1960-1989

1960

Festival Company of Norway performs ethnic dances in February followed by a trio: Emily Frankel, Daniel Nagrin and Terence Miller. 

1961

Dance remains one of the two required courses for completing the four-course PE requirement. Indrani and Company performed in January. Ted Shawn is guest faculty for summer workshop. 

1962

Graduate course in Accompaniment added; all PE majors required to take one course in Accompaniment. Dance minor reinstated. 

1963

Dance is no longer required to complete the PE requirement. Betty Poindexter co-directs The Modern Dance Group.

1964

Paulie Koner is guest faculty for summer workshop.

1965

The National Ballet with Sonia Arova appeared in January.

1966

New undergraduate Course: Problems in Dance.

1967

Major curriculum changes: BA and BS Dance Majors. 

New undergraduate courses: Theories and Practice of Teaching Dance; Basic Skills in Recreation; Recreation for the Atypical; Seminar in Dance Theory, Workshop in Dance.

New graduate courses: Professional Affiliation in Health Education; Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and Related Arts; Choreographic Studies in Dance and Related Arts; Problems in Health Education; Workshop in Dance; Critical Analysis of Professional Literature; Research – Health Education, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and Related Arts. 

1968

New undergraduate courses: Guidance of Children Through Physical Education Activities; Program Planning in Recreation; Problems in Health Education, Physical Education, Dance and Recreation.

New graduate courses: The Organization and Conduct of Dance in Education; Public Relations in Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and Related Arts; Independent Research. 

1969

Gladys Keeton (MA) joins the faculty. BA – Dance major (non-teaching degree) is added. BS in Recreation and BS in Recreation Therapy offer dance emphases. Understanding the Arts – Dance replaces Dance Appreciation. New graduate courses: Advanced Studies in Health Education, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and Related Arts; History and Philosophy of Dance since the Nineteenth Century; Professional Preparation in Dance, Health Education, Physical Education and Recreation.

Charles Weidman performs in June. Houston Ballet presents four numbers in the Main Auditorium on its first organized tour.

1970

Mary Kaprelian, PhD, joins the faculty.

1971

New undergraduate courses: Ballroom; Ballet; and Modern Jazz Dance. The BA and BS in dance is retitled to All-level Teaching Certificate in Health and Physical Education – Dance Emphasis; differentiates from the BA – Dance Major. New graduate courses: Tests and Measurements in Dance, Health Education, Physical Education and Recreation; Research Designs in Dance, Health Education, Physical Education and Recreation; Organization of Conduct of Dance in Education. Jack Cole and Harriette Ann Gray guest faculty for the fifth summer workshop. 

1972

Ildiko Perjessy and Molly Hargadine, PhD, join the faculty. MA in Dance and Related Arts with specialization in Dance Therapy (39 credits) and EdD (93 credits) are added. Choreography of Suite of Original Dances becomes a required course for PhD. Residences by professional dance companies are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Texas Commission on the Arts and the Greater Denton Arts Council.

Charles Weidman and His Theatre Dance Company performed in April and Betty Jones and Fritz Ludin headline Dances We Dance in October. Walter Terry guest faculty for summer workshop.

1973

Dean Anne Schley Duggan retires, passes away in September. Accompanist Mary Campbell retires. Adrienne Fisk, MFA, joins faculty. BS – Dance major (non-teaching degree) added. New graduate course: Presentation of Activities to the Public. Aileene S. Lockhart, PhD, DS and TSCW alumna, returns to TWU as College of HPER Dean and head of Dance. Repertory Dance Theatre, a non-audition company, is organized by Adrienne Fisk and Gladys Keeton and replaces Modern Dance Group to include more forms of dance. The Bella Lewitzky Dance Company appears in March, followed by Margalit Dance Theatre in October. Liz Williamson teaches summer workshop.

1974

College of HPER departmentalizes; the Department of Dance is established. Dance mission states “the dance program at TWU is based on the philosophy that art and education are not separate entities but integral components in the development of a dancer.”

Major shift in the curriculum. New undergraduate courses: Body and Movement Awareness; Preparation for Dance Performance; Theory and Practice of Teaching Folk Dance; Rhythmic Analysis of Movement; Dance Performance; Sensitization Through Movement; Body and Movement Communication. Course change: Dance Notation from Theory and Practice of Labanotation. Changes in the graduate course work: Dance Pedagogy: Ballet; Dance Pedagogy: Modern and Jazz, Advanced Ballet I & II; Modern Dance Theatre Technique I & II; Dance for the Handicapped; Adapted Dance; and Dance History shrinks to two courses.

In April, José Limòn Dance Company (Ruth Currier, artistic director) returns, followed by Utah Repertory Dance Theatre in November. Gus Giordano and Joan Smallwood guest faculty for summer workshop.

1975

New undergraduate courses: Dance Production; three levels of Ballet; four levels of Modern Dance Technique. New graduate course: Seminar in Dance. International Folk Dance Company organized by Gladys Keeton. Susan Myatt, BM, joins the staff as composer-accompanist. German mime, Lotte Goslar and Company appears in April followed by Penrod-Plastino Movement Theatre in July and Gloria Newman Dance Company in October. Eugene Loring guest faculty for summer workshop.

