Letter from Lindsay Brown ('06)

Hi All,

Here's Lindsay's letter. Well said!

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To Whom It May Concern:

I understand the St. Andrew’s Dance Program is being cut back. Allow me a moment of your time to respond:

I am J. Lindsay Brown (’06), currently attending Scripps College, CA with notable distinctions academically and beyond. I am a double major: Dance and English. I consistently make Dean’s List and choreograph for the Claremont College’s concerts. My choreography ranges from abstract movement interpretations of classic literature to pieces dealing with current events, such as Guantanamo. I have been accepted to the American Dance Festival Program at Duke this summer and will apply to graduate schools next year. I have attached my normal CV and my dance CV for your perusal, as well as a link to my college department:

http://www.scrippscollege.edu/academics/department/dance/index.php

St. Andrew’s gave me seven years of valuable academic education, and gladly took seven years of my parent’s money for the ever-rising tuition. My experience was remarkably varied at St. Andrew’s—while many of the teachers graciously encouraged me to grow, the administration and the student body often hindered such progress. Fortunately, I’ve moved past my teenaged perceived wrongs and found myself a future, keeping the best from my experience and jettisoning the rest.

In fact, I annually return to the very school that, on many days, ripped my self-esteem to shreds in order to assist teaching the most influential aspect of those SEVEN YEARS—Debby Kanter’s Dance Program. Other schools have big fields, sports, bands, music teachers, but very few teach what amounts to College Composition I to middle school students, male and female. In fact, I waived the first composition requirement in college, enabling me to choreograph earlier than other students— I had learned those skills in 6^th and 7^th grade.

Perhaps the phrase is finally out of fashion, but these actions go against “More than Academic Rigor.” Sure, St. Andrew’s has another field, and even younger students—younger students who may never experience dance (as we all were “forced” to in middle school) and the creativity and physical benefits that accompany it.

As Martha Graham said (one of the most important figures in Dance History, which is in fact a real subject studied by real scholars) “Movement never lies.” It never did lie to me, but without the day program I wouldn’t have found myself in the after school program, and I wouldn’t have found myself at Scripps College studying Laban, Kinesiology, Composition, Anatomy, Dance History…not to mention the technique classes. As I mentioned before, I will attend a graduate program for dance, specifically so that I can teach—I have been forever inspired by Debby Kanter’s work with me and so many others. I will teach dance for middle school, high school, and college students (assuming other institutions such as yours don’t continue to cut back, of course).

In conversing with fellow college dance students, I find that no one else encountered such a program in their schools and I shudder and tremble to think St. Andrew’s would devalue such a blessing.

Sincerely,

J. Lindsay Brown