Hometown: Washington, DC and Paris, France
Current city: Los Angeles, CA
Age: 58
College and degree: Wesleyan University, BA in Music Composition
Graduate school and degree: MFA in Choreography from the University of Utah; began studying at the U at age 24 and finished my MFA when I was 27.
Websites: skoplowitzprojects.com and https://www.youtube.com/user/lanycart
How you pay the bills: I work at the California Institute of the Arts as the Dean of the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, and I am on the faculty. I also get commissions as a choreographer.
All of the dance hats you wear: I am a dean (administrator), faculty member, director, choreographer, site artist and recently performed in a new dance by CalArts faculty member Colin Connor.
Non-dance work you do: Currently none, but earlier in my career I did many different things to make ends meet. I put myself through grad school as an accompanist for dance classes. Before that I did house painting, typing in typing pool, was a messenger, cat sitter, janitor, and bus boy.
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Describe your dance life in your.....
20s: (Overall my 20s were a series of tests, trials and discovery, twice over! Being in school, working hard, searching, questioning, exploring and thirsting commemorated this decade.)
At age twenty, I was at Wesleyan University and I had been considering a career as a critic or arts manager and realized that those paths could still be open to me after I gave it my all to be a creative artist. I was a music major in composition and was writing music for choreographers since the age of 16. At the urging of one of those choreographers, I started dancing at age 21. As soon as I started to dance, I knew I wanted to be a choreographer. The big moment came in the summer of ’77 in a workshop with the Murray Louis Dance Company, and I took dance composition from Sara Pearson. My positive experience in that class inspired me to want to choreograph. The next two summers I studied with Hanya Holm (who was quite old but still wise!) in Colorado and after I graduated from Wesleyan I moved to NYC with great hopes. NYC from 1979-80 was full of life and opportunity but I wasn’t ready to take advantage. I was studying at the Nik-Louis Lab and was not satisfied with the training. A friend was leaving her position as a staff accompanist at the University of Utah and asked if I wanted the job. I said yes. I needed more dance training, so my plan was to take as many dance technique classes as possible while I fulfilled my responsibilities as an accompanist (making a living), then apply for the MFA program. I spent three years in SLC dancing and choreographing as much as I could while I spent those summers at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. It was at the Festival that I met Elise Bernhardt, with whom I became close friends. We were both just out of college and discovering everything we could! Our experience at the Pillow opened our eyes up to dance in unconventional places, and that altered our collective fates. I returned to NYC in 1983, and within seven months, I was having big doubts about my chosen path in the arts. In my first months back in NYC, I was teaching in several places and doing other odd jobs and feeling once again overwhelmed and intimidated by the city. So overwhelmed that I thought of changing career paths completely…I went so far as to take an LSAT prep course and the LSAT itself (being a lawyer was an old childhood idea). I had managed to get a part-time job at a private school (see below), the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights. At the end of my part-time contract, I was offered a full-time position. In my 29th year, I had a decision to make: teach full-time or go to law school. It was my father who gave me the best advice at this juncture: do what I was passionate about and don’t worry about anything else.
30s: (Overall my 30s were marked by working as hard and fast as I could, always feeling like I was only as “good” as my last concert. I didn’t have much perspective on what I was doing; I was simply taking each year as it came and in some ways, I felt as though each one could be my last.)
