From Rebecca Cobbs ('04)

Dear Mr. Kosasky,

It has come to my attention that during these tough economic times, St. Andrew’s had made cuts to the dance program. I understand that something had to be cut. And I understand that someone will be unhappy with any cut. However, I truly think that it is essential to keep at least one mandatory dance class for the middle school.

Cutting the dance program sends the wrong message about the value of dance. It tells students that dance is less important than music, drama, religion, and P.E. While I disagree with this message, for me, it is not the real reason the dance program should remain in its entirety. It is what everyone learns from a dance class that is important. After all, the whole point of a St. Andrew’s education is to provide students pathways to explore and also the skills to then choose their own values.

As you may remember, I was a St. Andrew’s lifer, attending St. Andrew’s from sixth through twelfth grade (although now with the lower school, that sounds like nothing). I actually still remember my sixth grade dance class. I had never danced before, and I had no idea what the expectations would be. I remember the class gave me an opportunity to see a different side of my classmates. We broke into random pairs and groups to choreograph our own dances and I met new people. As I went through the dance program, sparked by that class, I learned more. It helped me learn to ignore what others think (since certainly there is a stigma around dance at St. Andrew’s- which makes it even more important to show that the administration values the program). I learned the athleticism of dance, its combination of the artistic and the physical. Gradually, I came to respect the nuances of an art form I previously knew nothing about.

I understand that some people think dance classes are and were dumb. Frankly, I think that religion classes were dumb. But of course, they weren’t dumb; I just didn’t like the subject. Even though I disliked religion classes, doesn’t mean that I didn’t learn anything valuable from the ones I was forced to take. When students choose to attend St. Andrew’s they sign on to all the pillars of the school, because St. Andrew’s wants to create a well-rounded, respectful, and thoughtful student. For me, I had to sit through religion class. For others, they had to sit through a dance class. In the end, I think we are all better for it.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Just to give you an update, I just graduated Middlebury College. I am moving to Boston this weekend. I don’t have a job yet, but I plan to go to law school in a year and a half, so I will figure out some way to pay the bills until then. I look forward to reunion.

Good luck guiding St. Andrew’s during this tough time.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Cobbs

From Tracey Bachman ('04)

Mr. Kossasky, 

      It has come to my attention that an aspect of the St. Andrew’s curriculum, non-elective middle school dance, as been eliminated for the upcoming year.  I understand that with the state of the economy, cuts have to be made, however I urge you not to make them at the expense of the student’s unique education that they receive at St. Andrew’s.  By taking away any St. Andrew’s program, in this case, middle school dance, I believe St. Andrew’s is separating, and thus weakening, the four pillars of academics, arts, athletics, and spirituality, that are meant to be equal in creating a well-rounded education for growing students.  This is a founding principle of the school that I believe makes it stand out among the other choices of private institutions in are area. 

           

      Middle school is a very important time for students; they learn the fundamentals of all the aspects of their future education, which are then continued in high school.  In high school, students do not have as much time to do all the programs that St. Andrew’s has to offer, so they must pick and choose based on what they are interested in.  If students are not given the opportunity to try out dance, or any other form of the arts for that matter, until high school, the number of participants will drop.  This will be due to the fact that they are unfamiliar with dance and subsequently choose an art that they are more comfortable with, because they had been introduced to it early on.  Exposure to the arts early on, such as in middle school, I believe is crucial in a child’s development.  It teaches tolerance, acceptance, and appreciation of a field that, I will admit, is difficult to understand when first looking at it.   

      I entered St. Andrew’s in 6^th grade, and attended the school until I graduated in 2004.  From what I remember of the schedule in middle school, students attended a different arts class for half of a trimester.  Those classes were music, which was divided up into performing and instrumental; visual, which was divided up into 3-Dimensional and 2-Dimensional; drama; and finally, dance.  Looking back on this schedule, I believe that this was an excellent idea for the growing middle school students.  Each student was given a taste of all the different art programs that are offered by St. Andrew’s, and have the opportunity to be taught by the very talented, and encouraging, arts teachers that we have at our school.  After receiving a glimpse of what was offered in the arts department during middle school, high school students were allowed to choose one or several areas to pursue further in their rounded education that St. Andrew’s offered.  This system allowed young middle school students to try out, for a short period of time, every discipline of art.  I believe this same idea was used in middle school sports programs as well, and achieved the same type of beneficial results, allowing students to refine and focus their interests in a particular area once they reach high school.  If students were not given this opportunity to ‘try out’ all aspects of the arts department, many would have gone on to high school not experiencing all that the arts have to offer. 

