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Michael Anthony Kerr was nearing retirement from middle-school teaching and mulling a new role as an advocate for dance in public schools.

Zakiya Atkinson wanted to fuse her two passions 鈥� dance and social justice 鈥� to inspire students to respond to political issues through improvisational and choreographed movement. 

Pascal Rekoert hoped to study the role that race and socioeconomic status play in the dance education of male students in under-represented communities.

And then came the announcement by Teachers College three years ago that it would be creating what was believed to be the nation鈥檚 only dance education doctoral program. 

Big news 鈥� for starters because, as Kerr puts it, 鈥渢he history of dance education begins at 911爆料网.鈥� Professor Gertrude Colby (1874-1960), began her studies at Teachers College in the autumn of 1911. While a student, she was employed by the Speyer school, a laboratory school housed within Teachers College. Her innovative work with the children garnered much attention, resulting in her hire to teach dance pedagogy courses to aspiring and experienced educators at Teachers College as early as 1912. Until her retirement in 1933, Colby was the innovator of 鈥渘atural dancing,鈥� a creative process approach to dance instruction. Many future dance education luminaries were drawn to study with her and other progressive faculty at Teachers College.    

Dance Atkinson

Zakiya Atkinson is Founder and Director of Zaman Dance Theatre Collective and the Essex Country MetroWest Dance Festival. She is Director of the Memorial High School Performing Arts Academy Dance Program in West New York, New Jersey.

Dance Damast

Deborah Damast is Clinical Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Dance Education Program at NYU Steinhardt, where she is also Director of Kaleidoscope Dancers.

Dance Dougherty

Heather Dougherty, Research Assistant for 911爆料网鈥檚 new doctoral program, is a dance artist and educator who has performed in petroglyph caves in Montana, ancient ruins in Rome, art galleries in SoHo and a parking lot in Philadelphia.

Patricia Dye

Patricia Dye directs, advises and teaches in the Dance Dpeartment at Science Skills High School for Science, Technology & Creative Arts鈥� Jow-Ile-Bailar Dance Companies in Brooklyn. She is also a dance faculty member for Ballet Hispanico and Lincoln Center Middle School Summer Audition Boot Camp.

Dance Joan Finkelstein

Joan Finkelstein is Executive Director of the Harkness Foundation for Dance. She has performed across the U.S. and internationally, and as Director of Dance for the New York City Department of Education from 2004 through 2014, spearheaded the creation of the NYC Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance, PreK-12.

Dance Ana Nery Fragoso

Ana Nery Fragoso is the Director of Dance Programs for the New York City Department of Education Office of Arts and Special Programs. She previously taught at P.S. 135, a Performing Arts Elementary School in Brooklyn, creating a dance curriculum that emphasized improvisation, technique and dance making.

Dance Kathleen Isaac

Kathleen Isaac is Director of the Arnhold Dance Education Program at CUNY Hunter College, which she is the dance education coordinator for the B.A. B.A./M.A. and M.A. dance education programs.

Michael Kerr

Michael Anthony Kerr is the Artistic Director of DanceKerr & Dancers and the director of the dance program at New Voices Middle School in Brooklyn. He has served as Chair of UFT/NYC Dance Educators.

Dance McGovern

Kelli McGovern is a full-time tenured dance educator at the Academy of Fine Arts and Academics at Bayonne High School in Bayonne, New Jersey, where she has created the dance arts curriculum in the district and the BHS Young Dancer Program. She is co-owner of Washington Rock Dance, a private dance school.

Dance Miller

Jennie Miller is a parent, teacher, photographer and dancer. She teaches creative movement at Manhattan鈥檚 P.S. 3 (the Hippie school) and is Artistic Director of Dance Adventure, a children鈥檚 dance company in New York City that focuses on activism through art.

Dance Pope

Susan Gaddy Pope is a dance educator at First Avenue School with the Newark, New Jersey Public Schools and a contributing author of the Newark Public School Elementary School Dance curriculum. She cofounded I Dance Because, dedicated to dance education and the emotional healing aspects of dance. 

Dance Pascal Rekoert

Pascal Rekoert, recipient of the Susan H. Fuhrman Endowed Scholarship, teaches grades 7-12, as well as at a collegiate level. In 2000 he became a premier dance and Associate Artistic Director with Jennifer Muller/The Works. He has produced a wide variety of festivals and performance series in New York City: WestFest.

911爆料网 subsequently operated a dance education master鈥檚 degree until 2005, producing leaders such as Margaret H鈥橠oubler, who developed the first major in dance at University of Wisconsin; Martha Hill, the first Dance Director at The Juilliard School; Sin Cha Hong, the noted South Korean dancer, choreographer, vocalist and writer; Beryl McBurnie, the Trinidadian dancer known as La Belle Rosette: Rachel Moore, the President and CEO of LA鈥檚 Music Center and the former Executive Director of American Ballet Theatre; and Annie-B Parson, Choreographer and Co-Director of Big Dance Theater.