In my 30th year, I felt I had turned a small but important corner…. I had just finished Fresh Tracks at DTW, and I had secured a one-person show of my photography to be exhibited in the DTW Gallery for the spring. Soon after, David White, Executive Director of DTW, invited me to have my own season at the theater for the following year. I was beyond thrilled. And what followed in the next decade was five more seasons at DTW, resulting in my concert work touring to festivals (Jacob’s Pillow, Bates) and to venues in Washington, DC (Dance Place), Baltimore, Philadelphia etc. In addition, when I turned 31, Elise Bernhardt took a leap of faith and commissioned me to create my first large-scale site-specific work for the windows of Grand Central Terminal. Why? Because Lucinda Childs wanted her dancers on a stage and Elise had seen my photo show at DTW and thought my photos reminded her of the windows in Grand Central (my photos were composites using photo booth images). “Grand Central Dances” included works and performances by Merce Cunningham Dance Co., Lucinda, Philippe Petit and me (! “Fenestrations”). I actually thought my career would end with that event, in the sense I would never do anything as big or high profile for the rest of my life! 16,000 people came to the two-day event. There was much press and I learned many huge lessons in how to make site-specific work on a large scale, and it started me on a career path that continues to this day. In the next five years after “Fenestrations," I was commissioned five more times in five different cities across the US by Dancing in the Streets to create more large scale works. I was rapidly gaining experience in the creation and production of this kind work in an art form that was just beginning to flourish in the dance community. At the time, I had no perspective on this, I was just thankful for the opportunity and working way too hard to produce the work to think about anything else. I was making all of this work both at DTW and with DITS, while maintaining my full-time teaching position at Packer (five days a week). It was in my 30s that I got the first of what would be six NEA Choreography Fellowship Awards, which made it possible for me mount many of my seasons at DTW. At age 30, I married Jane Otto, the love of my life (whom I met my last year of grad school in SLC), and five years later (and after a few years of difficulty) we had our lovely daughter Sarah. Becoming a father has had the most profound effect on my life and work, but also on my relationship to art-making. It gave me a new awareness of how I spend my time and how I would get compensated for that time. It made things more real and more practical, so I would say. Becoming a parent was a positive. But none of that would have been possible without my wife’s incredible support and partnership.
40s: (Turning 40 was one of the happiest moments of my life. For the first time I felt as though I was no longer “emerging” --- a label many of my emerging colleagues chafed under for an entire decade. At age forty, with or without being labeled, I knew that I was no longer in that mode and approached my work with a newfound sense of confidence; I began to have more perspective on my experience and practice.)
My 40th birthday year was another big turning point in my artistic journey. Val Bourne of the Dance Umbrella Festival had asked me to research ideas for a site project in London for the two years prior, and a full evening commission (my first as a site artist) was produced at the Natural History Museum in 1996. The work, “Genesis Canyon,” was a success with audiences and critics and was even named “Best Dance Production of 1996” by Time Out. It was my first big budget, full-length site work (45 minutes) and started me on a new series of longer, site-specific projects in the coming years: at the British Library (with Dance Umbrella), in Germany at a coke (coal) factory in Essen, a return to Grand Central Terminal in 1999 (as the sole artist this time), commissions at an Olympic Swimming pool, a new building at Rice University, and the opening of the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center (2001). When September 11th happened, it put a huge pause on many things, including some of my planned projects. In the vacuum, I started to make short films; it wasn’t until 2003 with a commission at the Bates Dance Festival and in 2004, the Grand Step Project (50 dancers in six locations all around NYC), did I feel things were getting back to “normal."
During my 40s, unexpectedly, I started to get some recognition: I was awarded a “Bessie” for Sustained Achievement in Choreography (a complete surprise). Three years later, I was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography (after several applications) and the next year, I was awarded a Herb Alpert Award in the Arts in Dance (on my second nomination). The funds allowed me to take my second self-paid sabbatical from Packer, and it brought me in contact with CalArts for the first time.