      I would like to share with you my own experience in the arts classes during middle school.  I have always been interested in the visual arts from a very young age, so when I entered middle school I already knew that I wanted to take as many visual art classes as possible; and, to be honest, I was not thrilled to be taking any of the performing arts classes.  However, during a drama class, I became very interested in theater, especially the visual aspect of it that takes place behind the scenes.  This was an area of the performing arts that I never thought of becoming involved in before, and I suddenly found myself wanting to take more classes in technical theater, which I did once I reached high school.  Tech Crew was a huge part of my St. Andrew’s career, and is filled with many fond memories, as well as an excellent basic educational background of theater that I continue to use to this day.  Had it not been for a brief exposure in middle school to technical theater, I would not have become involved in it in high school.  Thinking about my experience, and how much it helped mold me into the person I am today, I am extremely saddened that current middle school students will not have that same opportunity that I did in finding an interest in something unexpected, such as dance, that they were not previously aware of.   

      I strongly urge you to reconsider your decision of eliminating any aspect of the St. Andrew’s curriculum.  I understand the financial issues that the economy is in right now, and the impact that it has on a small private school like St. Andrews.  However, surely there could be other steps that the school can take that would avoid weakening the four pillars that St. Andrew’s was founded on, and still allow students to receive a well-rounded education.     

Thank you for your time and consideration. 
 

                                                Sincerely, 
 

                                                Tracey Bachman

From Amanda Moodie ('04)

Here's an email i received from Amanda Moodie ('04) with some interesting insights to what's going on.  I encourage you all to respond to this post (as i plan on doing) so we can truly have this be a dialogue!

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Hey Sarah,

I'm working on a draft of a letter - it's at home and I'm at work - but I wanted to share some clarifications. Post this to the blog if you like, or keep it to yourself, or whatever.

I've been thinking a lot about this situation ever since I got your message and I'm really torn about my feelings. Let's be clear: I am not uncertain at all, in any sense, about the importance of art education or of dance programs in schools. People on the blog have spoken far more eloquently and with more expertise than I can about the benefits it offers to students. The fact that St. Andrew's has a program at all, and the strength of that program, is part of what sets us aside from other independent schools in the area (you will note, for example, that Maret doesn't even say anything about the arts on its homepage and says nothing about dance at all, anywhere). Dance classes were a fun activity for me, but I know that for many others, they were a saving grace during middle and high school. So of course I don't condone the elimination of middle school dance classes.

But I think I'm in a different position from many other alumni, because since my mother still works there, I still encounter the workings of the school on a daily basis. (That administration so many students - and apparently, other alums - bash all the time? Yeah, that's my mother.) I've seen how many difficult decisions Kosasky et al. have had to make over the past few months. And this is the dilemma that I keep running up against: The dance program has not been cut because anyone feels that that money would be better spent in other areas, i.e. athletics. If that were the reason, I would be the first one in the offices staging a sit-in. They're not re-allocating money - there is no money. They've cut benefits for the school's employees, i.e. summer hours for the staff; they've slashed even the technology budget, traditionally one of the biggest. My mother comes home every day with heartbreaking stories about having to choose between giving financial aid to current students whose families' financial situations are newly precarious, or to new students who can increase the diversity of the school. 

So why was the middle-school dance program the first to go? To be brutally honest, because Debby is classified as a part-timer, and they've eliminated virtually all part-time positions across all departments as a cost-saving measure. Frankly, she's probably lucky that they didn't slash the after-school companies too. I don't know whether she's part-time by her own choice or by the school's decision, and we can get into what it says about the situation of arts at St. Andrew's that "dance teacher" is only a part-time job - but the fact is that that's the reason for the decision. And she's not the only one.