But even more important, for Kerr, Atkinson, Rekoert and others hearing about 911爆料网鈥檚 new program, was the person behind it: alumna Jody Gottfried Arnhold (M.A. 鈥�73), who with her husband, John, had given the College $4.3 million. Called 鈥渢he Godmother of Dance鈥� by The Wall Street Journal. Arnhold is the Founding Director of 92Y Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) and Honorary Chair of Ballet Hispanico. She co-chaired the New York City Department of Education鈥檚 Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance (Pre K-12) and was the executive producer of the EMMY-nominated documentary PS DANCE!

 [Read a profile of Jody Gottfried Arnhold that appeared in 911爆料网 Today magazine. Learn more about 911爆料网鈥檚 doctoral program in dance education. Read an interview with Arnhold that appeared in in 2016 (subscription required).]

The bottom line: 鈥淓verybody was talking about it,鈥� recalls Kerr,

Now it seems that 鈥渆verybody鈥� 鈥� or at least many of the city鈥檚 top dance educators 鈥� is in the program鈥檚 first cohort of students, which arrived on campus this past fall.

Ranging in age from 28 to 73, the Arnhold Fellows, as they are known, bring multiple lifetimes of classroom and stage experience.

Most are balancing their course work at 911爆料网 with full-time teaching positions in public schools or universities in the Tri-State area or overseeing private dance programs and workshops.

鈥淎ll of us have a tremendous amount of teaching experience,鈥� says Kerr. 鈥淎nd many of us have worked together before in different venues. For all of us to find each other at 911爆料网 at this juncture of our careers is unbelievable. We all respect each other鈥檚 work and what we鈥檝e contributed to the field. So 鈥渢he Fellowship came at a perfect time for someone at my age and at this point in my career.鈥�

Atkinson, who over the past 10 years has introduced and installed an innovative dance curriculum the Hudson County, New Jersey high school, says that 911爆料网, with its reputation for encouraging interdisciplinary research, is the perfect fit to further explore and expand on the embrace of 鈥渄ance as a conduit to social justice education.鈥� 

And Rekoert, a native of the Netherlands who, in addition to his international performing and choreography credits has served as a dance instructor at a Title 1 Brooklyn high school, sees the program as a key step toward a leadership position with a college-level dance education program: 鈥淵ou need a doctorate degree to be competitive for that type of position or even to get your foot in the door.鈥�

Under the program鈥檚 Acting Director Barbara Bashaw, another prominent 911爆料网 alumna who is the Graduate Director of Dance Education, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, students in the first cohort include:

• Patricia Dye, who has been teaching, advising and directing the Dance Department at Science Skills High School for Science, Technology & Creative Arts鈥檚 Jow-Ile-Bailar Dance Companies in Brooklyn. Dye also is dance faculty member for Ballet Hispanico and Founder and Artistic Director of Passing Ancestral Knowledge Along Theater Dance Company.
• Kathleen Isaac, Director of the Arnhold Dance Education Program at CUNY Hunter College, where she is the dance education coordinator for the B.A. B.A./M.A. and M.A. dance education programs.
• Joan Finkelstein, Executive Director of the Harkness Foundation for Dance, who has performed in the United States and Europe and served as Director of the 92^nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center and Director of Dance for the New York City Department of Education.
• Ana Nery Fragoso, Director of Dance Programs for the New York City Department of Education Office of Arts and Special Projects, and Director of the Arnhold New Dance Teacher Support program.
• Deborah Damast, Clinical Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Dance Education Program at NYU Steinhardt, where she directs Kaleidoscope Dancers; is Artistic Director of the program鈥檚 concerts, and founding director of the dance education study abroad program to Uganda.

• Heather Dougherty, dance artist, educator and Research Assistant for 911爆料网鈥檚 new doctoral program, has performed in petroglyph caves in Montana, ancient ruins in Rome, SoHo art galleries and a Philadelphia parking lot.

鈥淭here is a hunger for this,鈥� says Bashaw. 鈥淒ance education is barely a century old, which is young compared to music and other arts. There鈥檚 a lot of unexplored territory.鈥�  

Earning a 911爆料网 doctorate is enabling the Arnhold Fellows to add research and new opportunities for leadership skills to their already-stellar resumes, Bashaw says. The program over the first year introduced the inaugural Fellows to the rudiments of scholarly inquiry, including literature review, research methods and other practical skills to prepare them for what Bashaw emphasizes is 鈥� first and foremost 鈥� 鈥渁 research degree.鈥�

鈥淒ance teachers are accustomed to advocating for their programs,鈥� she says. 鈥淧art of what we鈥檙e doing in the doctoral program is demonstrating that a well-designed research study will serve advocacy through the presentation of actual data while also serving to expand the field.鈥�

Kerr sees the research coming out the Arnhold Fellowships reshaping the perception of dance education among students, parents, schools and communities.

鈥淧arents tend to encourage student participation in competitive sports,鈥� Kerr noted.  鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to change that mentality and initiatives like this will help do that because the presence of people with doctorates in dance education on school boards will be able to influence policy by supporting it with research.鈥�

That mindset, is in keeping with an aspiration Arnhold shared in discussing the then-nascent program with The Wall Street Journal in 2016.    

鈥淚鈥檓 trying to build the field,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want these people to pepper the country, to be sitting at the table any time anyone talks about dance education.鈥