50s: A few weeks prior to my 50th birthday, after eight months of suspense and waiting, I was offered to assume the deanship at the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts, where I am also a faculty member. This was an auspicious way to start a new decade and as much as I loved living in NYC, my life as an educator was extremely frustrating. My position at Packer had become quite trying, the school was moving away from the arts and more towards a narrow definition of academics and after so many years, I was ready for a change. My encounter with CalArts and President Steven Lavine was eye-opening and inspiring. A world where there were no liberal arts battles and the students were thirsting to make themselves into professional dance artists made the educator in me realize that the job would offer a unique opportunity. These last eight years at CalArts and in California have brought an entirely new set of experiences and opportunities. Leaving NYC after 23 years was both wrenching and liberating. I was able to see what life was like outside of the blinders of living in NYC. (It’s easy to think that NYC is the center of the world, the longer you live there!) Taking this position posed many new challenges that have been some of the most enjoyable, exhilarating and difficult of my life. Being at CalArts has taught me so much and has given me an incredible experience as an educator and now as an educational leader. But being at CalArts has brought my teaching practice fully in line with my art practice both inside the studio and as dean. CalArts wants me to continue my art practice, it encourages it and at the same time, my responsibilities as dean have stretched me in ways I never imagined. My practice in this decade has brought new methods for site creation (through my site touring company TaskForce), the award of a permanent public art commission with my camera obscura research in Salt Lake City and new projects with digital dance and media, including the creation of the first Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) in dance on creating site-dance and performance. The other aspect of my job that has truly been nourishing is travel, both within the United States and abroad (China, Korea, Indonesia, Israel, to name just a few countries I’ve visited while representing CalArts). I was blessed with an art practice that took me to many different countries and cultures prior to working at CalArts, but this position has doubled the frequency and scope of travel. I greatly enjoy working with my incredibly talented and dedicated faculty and the students that inspired my decision to come to CalArts continue to be a source of wonder and inspiration. Taking the leap from Packer/NYC to LA/CalArts is a decision I do not regret. It continues to be one of the most exciting adventures of my life (next to being a parent!) to date.
Looking back on the last 35 years, here’s a short list of the people who played a pivotal role as teachers, mentors and collaborators in my journey as a person, artist and arts educator (somewhat in chronological order).
I list them only to encourage any readers to take a moment to reflect on the people in their life who have made a difference: My Mother (Maria Koplowitz), my Father (Bill Koplowitz), Liz Lerman (High School, Sandy Spring Friends School), Professor of Dance Cheryl Cutler (Wesleyan University), Professor and composer Alvin Lucier (Wesleyan University), Liz Thompson (Director, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival), Professor and choreographer Donna White (University of Utah), Professor Anne Riordan (University of Utah), Jane Otto (my wife and poet), Elise Bernhardt (Director, Dancing in the Streets), David White (Producer/Director, Dance Theater Workshop), Stuart Hodes (performer/collaborator in my concert work), Sarah Koplowitz (my daughter), Val Bourne (Director, Dance Umbrella Festival, London), Steven Lavine (President, CalArts)
On Luck:
What is “luck” in the classic sense? Finding a pile of cash with no strings? Yes, perhaps. But I believe “luck” is being prepared for opportunities that arise. Meaning, you create your luck, it just doesn’t happen to you without your involvement (participation). An example: After moving to NYC from SLC, I found out about a job opening at Packer, when I was getting my resume copied across the street from the school and stopped a student in the street asking if her school had a dance program. The answer was, “Yes, and they are looking for a replacement teacher due to a pregnancy…” So, I quickly dropped off my resume and two weeks later, was offered a job! On the surface, it looks like pure luck but… In the three years prior (in SLC and Jacob’s Pillow) I had worked hard at gaining as much teaching experience as possible and was truly ready to be auditioned for such a position. Yes, I was “lucky” to be prepared to be at the right place, at the right time. This one job, which I held for 23 years, allowed me to nurture my dance career and provided the necessary income and security for me to provide (along with my wife’s full-time income as a fundraiser) for our family and subsequently, allowed my daughter to attend private school at almost no cost.
