Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

At UNLV, dance knows no limits

What: "Pioneers to the Future"

When: 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Judy Bayley Theatre

Tickets: $15, $5 for students, seniors and military; 895-2787, unlvtickets.com

Louis Kavouras is discussing the experimental and sometimes esoteric philosophy of UNLV's dance department when he types in the address for the Web site of alumna Julie Fotheringham.

Her home page reads, "Julia Fotheringham Movement Artist."

Kavouras smiles.

"I love that," he says. "She gave up a paying job at 'Ka' to move to New York to be a 'movement artist.' She's now dancing with a trash can. That's what you want from a student, someone who puts something up there that makes you really stop and think."

Spoken like a true purist of modern dance. But the concept extends even beyond Kavouras, the department chairman.

Much like the city it calls home, UNLV's dance department encourages this kind of innovation: Stay current, push the envelope, do what you want. There are no limitations and no traditions to box you in.

In fact, when department founder Carol Rae arrived 30 years ago, she went against collegiate tradition by insisting on equal emphasis on jazz, modern and ballet. The blend was uncommon. Jazz wasn't even being taught in the schools and still isn't commonly required for a degree.

Rae's cross training remains the department's backbone. If there is something else to explore, pile it on. Diversity is welcome.

The holistic approach will be showcased in "Pioneers to the Future," a fall dance performance that pays tribute to Rae and celebrates the department's 30th anniversary. It samples a little of everything, including a Ruth St. Denis segment that helped shape the department in the 1980s with its emphasis on ethnic and historical dance.

That the professors have their own unique visions, artistic pursuits and choreographic styles is something that's celebrated.

"Cathy Allen has dancers wading in water," Kavouras says. "Two people are performing on a Pilates disc in Victoria Dale's jazz piece. Richard (Havey) has them on rolling office stools - with fog."

Pausing, he adds, "We'll see if it works. We don't know yet."

As usual, the process is more important than the product here.

"This is the world that the student needs to live in," Kavouras says. "Otherwise we're just doing formulas, creating what we know works."

That can be a surprise for students who haven't done their research. Students study technique, but Kavouras' mantra is: Train the artist rather than the dancer.

Professor Beth Mehocic, the dance department's composer, poet and visual artist, says many of the 100 dance majors arrive at UNLV expecting to study only jazz. "They expect it to be more commercial and are a little shocked."

But the staff doesn't profess to be anything it's not. In fact, Shelby Barnard, a senior who graduates this year, came because of the jazz program but was also interested in guest artists and international opportunities.

"As an artist, versatility is so important," Barnard says. "Most colleges have one concentration."

She also wanted the international exposure and different perspectives offered by the guest artists. Students have been to Edinburgh's Fringe Festival in Scotland. They've collaborated with schools in Seoul, South Korea, and Liverpool, England. The Liverpool collaboration in 2005 had them working in England for three weeks with students at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, then in Scotland for the Fringe. They've attended the Adelaide Festival of the Arts in Australia and will head to Kiel, Germany, next year.

Kavouras wants to nurture the international relationships, but still emphasizes the value of Las Vegas and its Western mentality. Here, the pioneer spirit is still strong and anything goes.

The school's early dance classes were tied to the Strip, and guest choreographers, students and teachers were performers in the showrooms.

Rae, who was working at the University of Houston, was reluctant to come to Las Vegas. But, she says, "they were looking for people who could really change the scene here. I was getting weekly calls that summer, then daily calls, asking, 'Have you made up your mind?' and I wanted a place where I was the boss. I was the director and I could mold it any way I want."

Kavouras relishes the idea that the 50-year-old university - with a new president - is looking to define itself.

"What a great place to be. We could be 200 years old and know where we are. How boring is that?"

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