As a result of job safety may be onerous to return by within the dance world, there’s an comprehensible enchantment to full-time professorships in school and college dance packages. The trail to get there can appear elusive, nonetheless—and the necessities of the job lengthen past educating and choreography. Two dance professors—Jason Ohlberg, Skidmore School affiliate professor and associate chair, and Shannon Johnson Grayson, assistant professor of observe at College of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman College of Dance—share their journeys to working in academia.
Required Expertise
Dance professor positions often require both a terminal diploma (an MFA or a PhD) or equal skilled expertise. However the path that individuals take to those jobs is never linear. Neither Ohlberg nor Grayson started their careers with the aim of educating. Earlier than graduating, Ohlberg left the BFA dance program at Buy School, State College of New York, for a scholarship alternative that led to an apprenticeship with Hubbard Avenue Dance Chicago. He accomplished his undergraduate diploma 20 years later as a part of a unbroken schooling program at Cornish School of the Arts. Within the interim, he danced with and choreographed for firms within the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, and taught at small suburban dance faculties after which in an adjunct capability at Barat School, Cornish School, and the College of Washington.
“It was a really gig-economy form of existence for some time,” he says. Ohlberg’s curiosity in pursuing a tutorial educating profession is what prompted him to complete his BFA. Then he enrolled in College of Washington’s dance MFA program, which he says is concentrated largely on making ready its college students for a profession in larger schooling.
Grayson is without doubt one of the comparatively few full-time professors who doesn’t maintain a complicated diploma. After graduating from Howard College, she danced professionally in Chicago, the place, like Ohlberg, she taught at suburban studios and YMCAs earlier than serving to to create the youth program at Hubbard Avenue and educating grades Ok–12 in Chicago Public Colleges. She labored as an adjunct at Dominican College and Columbia School Chicago earlier than transferring to Los Angeles and educating at USC Kaufman. “I began asking round on the college for full-time alternatives, nevertheless it took about 4 years of adjuncting and build up lessons,” she says.
The Utility Course of
The method of making use of and interviewing for dance professorships is time-consuming, rigorous, and aggressive. “Typically there are actually sturdy years, the place persons are on the lookout for numerous positions, and a few years it’s very lean,” says Ohlberg. Through the two years wherein he was making use of for jobs, he despatched out 15 purposes—consisting of a canopy letter, CV, and educating assertion, in addition to movies of his educating, samples of his choreography, earlier course evaluations, and associated supplies—and heard again from 5 faculties.
After making it by means of a cellphone interview, candidates are introduced in for multiday on-campus interviews. “It typically entailed educating two lessons, and presumably in very completely different disciplines. So, a method class after which a historical past or anatomy lecture,” says Ohlberg of his experiences. The on-campus visits may embody interviews, a job speak in regards to the candidate’s scholarship or inventive work, and sometimes a dinner with the search committee. “These are supposed to place everyone comfy, however may be much more intimidating and intense,” says Ohlberg. “It’s a number of being on.”
Grayson utilized for her position at USC Kaufman—her second time making use of for a full-time professorship there—throughout the pandemic, so the method performed out on-line. Her three rounds of interviews included educating two lessons through Zoom and taking part in one-on-one and group conversations. “I taught a faucet and a jazz class, each infused with African, West African, Afro-Cuban, and Latin dance,” says Grayson. “I used to be competing in opposition to individuals who had grasp’s and PhDs, so I actually needed to point out my expertise and information of historic context.”
Though universities usually pay for candidates’ flights, boarding, and meals, Ohlberg stresses that the method may be financially and mentally taxing for academics who’re working elsewhere whereas making use of. “It may possibly take fairly a toll on you,” he says. “The excellent news is that when you have a number of interviews, it means you’re a really enticing candidate.”
An Immersive Profession
Most new hires are available in on a tenure monitor as assistant professors, with eligibility necessities laid out to be promoted to affiliate after which full professor. “After I was educating in adjunct positions, I didn’t actually have a full view of what the profession regarded like,” says Ohlberg. “Once you get right into a full-time educational place, it entails a lot extra than simply educating or making dances. And the longer you’re in academia, the extra educating turns into solely a part of what you do.”
Ohlberg turned an affiliate professor at Skidmore in 2021 after 5 years as an assistant. With a view to be promoted, he needed to current a tenure portfolio of his educating, service to the division and the faculty, and scholarship, which in his case included each written work and choreography. Whereas USC Kaufman doesn’t at the moment provide tenure, there are nonetheless formal standards for promotion. Each Ohlberg and Grayson sit on administrative committees, advise college students, and attend conferences to advance their very own analysis. “It’s a full, immersive job,” says Grayson. “I’m grateful for that, and for the well being advantages, however I’m simply engaged on balancing all of it.”
Grayson and Ohlberg each say that flexibility is vital to the job—they’re each often requested to tackle programs and duties exterior of their areas of experience. “It’s important to be very nimble,” says Ohlberg. “However these of us in dance have an inherent nature of onerous work and grit in our backgrounds that’s nicely suited to the fixed shift and evolution of the place.”
