South Korean dance star Aiki brings K-pop moves to USC Kaufman

Aiki shows moves to USC Kaufman students

Dancer and choreographer Aiki shows some moves to USC Kaufman students. (Photo/Valerie Chen)

Arts

South Korean dance star Aiki brings K-pop moves to USC Kaufman

The dancer and choreographer, one of Korea’s most popular TV personalities, touched off a dynamic exchange of movement and culture during her weeklong residency.

November 16, 2023

By Rachel B. Levin

In a studio at the USC Kaufman School of Dance, K-pop choreographer Aiki paused her instruction to marvel at a student’s performance. Aiki had just taught a complex floor move, and fourth-year student William Okajima executed it while sending one leg skyward.

“I never thought about expressing it that way!” Aiki said through an interpreter.

The moment captured the lively exchange of movement and culture made possible by Aiki’s weeklong residency of dance workshops last month. Her classes offered USC Kaufman students a crash course in K-pop dance, a genre that puts Western dances like jazz, hip-hop and dancehall in a blender with contemporary Korean influences. In turn, the students gave Aiki a window into American dancers’ style and flair.

Aiki (Kang Hyein) is a one-name celebrity in her native South Korea. She has created signature moves for some of K-pop’s biggest musical acts, including BTS and the Refund Sisters. Her viral dance videos garner millions of views, and her combined Instagram and TikTok following numbers more than 4.4 million.

The star traveled to Los Angeles from South Korea at the invitation of USC Kaufman and the Korean Cultural Center of Los AngelesK-Pop Dance Academy. Hye Jin Lee, an assistant professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism who was instrumental in coordinating Aiki’s visit, served as her translator during an artist talk on Oct. 25 and in conversation with the media.

But during the dance workshops, Aiki’s expression transcended language barriers.

“Dance is a second language,” Aiki said. “You’re able to communicate just by the movements. And everybody’s able to pick it up just through the counts.”

Her visit was a prelude to a dance-intensive study abroad program for USC Kaufman students in Seoul, South Korea, happening Dec. 14-22, in partnership with the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange and the Dance Department at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Daily workshops will explore the relationship between K-pop and hip-hop dance, and the American and Korean dancers who participate will collaborate on a joint performance.

“K-pop has exploded as a global phenomenon in the past 10 to 15 years, and now individuals all over the world are fans of K-pop music and choreography,” said Julia Ritter, dean of USC Kaufman. “Our students understand now that a career in K-pop is a possibility, which expands pathways for them into the performing arts industry. Studying with a renowned artist like Aiki and traveling to South Korea this winter are invaluable experiences for our dancers. It makes them more versatile artists and better world citizens. When we say that USC Kaufman is international, we mean it.”

Bringing teaching talent of Aiki’s caliber to USC is part of President Carol Folt’s “USC Competes” initiative. The goal — one of five “moonshots” laid out by Folt for the university — is to increase USC’s investment in highly accomplished faculty, as well as scholarships and aid, ensuring that USC attracts and retains students who are “the best of the best” in every field.

Stepping onto the world stage

Aiki’s rise to global recognition began in 2019 when she traveled to L.A. to appear on World of Dance. The NBC reality show, which featured Jennifer Lopez as a judge, put international dance talent and teams in competition with one another. Aiki’s duo All Ready finished the season in fourth place.

In 2021, Aiki led her dance crew HOOK in the debut of Mnet’s Street Woman Fighter, a popular South Korean dance reality television show. Winning second place on the show’s first season made Aiki a household name in Korea. The show also raised the profile of choreographers in the K-pop industry.

Most K-pop hits have dedicated dances designed by professional choreographers to go viral. “Now people are aware of who’s behind the dance,” Aiki said. “Dancers have their own fandom … just like the K-pop idols.” Earlier this year, she headlined her first solo concert of dance performances for her fans in South Korea.

5 FUN FACTS ABOUT AIKI

  1. Favorite American food: Mac and cheese
  2. Favorite Los Angeles activity: Swimming at Santa Monica beach
  3. Favorite song to sing: “Shallow” by Lady Gaga
  4. Favorite K-pop point choreography: “Super Shy” by NewJeans
  5. Favorite way to make a dance go viral: Keep it simple!

Despite her fame and her experience teaching dance at a university in Korea, Aiki had not previously interacted with dance students in the United States. That was one of her primary motivations for accepting the invitation from USC Kaufman and the Korean Cultural Center. She was as excited to learn from her American counterparts as she was to teach them, citing American hip-hop music and dance as among her most significant influences.

“When I first learned hip-hop dance, it was through songs by Nas and Biggie [aka The Notorious B.I.G.],” said Aiki, whose favorite contemporary acts to dance to include Beyoncé, Cardi B and Dua Lipa.

Lee, who teaches a course on the evolution of K-pop at USC Annenberg, noted that Koreans first gained exposure to hip-hop through various channels including the American military presence in Korea. “We still see the influence in today’s K-pop and Korean hip-hop songs,” Lee said.