This is what I've been wrestling with for the past two days. How can I, in good conscience, support my alma mater's elimination of the programs that meant the most to me during my time there, particularly considering the myriad benefits that those programs offer to both the students and the school? On the other hand, how can I support their continuance when that money might be given as financial aid to a child who would otherwise be unable to afford to attend? I wish it were as simple as arts vs. athletics, but it's not. (An aside: Since I know people will bring up the fields in response to this, here are my feelings. I am just as angry about the spending on the new turf as everyone else, mostly because I don't remember the last time the arts department received an influx of over $100,000. BUT at the time the decision was made to put down the synthetic turf, two years ago, almost no one was predicting the crash of the economy, and Robert probably could not have foreseen the financial predicament the school would be in in the future. I seriously doubt that he would make the same decision now. What's more, my understanding is that this is a cost-saving measure in the long term, because they don't need to spend time or money on fertilizing, upkeep, etc. So, while we can all agree that it was unfair and may in retrospect have been a mistake, it's kind of a moot point now.)

We can frame this moment as a debate exclusively about the dance program and its merits, and the potential deleterious effects of its elimination (dance education offers x, y, and z to the school and the students; it's a slippery slope from its elimination to that of the entire arts curriculum; it's the same as not forcing students to take math, etc.) - to which Robert will reply that he eliminated the program not because of its own value or enthusiasm for it or lack thereof, but because it was taught by a part-timer and was therefore easily cut to provide money for equally worthwhile initiatives, i.e. financial aid. We can frame it as an opportunity to discuss the importance of arts education to the St. Andrew's mission and to question whether it is truly receiving equal recognition as one of the "four pillars." That's a discussion that needs to take place, and this might be the ideal catalyst for it. But that doesn't mean that dance classes will return, because that's an immediate budgetary issue. And if that degenerates into a demand for tit-for-tat deletions from the athletic budget, it's easy for Robert to say that those reductions will be made, or to reply, "Okay, new uniforms for the teams are out" - in which case, athletic supporters will be annoyed and the dance classes still won't be reinstated. Or, as you and Jessica have discussed, we can use this as an opportunity to exert some leverage as alumni and to explain, "We care about this institution and we feel that, faced with a number of difficult choices, you've made a decision that isn't acceptable to us since it isn't in the best interest of the school, the community, or the students." 

The way forward isn't attacking the administration; nor is it hammering home the same points about arts and dance, important though they may be. Rather, we need to see this as an opportunity for collaboration to try to find an alternative that would be acceptable to both parties. To do that, we need to have a clear idea of the options available. Would they be willing to dip into the endowment? (Probably not: (a) I'm sure it's taken a hit since it's all invested, and (b) Robert's view of an "emergency" isn't a global financial crisis, but the building burning down or something.) Are there individuals we could hit up for donations specifically for the dance program, or the arts classes more generally? (I think they've probably begged as much money as they can out of the wealthy alums, and I doubt those who care most about the arts are the ones making a lot, but I could be wrong.) Are there external grants available for dance education that the school could apply for? Is there any way to re-allocate the money in the budget, either from other arts programs or from other line items? The letter-writing campaign is great and will show that we care about the issue. But we should also be setting up meetings to discuss these issues with Robert, E-team, and the trustees. And to be prepared for those meetings, we need to have educated ourselves and have some practical alternatives beyond an idealistic vision. 

Just some thoughts from a different perspective. Sorry to be so long-winded but this is what's been going round and round in my head for the past two days. I know this is an emotional issue for all of us, but I think we'll be more productive if we try to remember that this was a difficult decision for them and not made on a whim, but that there may be alternatives they haven't considered and it's our responsibility to point those out.

A.

From Margaret Sclafani ('04)

Dear Mr. Kosasky:

It has come to my attention that St. Andrew’s has decided to cut all non-elective dance classes from its middle school arts programming. I urge you to reconsider this particular decision and all decisions that limit and undermine the creative arts at St. Andrew’s.