1976

Gladys Keeton and Adrienne Fisk notice dance courses are outgrowing the space in the Health, Physical Education and Recreation building. To resolve this, the two faculty members conduct a search around campus for possible spaces to relocate dance classes. They settle on the old Student Union (at the time used for storage) and decide it is a great place to relocate and hold classes in the ballrooms of this building. This building, now known as the Dance Gymnastics Laboratory, continues to house dance classes.

Larry Richardson Dance Company performed in February, and 5X2 Dance Company with Jane Kosminsky and Bruce Decker appeared in September. Rosalind DeMille guest faculty for summer workshop.

1977

Penelope Hanstein, (MFA, later PhD, CTLabanotation) joins the faculty. Texas Education Agency certifies the dance major. New undergraduate courses: Creative Movement; Body and Movement Awareness. New graduate courses: Advanced Ballet I & II; Modern Dance Theatre I & II.

Hartford Ballet appeared in April and Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Graciela Tapia performed in October. Donald Bradburn guest faculty for summer workshop

1978

New graduate course: Dance Performance. Dance classes move across the street from the Health, Physical Education and Recreation building into the old student union. Today this building is known as the Dance Gymnastics Laboratory (DGL) and continues to house the dance program.

1979

New undergraduate courses: Improvisation, Choreographic Designs, Advanced Ballet I & II and Advanced Modern Dance I & II. 

1980

Lockhart steps down as dean, named chair of Dance Department. Janice LaPointe-Crump, PhD, joins the faculty. Fall technique placement auditions for all new dance majors inaugurated. New undergraduate course: Cooperative Education. Aileen Lockhart receives TWU Cornaro Award for excellence in teaching. 

1981

Kimberly Staley, MFA, and Charles Harrill, MFA, join the faculty.

1982

College name changed to include Dance: HPERD. Dr. Jane Mott named chair of Dance Department. Sarah Davis and Ann Kendall listed as lecturers and Rosann Cox, PhD, is adjunct professor. New graduate course: Cooperative Education. 

1983

Lisa Kay Mestre, MA, joins staff as accompanist-composer. Lockhart retires, named adjunct professor. 

1984

Mott named chair, Department of Dance [in 1982 or 1984]. New graduate courses: Intermediate Labanotation; Dance Pedagogy; Methods of Research in Dance. 

TWU Touring Ensemble augments Repertory Dance Theatre. Maria Benitez Spanish Dance Company and Bella Lewitsky Dance Company in residence. 

1985

New undergraduate course: Basic Dance; Intermediate-Advanced Tap.

Utah Repertory Dance Theatre collaborates on a Labanotated assisted reconstruction of Doris Humphrey’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor. Penelope Hanstein works with eight TWU dancers who performed with the eight-member company. When the Utah Repertory Dance Theatre rehearsal director saw the first run through, he pronounced, “Actually, it’s very good”. Janice LaPointe-Crump awarded TWU Mary Mason Lyons Junior Faculty Award. 

1986

Gayle Ziaks, MFA, joins dance faculty.

Festival of India in performance residence celebrating 50th year of Indian independence.

1987

North Carolina Dance Theatre in performance residence. Yuh-Jen Liu’s “Darkness and Scattered Light” chosen for the ACDF South Central Gala concert.

1988

Dance mission created which states: “The programs in dance are designed to prepare dance artists, scholars and/or educators who are well-grounded in the theories and contexts of dance as an art form… [to] provide a comprehensive approach to dance learning which merges technique, performance and choreography with in-depth study of dance as art.”

MFA degree (60 hours) instituted. New graduate courses: Laban Movement Analysis: Effort/Shape, Space Harmony/Choreutics; The Choreographic Process: Making, Perceiving, Educating and Pedagogical Foundations for Dance. Dance history courses retitled: History of Dance I: Non-Western and Western Cultures; History of Dance II: Baroque to Contemporary Times; Professional Paper and Professional Project.

Gladys Keeton directs Pure Emotion Dance Company of special population dancers and directs liturgical dance for annual TWU Homecoming chapel service.

Annual Dance Alumnae Newsletter is inaugurated. First dance alumnae concert celebrates retirement of Lockhart and Mott. Dedication ceremony named dance studio DGL 203, 208 and 210 after Duggan, Mott and Lockhart. 

MOMIX in performance residence. First year of collaborative residency program with University of North Texas. 

1989

Major administrative changes: HPERD College dissolved; Dance renamed Programs in Dance as part of the Performing Arts Department, College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Hanstein named program director. Programs in Dance mission expands to add: “Integrating the aesthetic, critical, historical, cultural and dance making dimensions, the various programs of study provide a comprehensive approach to dance learning which merges technique, performance and choreography with in-depth study of dance as art.”

Changes in undergraduate curriculum: Introduction to Dance as an Art Form; Music for Dancers reduced to a one-semester course; Basic Dance becomes a one-semester requirement for PE majors. Dance performance includes section in Pointe Repertory.