Page 4 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 94, No. 3 Spring 2014

ACTION
The roster of visiting artists who have
spent time working with St. Paul’s School
dancers since Jennifer Howard ’92 took
over at the start of the 2012-13 academic
year reads like a who’s who of the dance
world: Amy Young Kleinendorst, a former
principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance
Company; Douglas Letheren ’03, who has
danced with the Batsheva Dance Company
and is now with Sharon Eya’s L-E-V; Twyla
Tharp dancer Alex Brady; Chamber Dance
Project founder Diane Coburn Bruning;
Robert Royce of the Cincinnati and Dayton
Ballets in Ohio and the Alabama Ballet;
and Philip Neal ’86, who spent 22 years
– 18 of them as a principal dancer – with
the New York City Ballet.
Neal spent two weeks in April working
with Howard and the SPS dancers, setting
a world-premiere neo-classical piece in-
fluenced by the work of George Balanchine.
“I am trying to impart to them know-
ledge accumulated over my years with
New York City Ballet,” explained Neal.
“Art is subjective, and dancers are taught
to be inquisitive. Dance is like studying a
language; you have to immerse yourself.
It is a living, breathing art, and it’s import-
ant for young dancers to be fed a lot of
different perspectives.”
Neal’s work, choreographed during his
visit, involved eight dancers from the SPS
Ballet Company – two boys and six girls.
He said the inspiration for the 11-minute
piece came from “imagining people walking
down the paths at St. Paul’s and wonder-
ing what it would be like if they collided.”
Neal designed the piece to be fun and
funny and based on what “Mr. Balanchine
used to say: ‘Just do, dear. Don’t think.’”
“It’s remarkable to work with him be-
cause he has so much information for us,
so much experience,” said SPSBC member
Philip Grayson ’15. “It’s like being in a
professional company in that most do a
variety of work from different choreo-
graphers. Exposing us to such a variety is
also great purely dancing-wise because
it expands our vocabulary.”
Neal’s visit is an example of the pro-
gram Howard says she is trying to build,
one heavily influenced by the current
dance world, incorporating modern styles
to complement the dancers’ classical base.
“We are giving the dancers in this pro-
gram as broad an understanding of what the
dance world is,” said Howard, who worked
with many, including Tharp, in her own
dance career. “Through the visiting artist
program, they are exposed to working
professionals, working choreographers,
which gives them a greater understand-
ing of the diversity in the dance world.”
The repertoire displayed in the Spring
Dance Performance in May showcased
Howard’s efforts to expose the SPSBC to
a variety of styles – Neal’s original neo-
classical piece, a Paul Taylor piece first
staged in 1961, and contemporary pieces
choreographed in 2010 and 2013. The
Taylor piece, said Howard, paved the way
for what dance looks like in 2014.
“I am emulating the variety that was
important to me as a professional dancer,”
Howard said. “Dancers can’t just do one
thing anymore. We are still connected to
the classical form, but, with that good
foundation, they can do anything.”
Modern Dance Philip Neal ’86 works with Philip Grayson ’15. ( Photo: Mike Munhall)
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