Setbacks:
Producer Jed Wheeler, who was producing a program called Serious Fun! at Lincoln Center, had seen my 1989 season at DTW. He liked the work and called to commission me to create the finale for the 1990 performance of that series. Prior to that phone call, I lost my mother to cancer in late December (soon after my season). I was in terrible emotional shape and I had made a personal vow to take a break from any work for six months, but when Jed called with this opportunity, it was hard to say no. Frankly, I was too young (and ambitious) to heed my own advice. What resulted was a work, seen by many people, that was simply put, compromised by my then limited capacity. In my grief (which was far more pronounced than I was willing to admit), I had made some artificial “rules” during my creative process about what the work would and should be and that resulted in one of my least successful works for the stage. The experience was a strong wake up call for me and taught me to listen to my gut and make work that was tied to my passions, not for outside approval.
What are you exploring in your artistic work over the next year?
Two specific projects: In 2014 I am working on a site-media project that is being developed at the Bates Dance Festival and will take the form of a series of dance films shot on location in the Lewiston-Auburn, ME area, inspired by the environmental and historical aspects of the area. Pending funding, it could be a part of a large-scale site-specific media performance event/installation in 2015 or 16. The other is a commission to create a large-scale site-specific event for the re-opening of Sullivant Hall at Ohio State University, home of the Dept. of Dance (performances September 20-21, 2014). I am thrilled to be working on a project that will involve eleven separate events and gives me the chance to collaborate with faculty and students from several OSU departments.
Current inspiration and curiosities…..
I am continue to be interested in how site work intersects with both society and the world. I recently created an online course on how to create site dance and performance, and the energy this class unleashed around the world was truly awe inspiring and has re-vitalized my own commitment to this practice and given me a fresh perspective.
I also continue to be interested in how the analog world intersects with digital media and how our bodies can be a mediated point. My ongoing creative work and research with camera obscuras continues to interest me on many levels—visual, performative and as public art. The dialogue between the analog and digital world (and how to make each useful and coherent) is what will consume our society for the foreseeable future, or at least it is what I continue to think about…but the notion of public space (as in real space, not virtual) is something I care about and want to keep alive as our society turns more towards the virtual, remote and digital arenas.
Last performance you saw that really inspired you:
William Forsythe is the most interesting choreographic mind working in dance today no matter what form his work takes or even how “successful” each of his works are. I wouldn’t miss the chance to see anything he creates. My experiences of seeing his work and his dancers have been some of the most profound of my career. Other artists that have had a real influence on my work: Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, Trisha Brown, David Gordon, Susan Marshall, Debra Warner, and Jane Comfort…
Can you talk about your time at Packer Collegiate? What did you love about this job?
I loved and still love teaching young people. I had the opportunity to teach children from the age of 4-18, and was there long enough to witness several generations of children grow up, develop and emerge. Being in the room with students of these ages is truly special, energizing and real. To be present at the creation is what it’s like to teach at that level; it’s so exciting. It was also a thrill to work with my teaching colleagues over a long period of time and face challenges together.
What was challenging?
Working with young people is extremely labor intensive and emotionally draining and can challenge every part of your being. The hours are long and you need to have a good sense of humor and thick skin. Now that I am working in higher education, I have an even deeper appreciation for the really hard work and labor that goes into teaching anything preK through 12. It is the most important work going on in education in our society and does not get the funding or respect it needs or deserves. Teaching in higher education is quite a privilege in comparison (and vital too).
How did you balance your time and energy as a teacher and as an artist? How did your work as a teacher and an artist feed/support each other?
I balanced my teaching and art making lives by being highly organized and disciplined. I did not take on creative projects that would compromise my teaching or make it impossible for me to work creatively. I had the support of my wife, who has been an amazing partner in so many ways. I know this sounds cliché, but I could not have found the balance without her support and guidance.
Advice to young dancers about teaching, learning how to teach, and the role teaching will play in their dance careers.
Teaching is something that you either enjoy doing or you don’t. Frankly, it’s like parenthood...it’s not for everyone. So, my advice is this: don’t teach if you don’t like to do it. How do you learn to teach? Like learning how to choreograph, you just have to do it and learn from your mistakes. Yes, it can help if you get to teach with some mentoring and supervision, and I would encourage beginning teachers to seek that out no matter where they are (in or out of school). Wanting to be a good teacher is a noble thing, and people in your community will want to honor your desire.
