Laura Glenn
Dance Faculty

New York native Laura Glenn earned her B.S. from Juilliard and has been a full-time member of the dance faculty since 1987. A member of the José Limón Dance Company for 11 years, she has directed Limón's works for companies around the world. She runs the White Mountain Summer Dance Festival in Springfield, Mass. (now in its 27th year), and is also a Certified Laban Movement Analyst.

What was Juilliard like when you were a student here, and how has it changed?

Laura Glenn with her brother Carl (left) on a childhood summer vacation in New Hampshire. (Photo by Max G. Glenn)

The Juilliard I went to was smaller, tucked away on Claremont Avenue—without the dorms, so we each needed to come to terms with our own living situations in the big city. I am grateful that I went during the time of lower tuition. What was lacking then was organized feedback; I did not have a student conference (as I remember it) until my senior year, when it was time for the faculty to decide whether I was qualified to graduate. (I would have to believe, at that point, it was just a formality or it would have come up sooner.) I also think that the graduation performance—as a public celebration, as it happens today—is far superior to the terrifying solo performance we had in the concert hall with only the faculty to watch … and judge.

Has your teaching changed over the years? How?

Some of the changes have come through the experience of teaching year after year, and my fascination with the process and patterns learning can take (which are very often non-linear). I am more patient as a teacher, and have increased my skill of seeing and sensing the dissonances in alignment, intention, and flow, as a student does the class exercises and phrases.

How did you make the transition from a student mentality to a teacher mentality?

I hopefully have never fully made that transition because I feel most effective as a teacher if I come into class willing to learn/discover and hear the questions asked without rote answers.

Have Juilliard students changed over the years? How?

Students have changed as the world changes. The nature of students who come to Juilliard is the same: passionate about what they are doing, otherwise they don't tend to last here. I believe that the skill level in dance has grown in the field in general, and definitely here at the School. I also believe we have improved our ability to choose incoming students—not only the most talented, but those with the passion and the vision to last the four years and gain the maximum information from the School. That is reflected in the increased number of students who graduate each year, as opposed to during "my time," when less than half the original class would finish.

What's the most embarrassing moment you've had as a performer?

For one Limón company performance (back when we toured without a Marley linoleum floor) the stage was dangerously slippery. One of the tricks back then was to wash the floor with Coca Cola syrup—and in this case, the floor received its dose of Coke syrup without enough time to dry. We also used to have a layer of rubber put on an extra pair of ballet shoes for slippery floors, so we had those on that evening. Limón's Missa Brevis starts with the whole company standing in a tight group onstage, while the lights and curtain slowly reveal us. The three minutes of stillness allowed us all to sink into the syrup, which was rapidly drying around and underneath us. The first action of the dance is a plié and a slide—and all 24 of us simultaneously discovered we were glued to the floor as if to flypaper. What followed was people leaving behind the rubber of their shoes (which had gotten more attached to the floor than to the shoe it had been on); in some cases, entire shoes were left behind. All of this was accompanied by a sucking sound with each step—and an effort to suppress the growing well of laughter that was creeping into all of our systems (and was totally inappropriate to the nature of the work).

If you weren't in the career you are in, what would you be doing?

That changes—for years, I thought it was running a diner in a small town and getting to be social with locals. But, based on the games I played as a child, I think teaching was always in the picture. Whether it was math or dance or how to walk your dog, I have always loved teaching. I have always been interested in things to do with health. Also on my list are traveler, weaver, peace worker, itinerant hippie. But as my father was a cameraman and I grew up surrounded by the film industry, I probably would have gone into film editing or continuity.