Alumni News Spotlight Helene Breazeale: Breaking New Ground December, 2003/January, 2004
From pioneering the first dance exchange in higher education between the U.S.A. and Russia after the Cold War, to creating and managing the World Music Congresses, Dr. Helene Breazeale has developed a reputation as one woman who won't take nyet for an answer. Armed with an open mind and vigorous determination, Breazeale has achieved significant scope and impact in her career by being willing to pursue artistic avenues beyond her initial training and comfort zone.
Helene Breazeale remembers feeling insulted when, as a 12-year-old aspiring performer in Baltimore, she was told by visiting ballet master Antony Tudor that someday she would be a good teacher. She started studying ballet at 11 and was immediately fascinated by dance—in particular, the history and tradition of Russian ballet. At 17, she entered Juilliard and was exposed to some of the teaching legends of Juilliard's Dance Division—José Limón, Martha Graham, Antony Tudor, Margaret Craske, Louis Horst, and Alfredo Corvino, among others. Breazeale acknowledges that "we didn't know then the level of greatness we were studying with. They were in their prime."
Helene Breazeale
Feeling that she "didn't lack anything after Juilliard," Breazeale joined the José Limón Dance Company and pursued a professional dance career while teaching on the side. After marriage and the birth of her son, Breazeale was inspired to continue her education, realizing that it would open doors for her later on in her career.
After obtaining a master's degree and Ph.D. in dance education, Breazeale was offered a unique opportunity to build a dance department at Baltimore's Towson University. Over the next 18 years, Breazeale (known as "Dr. B" to her students) built the dance program at Towson by creating multiple dance-degree programs, performance ensembles, a children's dance division, and an International Ballet Symposium. At Towson, she discovered a gift for "taking a blank slate and making something of it," while realizing that "patience, commitment to principles, and a sense of perspective" would aid her in the process.
In 1986, selected by the Citizen Exchange Council in New York, Breazeale and 11 other dance professionals went to Russia and met with Russian dance counterparts, spending two weeks discussing possible artistic collaborations.
In 1989, Breazeale made another bold move by pursuing a cultural and artistic exchange program with the Leningrad Conservatory Dance Department. With the permission of the Russian government, Breazeale was allowed to bring 30 dancers from Towson University to perform and give classes in new dance styles—jazz, modern, tap—to the dance students at the Leningrad (now the St. Petersburg) Conservatory. In return, her American students studied classical ballet with Russian professionals, and a previously restricted cultural exchange was born.
Not one to rest on her laurels, Breazeale's next adventure began with a new foray into the world of music—more specifically, the cello. Despite her limited experience with the instrument (she took cello lessons for one week in elementary school), Breazeale created another international cultural exchange by taking over the role of executive director of the 1997 World Cello Congress II in St. Petersburg, Russia, with Mstislav Rostropovich as president. The idea was to bring musicians, composers, students, teachers, and lovers of cello from all around the world to one place, exploring the instrument's challenges and rewards. After sleepless nights and plenty of rolling-up-the-sleeves work, raising financial support and organizing the event, Breazeale and her Russian associate pulled off an incredibly successful international congress. More than 10,000 audience members attended concerts, master classes, and lectures, and the congress garnered critical acclaim from the artistic community.
The event was so successful that the World Cello Congress III was presented at Towson in 2000 with 180 guest artists (including Yo-Yo Ma, Janos Starker, Bernard Greenhouse, and others) and 17,895 people in attendance from 47 countries. Now a World Music Congress event will occur every two years, with Breazeale at the helm. The First World Guitar Congress will be held in Baltimore in the summer of 2004.
After all her hard-won victories, including 32 years at Towson, Breazeale is still charging ahead and breaking new ground, for herself and for the arts. A current Baltimore resident, she remains a fearless advocate for the arts with great advice for Juilliard students: "Be a sponge. Soak up every single piece of information, every opportunity, go to every concert. Learn what works for you. Develop your own informed opinions. Submerge yourself in what you're studying, but be open to things around you. Pay attention to the world!"
