Juilliard

Now a full time student at Juilliard, I stopped taking outside technique classes.  That was easy to do because some Juilliard classes were with the same teachers I had had  at the Graham Studio.  In ballet I really adored Alfredo Corvino’s classes and was glad to be studying with him consistently.  The schedule at Juilliard was so full that it left little time for anything else.  I was up early and in class at 9 in the morning and often didn’t get back until 9 at night. The program was exhausting and I can remember sometimes falling asleep in my leotard and tights.  At that time Juilliard had no dorm and I was now living at the Barbizon for Women, which was a good 45-minute subway ride from the school, which was located at 120 Claremont Ave on the upper West Side. Since Columbia University was located nearby I could continue the two academic classes I was taking. When I returned in the fall I began taking academic classes at Juilliard and did not return to Columbia University’s School of General Studies.  I don’t remember anything about the academic classes at Juilliard and don’t think they were very interesting or challenging at the time.

Besides the technique and Horst’s composition classes, two classes stand out strongly in my mind:  Literature and Materials of Music taught by Caryl Friend and Labanotation taught by Muriel Topaz. They were challenging and helped me relate to dance in new ways.  “L and M,”  as we referred to Friend’s class, introduced us to the various forms of classical music and we often had to create dance studies related to the musical form we were studying.   We had to study each piece of music carefully, as her exam consisted of her dropping the needle down on the record and our having to identify the piece and where in the piece she was playing. The second year, we began playing the piano and I remember writing short piano compositions.  In fact, during the second year, when I was dating Murray (who later became my husband), I sent him a series of themes on the tune “Happy Birthday” using my new skill at music composition.  As he was attempting to figure out what I had written, his Mom walked by and identified the piece as variations on “Happy Birthday.”

Muriel Topaz was an excellent teacher and I was fascinated with Labanotation and at one point even toyed with going further with notation.  Analyzing movement to write it down helped me understand it better and it was fun to begin to read movement scores of famous pieces.

Of course a highlight continued to be having the opportunity to study composition with Louis Horst. Modern Forms was great fun and I enjoyed not only the course material and assignments but other students in the class, particularly Martha Clarke and Diane Gray.  There was even a time when the three of us put together a dance study which I seem to remember we titled “Minding your P’s and Q’s” that related to an assignment we had. Behind our back each of us held in one hand a cupcake in honor of Louis’s birthday and the end of the piece we presented him with the cupcakes.  In my second year at Juilliard I was able to take Louis’s third-year course Group Forms.  The class consisted of students who were seriously interested in composition and each of us progressed from doing a trio to a quartet and then a quintet.  You had the option to continue with the course as long as you were a student … so it gave me an opportunity to get to know some juniors and seniors.  I spent the first semester developing a trio based on the book Green Mansions and was pleased that it was included in a concert of student works.  The next semester I focused on a quartet about people looking at a painting.  It was inspired by the long lines I would see winding around the Metropolitan Museum of Art when the painting Mona Lisa was on view.  I never finished the piece but did have fun beginning to find my sense of humor in dance.

While I had enjoyed taking technique classes at The Martha Graham School they were even better at Juilliard as over the year and a half at Juilliard I consistently got to study with Helen McGehee, Ethel Winter, Bertram Ross, and (when the Graham Company was on tour) Donald McKayle.  Each of the teachers had their own style and favorite combinations, and they were excellent teachers and outstanding performers. 

Helen McGehee was my favorite. She had a fierceness as a teacher that I found I responded to.  I was curious if she was still alive.  She is and is in her late 90’s.  There is a wonderful interview of her done around 2010 by Doug Hamby that is mainly a sharing of the piece The Lady and the Unicorn, which she choreographed in 1945 and which was filmed in 1957.  I highly recommend the first 7 or 8 minutes, which include excerpts from the piece and her interview. She talks about creating one section in Louis Horst’s class.  Her descriptions of Horst is quite wonderful. Here’s the link.

Ethel Winter had a much gentler style of teaching.  I found her combinations to be much more lyrical and she was a good balance to McGehee.  She died at the age of 87 in 2012.  Anna Kisselgoff wrote a beautiful obituary that perfectly captures what I remember. 

Bertram was simply Bertram. He had a fun sense of humor and would often join students at a table in the cafeteria.  I think I enjoyed him more as a performer than a teacher. Bertram died in 2003 and here is a link to the obituary that Jennifer Dunning wrote about him. 

Classes with Donald McKayle were extraordinary. An outstanding teacher, he put together combinations that I loved. He died in August 2018 at the age of 87.  I found particularly meaningful the obituary in Dance Magazine which included video of Rainbow Round My Shoulder, performed by the Alvin Ailey Company.  Here’s a link to it.

The time I spent at Juilliard was demanding and after two years I left, which I will write about in the next blog.  The time in NYC and then at Juilliard shaped me as a choreographer, giving me a discipline and a structured way of working and approaching things that I am very grateful for.  This also carried over to other areas of my life, particularly how I approach painting and filmmaking.  

I researched to find a picture of The Juilliard School on Claremont Avenue but couldn’t find one that looked like I remember it.  I did find this picture of Louis Horst as I pretty much remember him in class. The only thing missing is a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, but if you look closely,  he is holding it in his hand. No credit is given for this photo.

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