One piece of financial advice you would pass onto young dancers and choreographers:
Take what you do seriously. One of the best pieces of advice I was given was by Stuart Hodes when he first started working with me (he performed in three of my works over 9 years). After listening to me self-deprecating about my work, he interrupted and said to me: “If you don’t think you’re work is as important as Martha’s or Paul’s or Twyla’s, then why bother? You have to feel as though the world needs to have your work in it; you need to think and believe that what you are doing is as important as their work.” Stuart wasn’t saying my work had to be as “good as," just that I needed to believe in what I was doing at the same level of passion as his previous mentors and friends. It was a needed wake-up call. It made me stop with the excuses and negativity and gave me the confidence to ask the world (my community) to support my vision.
Another word of advice is this: do not be afraid to get/ask for the information you need when starting a project. Make sure you communicate clearly to your collaborators (performers, composers, costume etc). Have real conversations about what you expect and what they can expect from you. Think carefully about how much time and money a project is going to cost you and them. Do your research.
I made a decision very early in my career to take a full-time teaching position because having the security of a paycheck (and one coming from something related to my chosen field) gave me the freedom to use my time to focus on the projects that interested me. I didn’t have the stomach to be a “free-lancer," something that at first I felt would hinder and make it impossible for me to achieve my goals. But my passion to make work sustained me, and I worked consistently outside of my teaching responsibilities. I am by nature an impatient person, but my life has taught me to be extremely patient with both myself and with life.
Remember that the performers you work with and collaborate with are not tools but human beings who are giving you their time and a part of their soul. This goes beyond a paycheck. Try to make the process a success, not just the product (if you lose sight of that, you’ll lose sight of the humanity inherent of working in the performing arts).
Three questions for young choreographers to consider:
Why are you making work? (What is motivating you to stay in or enter this field?)
Are you still challenging yourself to try new things?
Who will you listen to when your work is badly reviewed or received, or when you feel you are not getting the support you need?
Final advice to young dancers:
When you are just starting out, don’t say no to opportunities, even if you think they are not for you (meaning, you never know what you’ll learn or who you will meet when you commit to a new project).
Always maintain the highest standards of professionalism, and the majority of that comes in the form of being on time, being fully present and engaged in rehearsal, and treating everyone with respect and generosity.
Don’t waste time comparing yourself to others. It’s a flunk test, which means it’s a test you’ll always flunk because you’ll always find someone who has qualities that you think you should have and don’t. Focus on your own path towards growth and expansion, and you’ll find that your uniqueness will find a home.
Don’t look at “rejection” as judgment but rather as not being in line with the vision and tastes at that moment. There’s no accounting for taste in the arts, and that is both a source of frustration and liberation (freedom).
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Stephan,
i hope many young (and not so young) dancers will read your words and take them to heart. There is so much wisdom, honesty and humility here. Thank you.
Phyllis Haskel
Posted by: Phyllis Haskell Tims | 04/06/2015 at 08:47 PM
Stephan,
How lucky I was to work with you while you were a grad student and I an undergrad: Heart Throb Theatre, Munch a Bunch of Dancers (more innocent than it sounds) and that wild and crazy score for Practically Perfect People with Loabelle (which BTW, do you have an MP3 copy of that?)! I marvel at your success and longevity in the field.
Wendy Thompson BFA '83
Posted by: Wendy Thompson | 05/22/2015 at 01:49 PM
I was lucky to work with you! You were such a lovely dancer and had a beautiful natural singing voice !
Do you remember singing that Prescription for Heartache duet for the local SLC TV station!?
Yes, I think I have an MP3 of that score, I will try to find it!
I still think Munch-A-Bunch of Dancers is a great name for a dance company that only performs at meal times : )
Posted by: Stephan Koplowitz | 05/22/2015 at 05:36 PM