Swapping movement styles

Aiki and Odd — Aiki’s dance assistant and a member of HOOK — prepared two dances to teach to the USC Kaufman students, one set to “BIBI Vengeance” by BIBI and the other to “3D” by Jungkook of BTS.

“We wanted to show USC Kaufman students what kind of dance moves are considered cool, hip and trendy [in K-pop] right now,” Aiki said.

Aiki and assistant Odd with USC Kaufman dance students
Aiki (center right, in black) and her dance assistant, Odd (at Aiki’s right), take a break with the USC Kaufman students. (Photo/Valerie Chen)

The choreography immersed the students in K-pop’s intricate movement vocabulary. One moment, they sliced the air with arms as rigid as knives. The next, they were loose as rag dolls, folded forward with heads sweeping in figure eights. They twerked, they whacked, they slithered on the floor.

“There are a lot of different gestures involved, very specific and detail-oriented,” Aiki said. “You have to memorize so many different movements for a very short run of the music.”

Aiki noted that because K-pop dance performances tend to be highly synchronized, dancers in Korea are often confined to specific movements.

“When they’re taught to move in a particular way, they’ll copy it, but they’re not able to freely express beyond that,” Aiki said. “But here, I was able to see how students were able to bring their own personality. Even though it’s the same instruction, they would express it in a very different way and bring their individuality into the performance.”

Aiki wrapped up the week with a dance workshop in the USC Kaufman courtyard open to all USC faculty, staff and students. She taught “point choreography” — dance moves that accompany the chorus or hook of K-pop songs. These combinations are easy to execute and memorize, making them accessible even to those without dance experience and lending them viral appeal.

Aiki said she appreciated the opportunity to enrich the USC community’s knowledge of K-pop and forge new bonds, finding her interactions at USC to be warm and welcoming. “I really appreciated … that students were so polite and nice,” said Aiki. “I was able to feel the respect that they had for me as an artist.”

Dance festival sends a kinetic love letter to hip-hop

Hip Hop 50: H.O.P.E.

A portion of the theatrical production H.O.P.E. will be featured during the second installment of Hip Hop 50, on Sept. 30. (Photo/Jackson Xia)

Arts

Dance festival sends a kinetic love letter to hip-hop

The “Hip Hop 50” series — presented by the USC Kaufman School of Dance and USC Visions and Voices — will mark hip-hop’s 50th anniversary with a three-part celebration that kicks off Wednesday.

September 18, 2023

By Rachel B. Levin

Aug. 11, 1973, is widely regarded as a pivotal day in the emergence of hip-hop.

At a back-to-school party in a South Bronx community room, DJ Kool Herc famously used two record turntables to extend the “breaks” (percussive interludes) of soul and funk songs — an innovation that gave rise to hip-hop’s musical signature.

Hip Hop 50: d. Sabela grimes
USC Kaufman Associate Professor d. Sabela grimes curated the three-part “Hip Hop 50” series. (Photo/Courtesy of the USC Kaufman School of Dance)

His aim? To make the dance floor erupt with energy.

Dance has been a foundational element of hip-hop since this critical moment. “There’s no party without dance first and foremost,” said d. Sabela grimes, an associate professor of practice in the USC Kaufman School of Dance.

Far more than just a diversion, hip-hop dance is also a window into understanding the social and cultural forces that created hip-hop and continue to drive it.

But as hip-hop’s 50th anniversary is celebrated across the country this year, dance has not often been at the forefront.

“Nationally, there seems to be a tendency to celebrate rap music or hip-hop music a little bit more than other cultural elements,” said grimes. He and his fellow hip-hop faculty members “wanted to have a more dance-focused celebration of hip-hop history,” he said.

That impulse prompted grimes to curate “Hip Hop 50,” a three-part series of free, on-campus events (reservations required) commemorating 50 years of hip-hop dance and exploring its impact as a global phenomenon.

‘HIP HOP 50’: USC Kaufman and Visions and Voices are planning a series of panels, dance workshops and performances to mark the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Find details and RSVP on the Visions and Voices website.

The festival of panels, dance workshops and performances — which has installments on Sept. 20, Sept. 30 and Oct. 4 ­— is being presented by USC Kaufman in partnership with USC’s arts and humanities initiative, Visions and Voices, and is co-sponsored by the Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs and La CASA.

“Hip Hop 50” will offer the USC and greater Los Angeles communities a gathering point “to share their love [for hip-hop] and physicalize how deeply they’ve been impacted by hip-hop,” said grimes. “‘Don’t tell us — show us.’ That’s the power of what we get a chance to do.”

Knowledge reigns supreme

The first “Hip Hop 50” installment on Sept. 20, which will take place at the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center, is centered on celebrating hip-hop dance scholarship.