While I was not fortunate enough to attend middle school at St. Andrew’s, I did arrive in ninth grade and was reawakened to the world of dance and enabled in other artistic pursuits in theatre and visual arts. I was mainly attracted to St. Andrew’s in my application process because of the “four pillars” it promised and the combination of strong academics and arts programs which I had come to appreciate at Capitol Hill Day School. Many of the alumni from my elementary school attend other elite high schools in the metropolitan area, familiar names I am sure: GDS, Edmund Burke, Sidwell Friends, Bullis, and Maret. I did not apply to these schools for high school mainly because of their reputation as “jock schools”, and in that regard I mean schools that place athletic sports teams above the arts and above most budgetary allotment reductions. St. Andrew’s presented an alternative that was very attractive: arts and academics. It’s why I chose the school, and it’s why I enrolled and have continued to support my choice.

While St. Andrew’s was in no means perfect while I attended, I gained a great deal from the artistic outlets I was able to pursue whilst a student there: artistic achievements and involvements that still impress my young professional peers and employers in my current field as a film maker. Without the dance education I received at St. Andrew’s I would not have the confidence and poise that I have today. For a young woman seeking a place to belong and grow and learn, dance classes and the education my friends in high school had received in their middle school movement classes was a blessing. Ms. Kanter and Sarah Rosner taught me so much about my self. Without their dance foundations in the lower grades, I am sure my experience of community and connection I felt upon entering and remaining at St. Andrew’s throughout the four years of high school would have not been the same—a community that has continued to surround me in my years at Bryn Mawr College and beyond.

It is my hope that you will reconsider this choice to eliminate and undermine the performing arts and especially the dance program at St. Andrew’s. It has enriched my life beyond your walls and beyond what words herein can fully express.

Finally, I will share a very personal quote that was written to me by a dance teacher of mine shortly before she died:

“Dance is the only art wherein we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.”

As a filmmaker please excuse this final reference: don’t repeat the mistakes of Mr. Holland’s Opus; don’t cut arts funding! Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Margaret Sclafani
Cum Laude Class of 2004

a letter by way of lindsay

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Lindsay-
I, too, am the product of a creative movement program - at Greenwich Academy, in Connecticut, we all danced, we all sang, we all acted, and we all wrote poetry, because it was believed that art is simply part of any decent education - and a very important part. Whether we aspired to continue in dance, we received an integrated education that included physical learning - not just for the sake of doing something physical, but to be better scientists, humanitarians, and just plain better people. If we acknowledge Laban's belief that the world could be more harmonious if we, ourselves, conducted ourselves harmoniously in our environment, we must do more than include the study of movement as an "extra" in elementary and secondary education. It is basic to our understanding of ourselves as people who must learn to communicate with each other diplomatically and creatively - in ways that words sometimes cannot do.

Feel free to share my sentiments if you feel they're appropriate.

Laurie

Voice of a Non-Dancer: Letter from Adrienne Mennitt

This comes from Adrienne Mennit ('04) and it's a really wonderful point of view!

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Dear Mr. Kossasky,
It has recently come to my attention that St. Andrew’s has decided to cut all non-elective dance classes from its middle school arts programming. I understand that in this poor economy, all schools, including SAES, are feeling the pressure to cut classes and programs, but I urge you to reconsider this particular decision.

While I have not explored much of modern dance outside my middle school class experiences with Debby Kanter, I am extremely grateful for that introduction. I was actually one of the many students that disliked having to take dance classes at the time (I had always preferred visual arts and dreaded getting sweaty in the middle of the day), but appreciate the fundamental skills they imparted on me: self-awareness, better communication, and a control of space, shape and movement.

Middle school students go through a time of immense change, both physically and mentally, and for me, the most valuable and humbling experience to cope with those changes was the mandatory dance class. It teaches students of both genders a greater understanding of one's own body, and fosters teamwork, independent thinking, and leadership skills. For those students that are shy, dance forces them to interact with others in a confident and outgoing manner that other art classes simply cannot teach. For boisterous/outgoing students, dance teaches them to listen to and depend on others in group settings. I’m pretty sure none of the boys in my grade would have voluntarily chosen to take dance, although in the end, they were often the ones that enjoyed it the most. If you leave dance as an after-school elective, you are doing a disfavor to all those individuals that would otherwise never be exposed to dance, or are too timid to try it on their own.

In the spirit of developing well-rounded students and perpetuating St. Andrew’s “four pillars of education,” I find it necessary to retain the middle school dance program. Dance classes are some of the strongest memories from my middle school experience at St. Andrew’s and I hope that future middle school students get the same exposure and appreciation of the art.

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