in their class year in our dance courses," Trexler said. "Also, once Tufts students understand the ‘why' of foreign concepts in dance classes, they try very hard to master them.
"There are always some surprise dance minors, given the stereotypes that abound about dance," Trexler continued. "I am gratified that these students so value their dance experiences with us that they keep at it no matter what."
