• The Birth of an Idea
• Setting a New Standard for Dance Education
• Obstacles and Opportunities
• A Struggle for Space
• Passing the Torch, Upholding the Tradition

The Birth of an Idea

Antony Tudor (center) teaching at Juilliard, c. 1955.

William Schuman, president of the Juilliard School of Music in 1951, acknowledged that creating the Dance Division "took a lot of doing." But he believed that Juilliard would benefit because "dancers would be closer to music and get a better education in music, and the musicians would learn something about dance." When he announced his plan, the School’s board of directors expressed grave concern. But he told them, "Not only do I want a dance division, but someday a drama division! Don’t worry, it will be short of establishing a medical school!"

While collaborating as composer with Martha Graham for her 1950 work Judith—and before that, with Antony Tudor for his Undertow in 1945—Schuman had discovered that contemporary dance theater demanded intelligence, versatility, and technical range from its artists. He saw dance as "a living example of an art that was continually renewing itself. I thought it would be a tremendous contribution for the school to make."

"Bill was very open to new ideas and to collaboration among the arts—not at all a purist. It’s that kind of openness that lets things happen," Martha Hill recalled. Hill—who had danced with Martha Graham and held a series of college teaching positions around the country—was Schuman’s first choice as the person most able to design and direct the kind of Dance Division he had in mind. She had long proven her ability to "educate" dancers by linking professionals to academic settings, gathering and nurturing talent as the key person in dance at N.Y.U. from 1930, and at Bennington College in Vermont from 1932. Hill was founder and artistic director (from 1934 to 1942) of Bennington’s historic Summer School of the Dance. Under her charge at Bennington, the "big four" (Graham, Doris Humphrey, Hanya Holm, and Charles Weidman) along with the renowned musician Louis Horst, established themselves as leaders and teachers of a new American modern dance form and produced some of the most significant dance masterpieces of the period. In 1948, she re-created the Summer School of the Dance at Connecticut College, which became the first home of the enduring American Dance Festival.

Hill and Schuman agreed about the importance of institutional support for the arts: their life’s work depended on it. To achieve this, their new enterprise needed the best faculty to be had; they knew that Graham, Humphrey, and Horst headed the list of "must-haves." If Graham epitomized the high art of disciplined technique and compositional abstraction, it was Humphrey whose works exemplified the finest choreographic craftsmanship from a humanistic vantage point, while Horst, as the first teacher of dance composition, championed collaborations between composer and choreographer. All three agreed to serve as master teachers at Juilliard.

Setting a New Standard for Dance Education

Martha Hill in 1987. Hill was director of the Dance Division from its inauguration in 1951 until her retirement in 1984. (Photo by Jane Rady)

For Hill, alignment with a music school gave her an opportunity to set a standard for dance training in the United States with ballet and modern techniques, as well as the study of dance composition, repertory, dance notation, and music. "I incorporated it all. The curriculum was conceived from what I had discovered in my life of dance," she explained. "By the time I came to Juilliard, modern dance had pretty well established itself, but there was still a great rivalry between ballet and modern dance. It was just assumed that they mixed about as well as oil and water. . . . Bill and I brought them together under one roof and established what was probably the first dance program in the country to offer classes in both—as well as dance from other cultures."

They chose Antony Tudor to head the ballet faculty. As a leading choreographer for American Ballet Theatre, he had built his reputation for ballets that were complex psychological explorations; his work represented the opposite of Balanchine’s plotless, neo-classical style. It was this difference that would make the decision to hire Tudor an important one for the future of dance at Juilliard.

Margaret Craske, a colleague of Tudor’s at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School and an English authority on Cecchetti technique, was also recruited. Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins, both American Ballet Theatre choreographers, were invited to join the faculty, although previous commitments interfered. (Robbins, who had recently become an assistant director at the New York City Ballet, never signed a contract with Juilliard although he had expressed interest; deMille, after teaching a single master class, found herself too busy to continue.)

Juilliard was then located at 120 Claremont Avenue (at West 122nd Street). In her little office off the main theater lobby, Martha Hill took on the greatest challenge of her career, one that would keep her busy for the next 43 years. That fall (the 1951-52 academic year), Juilliard welcomed its first 56 dance students. There were 48 women and 8 men—according to Hill, "some of the best talents around," a mixed bag of full-time candidates for diplomas and Bachelor of Science degrees, special Extension Division admits, and "semi-professionals" on scholarship.

