Word: mallardi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Dance is hardly a new phenomenon at the University. Radcliffe has offered courses in dance since the 1940s. Claire Mallardi, a former pupil of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, has headed the program since 1965, supervising the production of one performance each year...
Chin added that "getting credit might help," but Mallardi, the company's artistic adviser, does not feel that is a possibility. "Harvard will probably never give credit," she said on Monday. But Mallardi too is resentful. "I don't give a damn whether people get credit for dance," she said, "but when you're in an atmosphere where students are under academic pressure and also love dance, they're blown in the wind. I don't feel there's interest from the administration. It's worth it-the talent is there--but we wear ourselves out trying to make...
Drawing an audience for dance concerts has never been a problem, Mallardi pointed out. She feels that offering credit for courses in the Dance Program in composition and performance production, as well as the hiring of someone to lift the burden of production off the students and off Mallardi herself, who has only a part-time appointment, would go far towards solving the problem. Mallardi also noted that dance at Harvard is in an especially difficult position. "All the other artistic activities are isolated blocks of time. A dance concert, where the original work is done by each student, involves...
...Mallardi agreed that whatever its status at Harvard, dance provides a vital experience. "Dance can permeate every aspect of living," she said. "The understanding of how the body works and how the psyche works--you can't get that from books. Whatever profession the dancers here choose, they're the richer for having that." And for Newcomer, "The company and this performance have been the most important things at Harvard for me this year...
...Mallardi works with her dancers as Michelangelo did on his unfinished statues of "Slaves," chiseling to release the sculptures trapped inside. But there are other forces at work. Unless the University gives this talented company recognition for its work, the forms of dance at Harvard will remain hidden in the stone...