In this season of commencements, I share with you that I am also graduating from Ohio State Dance. After 31 years, I will retire this summer. Our new chair is the remarkable Dr. Nadine George-Graves, a renowned scholar of African American theatre and dance, who came to Ohio State two years ago as a joint hire in the departments of Dance and Theatre. As my final message to you, I share below my remarks to our graduating class of 2020:
Dear Ohio State Dance Class Of 2020,
Every generation has a defining historical moment that remains etched in the memories of its people for the rest of their lives: the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the MLK assassination, 9/11. The Covid-19 pandemic is yours. Hitting within months of your graduation, it stole one of the most significant markers of your life, commencement events celebrating your accomplishments and life passage. Now, the absence of these rituals will be emblazoned in your memories forever. What you lost will be weighed against what you gained during this challenging time.
How are you called to this moment? How will you matter to the world as it takes the opportunity to transcend a mere return to normalcy, in order to recreate itself in a better, more just and compassionate image?
You have shown no small amount of courage in choosing to pursue dance, in going against the prevailing societal norms to make money and seek security. You chose a path demanding discipline, perseverance, and faith that the arts did, in fact, matter to the world. In doing so, you learned how to improvise, to make something out of nothing, to collaborate, problem-solve, communicate, and embody knowledge.
Now more than ever, people are turning to the arts for emotional sustenance and intellectual perspective. How will you reframe dance and dance-making in ways that respond to their uncertainty and fear? You will make dances in new ways, in new places. You will figure out how to collaborate across distance and difference. You will bring your deep understanding of the body to people hungry for physical experience. You will share the joy of movement with communities of all ages. You will redefine the meaning of a “dance career.”
I have every confidence that you will rise to the call of this historical moment, in ways that derive from your training and your passion for this beautiful, human practice called dancing.
Until we meet again face-to-face, CARPE DIEM, seize the day. The world awaits you.