The process of creating new works and sustaining a contemporary repertory was critical not only to the mission of the Dance Division, but for the entire Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex that Schuman would go on to oversee as president in 1962. "Education, as well as art, must be of its own time," Schuman believed.

In the beginning, the Dance Division had its critics, as quoted in a 1952 feature article titled "Song and Dance College" in Collier’s magazine. "'The school was founded to help talented people produce beautiful sounds' said one, 'not hurdle through the air with arms and legs every which way.'" Two years later, Hill quoted from another article in a memo to Schuman: "We are not only the 'first' but the 'only.' In other words, we have a monopoly. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition," she added jubilantly.

Obstacles and Opportunities

Martha Hill (seated) and Muriel Topaz in 1985, the year Topaz became director of the Dance Division after Hill retired. (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

The first decade of the Dance Division’s existence was as vigorous and risk-taking as Hill’s earlier projects, even if it meant sharing studio space with opera and orchestra rehearsals. Sometimes the new presence of dance activity tested the goodwill of music colleagues—some begrudging the new addition of rosin boxes, ballet barres, and dancers constantly warming up in the corridors.

Each dance student quickly adjusted to a 13-hour day. Repertory rehearsals took place after daily classes in ballet and modern techniques and a hefty load of Literature and Materials of Music (Schuman’s 1947 restructured requirement), dance composition, and dance notation courses. In four years, a student could receive a diploma. The daunting task of graduating as a dance major with a B.S. degree (with the addition of 60 academic points) took five. (This was later reconfigured into a more reasonable B.F.A. degree, earned within four years.)

Choreographic opportunities proliferated. Fledgling studies were shown at monthly studio workshops, and some works were selected for the school’s Wednesdays at One concerts. Student projects often included collaborations with Juilliard’s composers. The Juilliard Dance Theater, a "semi-professional" repertory group under Humphrey’s direction, was established in 1954 as the performing arm of the division, producing masterpieces such as Humphrey’s Dawn in New York and Limón’s large ensemble work Missa Brevis. After Humphrey’s death in 1959, the Juilliard Dance Theater was disbanded and replaced by the Juilliard Dance Ensemble, made up entirely of students. Typical of the interdisciplinary focus was Limón’s work Performance (Over the Footlights and Back) for 36 dancers, in collaboration with eight of Juilliard’s faculty composers (including William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti, and Robert Starer), who wrote variations on a theme by Schuman.

By then, Juilliard dance alumni were as likely to go into Alvin Ailey’s company or open in a Broadway show as they are now. With an influx of students from as far away as Australia, Europe, Israel, and Japan, the mix of energies and backgrounds in the division resulted in a heady blend of creativity and empowerment.

In 1962, when Peter Mennin became Juilliard’s new president and the school prepared for the move to Lincoln Center, difficulties arose for the Dance Division. "Ugly politics and power plays were cruel forces in Lincoln Center’s creation of a place for dance," one newspaper reported. The situation brought Martha Hill and the Dance Division into a David-and-Goliath contest of wits.

A Struggle for Space

José Limón teaching at Juilliard on February 24, 1959. (Photo by Impact Photos Inc.)

For years, Lincoln Kirstein, as administrative director the New York City Ballet (and whose early company, Ballet Caravan, was given its first performance opportunity by Hill at Bennington in 1936) had worked with Lincoln Square’s committee of powerful men to claim the exclusive rights to what was to become the New York State Theater. In counterattack mode, Bill Schuman now backed the formation of the American Dance Theater at Lincoln Center as a possible resident repertory company. Presenting brief seasons in the fall of 1964 and the spring of 1965, the company was a significant if short-lived coup for the Dance Division and the contemporary dance world (and a valiant attempt at a more democratic use of the State Theater, originally intended for all styles of dance). Under the artistic direction of José Limón, with dance alumnus Richard Englander as producer, the performances included many dancers from Juilliard, and the majority of the works had originally been rehearsed and premiered there. But the hastily planned and underfunded pipe dream was no match for the Balanchine contingent, and City Ballet soon won the State Theater as its permanent residence.

Yet another setback came when Kirstein wanted to acquire Juilliard’s planned dance facility for his company’s School of American Ballet, and Martha Hill found her beloved division in a precarious position. President Mennin, faced with the projection of sixfold costs to maintain the new Juilliard building, informed the dance faculty that the School of American Ballet, having received a 10-year grant from the Ford Foundation in 1963, would be given a lease as an autonomous unit for three-quarters of what had originally been intended as the facility for the Dance Division. Mennin warned of the possible elimination of the division altogether if funding for its support was not found. At the very least, ballet would be removed from the curriculum, in deference to the Balanchine contingent. Only Martha Hill’s determination—behind which rallied outraged colleagues and dance alumni, as well as an outspoken press—preserved dance at Juilliard.

