Since its inception two decades ago, the University of Virginia’s dance program has been a springboard for alumni entering diverse fields like documentary filmmaking, arts education, and even medicine. The dance minor, which resides within UVA’s Department of Drama under the guidance of artistic director Kim Brooks Mata, owes its existence largely to the advocacy of students.
According to Sage Tanguay, a 2016 alumna and host of the upcoming podcast “Minor Movements: The Story of UVA Dance,” the creation of the program was not a straightforward process. “We like to think of history as clean-cut,” Tanguay explained, “But really, usually, there are lots of smaller bursts of activity, and that was definitely the case for the dance minor.”
Efforts to integrate dance into UVA’s curriculum date back to the 1970s. In 1974, shortly after UVA began admitting women equally with men, mirrors and ballet barres were installed in the drama building, and dance courses were gradually introduced. However, it wasn’t until 2006, following renewed student campaigns, that the dance minor was formally established.
Tanguay noted, “There were a lot of people around the University, especially in the Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality, who were signaling to administrators they needed a structured dance program. But students were extremely involved in making that happen.”
The program began to solidify with the hiring of Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp as the first full-time dance lecturer, followed by the appointment of Brooks Mata as interim director in 2011 and her subsequent full-time role in 2012. By 2015, Mata had ascended to become a professor on the general faculty.
Stéphane Glynn, a student during the program’s nascent years, recounted his experience: “It was Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp who was the head of the program my first year, and then Kim for my last three years. I just reached out to them because I knew that was something I wanted to pursue.”
Glynn, who grew up in Northern Virginia, found dance as a liberating outlet despite his intense academic background in STEM. “It was so different from anything else that I was doing or that I had studied,” he shared. “There was still pressure, but it was a different kind of pressure. It was joyous and fun.” He graduated in 2013 with degrees in media studies and psychology and pursued a master’s degree in film, leading to his current role as chief operating officer of Vavani Productions.
Similarly, Zoe Ziff, who graduated in 2022 with a degree in biochemistry, found dance to be an integral part of her college life. Now a medical student, Ziff said, “I wanted to be involved from day one, and I was never really into competition dance, so the performance-based aspect really drew me.” Her dance minor enabled her to meet peers across various disciplines, enriching her interdisciplinary approach in medical school.
Ziff applies her dance experience to her medical studies, particularly in the operating room’s choreography. “There’s this choreography between the surgeon, the patient, the scrub tech, the medical student, the resident,” she explained. “All of this communication happens silently because you’re anticipating the surgeon’s next move.”
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