A 1968 feature in New York magazine, "Good Guys vs. Bad Guys at Lincoln Center," made the situation plain: "The achievement of the Juilliard Dance Department is one of the most impressive in dance history. It is a singular instance of what can be created by dedicated artists . . . [it] is probably going to be torn out by the roots." Another article blamed "frightful back-room strategies" and "perverse exclusions," attacking "cultural politics" for the "squeeze-out" at Juilliard.

Martha Hill’s last recourse was to point to an earlier board ruling, which stated that the school chosen for the complex must teach all of the art forms. The study of ballet alone did not encompass all aspects of dance. Therefore, the solitary presence of the School of American Ballet would violate Lincoln Center’s mandate to the people, she argued (successfully).The Juilliard School (the new name reflecting the inclusion of its Dance Division, then 75 dance majors strong, as well as a newly created Drama Division) moved into its new home at Lincoln Center Plaza in 1969. The dancers’ new training ground consisted of two pristine studios, with glass doors separating it from the School of American Ballet’s large complex with four studios next door.

Passing the Torch, Upholding the Tradition

Bradon McDonald and Elizabeth Mischler in a 1996 performance of Glen Tetley’s Pierrot Lunaire. (Photo by Nan Melville)

Despite continual warnings that the Dance Division might be disbanded, superlative work continued to be produced, including major works by Limón and Sokolow, along with stellar repertory works such as Graham’s Diversion of Angels. With the 1970s sometimes referred to as the "golden period" of dance at Juilliard, the department had become a model for other dance departments in conservatories worldwide.

Graduating dance majors continued to blaze careers as exciting new choreographers on the scene or become soloists in major modern companies, and Martha Hill continued as the division’s head until her retirement in 1984 (the same year that Joseph W. Polisi became Juilliard’s president).

Muriel Topaz, an alumna who had taught dance notation at Juilliard and headed the Dance Notation Bureau, eagerly took on the nearly impossible task of following in Hill’s footsteps in the fall of 1985. "Mickey" (as she was known) tried for more student-friendly scheduling that actually allowed a lunch break! For the dance faculty—all part-time specialists at Juilliard, and busy professionals with freelance careers who were accustomed to Hill’s accommodating administrative style—the change was more difficult.

Benjamin Harkarvy, who had co-founded the Nederlands Dans Theater with Hans van Manen in 1959, joined the ballet faculty in 1990. After Topaz’s eight-year tenure, Harkarvy became the next director of the Dance Division in 1992. (Remarkably, Martha Hill continued to be an important presence in the division as artistic director emeritus until her death in 1995.)

When Lincoln Center’s Rose Building was completed and able to offer space to the School of American Ballet in 1990, President Joseph Polisi negotiated the return of the full quarters in Juilliard’s building that Hill had designed 30 years earlier for the Dance Division. It was a "gift-in-kind," more valued than any other Hill had ever received. Until her death at the age of 94, the nonagenarian proudly participated in what had become a stable enterprise with longevity beyond any one leader or artist.

Hill once reflected on the way she made the decisions at Juilliard that shaped its dancers’ careers. "I think today, for the training for professional dance, an eclectic approach is wise. Every choreographer is different and if you are imbued with one approach and one esthetic, unless you are a very unusual person, you’re limited. That’s one reason our Juilliard dancers are very much in demand." It is a philosophy that Benjamin Harkarvy continued to uphold and build upon until his untimely death this March.

As Bill Schuman predicted, Juilliard has made a lasting contribution to the arts-and, after 50 years, is able to claim a good share of credit for the vitality of the art of dance that exists today.

Janet Mansfield Soares, author of Louis Horst: Musician in a Dancer’s World, graduated from the Juilliard Dance Division with a B.S. degree in 1961. Then a member of the José Limón Dance Company, she also became Louis Horst’s assistant at Juilliard. Taking over his courses after his death in 1964, she continued to teach dance composition on the faculty until 1989. She holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in arts and education from Columbia University, and is chair of the Barnard College Department of Dance. She is completing a biography of Martha Hill, the research for which contributed to this article.