DJ Lynnée Denise, a visiting professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., who studies the dynamic interplay between DJs and dancers in hip-hop culture, will present a “musical essay.” E. Moncell Durden, a USC Kaufman associate professor of practice, will co-lead a panel discussion on the recently published Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies with the book’s two editors, Imani Kai Johnson and Mary Fogarty.

Hip Hop 50: E. Moncell Durden
USC Kaufman Associate Professor E. Moncell Durden will co-lead a Sept. 20 discussion of the recently published Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies. (Photo/Cheryl Mann)

The book — which includes a chapter by Durden and covers everything from movement vocabularies to the influence of hip-hop dance on global culture — is “the most expansive and comprehensive compendium of hip-hop dance studies to date,” said Julia Ritter, dean of USC Kaufman.

Ritter explains that there hasn’t previously been such a comprehensive anthology because academic dance departments have historically been slow to embrace hip-hop as a scholarly subject.

Dance forms like hip-hop that originate in disenfranchised communities of color “don’t find their way into institutions and academies as readily as Eurocentric forms do,” Ritter said. “This is what we’re trying to push against” by spotlighting hip-hop dance scholarship at the festival, she added.

In addition to exploring hip-hop dance theory, the Sept. 20 event will also include hip-hop dance practice. Active hip-hop dance workshops will be open to all attendees — no prior dance experience required.

A heartfelt homage

The second installment of “Hip Hop 50,” which takes place in McCarthy Quad on Sept. 30, will be a dance-focused birthday party for hip-hop that celebrates kinetic innovation. Some of L.A.’s most respected hip-hop dance artists and community dance organizations will perform their own tributes to hip-hop, as will USC Kaufman students.

“We’re asking the performers that we invited to come to this party to give us a kinetic love letter to hip-hop,” grimes said.

Tiffany Bong is an assistant professor of practice at USC Kaufman whose community-based, cultural education company UniverSOUL Hip Hop will perform at the event. The group’s offering will be a snippet from their theatrical show “H.O.P.E.,” which debuted in June at the Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar.

The show — a mashup of choreographed and freestyle house, hip-hop, krump, locking and breaking, along with spoken-word storytelling — explores hip-hop dance as a vehicle for cultivating joy within struggle. Bong conceived the show during the pandemic as a way of restoring hope in a time of loss and hardship, particularly among communities of color.

Hip Hop 50: Tiffany Bong
USC Kaufman Assistant Professor Tiffany Bong conceived of H.O.P.E. during the pandemic. (Photo/Cheryl Mann)

“One of the things I realized was so important in the process of hip-hop is that it’s a practice for cathartic release, so that we’re not holding these emotions in our bodies,” Bong said, adding that the hip-hop cypher (the circle where freestyle dancers gather) offers a “safe and healing, restorative place … to tell our stories through movement.”

Attendees of the birthday party are invited to witness the performances and join the cypher with the special guests, which will also include b-girl Nancy “Asia One” Yu, street dance ensemble Versa-Style Legacy and freestyle/street dance artist K’niin.

The power of community

The third and final “Hip Hop 50 event” on Oct. 4, held at the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center, will celebrate collaboration and community within hip-hop dance.

“[From] the beginning … hip-hop has been able to bring communities together, especially communities that were disenfranchised,” said Daria Yudacufski, executive director of Visions and Voices.

Shamell Bell, a USC alumnus and lecturer of somatic practices and global performance at Harvard University, will discuss street dance as a form of grassroots political action that can unite and empower BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.

Hip-hop dance as a collaborative art is also a focus: Musician Ahmad DuBose-Dawson and dancer Yoda Jones will lead Everything Raw, an event inspiring improvisation and cross-pollination between artistic forms. A live band playing spontaneous music will provide the soundtrack for attendees to dance alongside USC Kaufman students and faculty. Students from the USC Thornton School of Music are invited to sit in with the band, while students from the USC Roski School of Art and Design are invited to contribute to live painting and art making.

“Hip-hop is rooted in improvisation, coming out of Black musical styles like blues, jazz, soul, R&B, funk and gospel,” said Jason King, dean of USC Thornton. “The opportunity for students to jam together and to come together and to collaborate across schools, under the banner of this form that hip-hop has opened up in our culture, that’s really exciting to me.”

The celebration continues

“Hip Hop 50” is one of several hip-hop-themed Visions and Voices events happening this fall. On Oct. 19, New York-based Ephrat Asherie Dance, a company that focuses on African American and Latinx street and social dances, will perform in Bovard Auditorium. Their show “UNDERSCORED” will feature five generations of New York City club dancers, ages 28 to 80, showcasing breaking, hip-hop, house, vogue, waacking and hustle.

“This performance does a beautiful job of acknowledging the broader history of hip-hop, especially amongst LGBTQ+ people and women,” said Yudacufski. “When you watch the show, all you want to do is dance.”

“These events are our attempt to pay some degree of tribute to the massive influence and massive legacy of hip-hop on the world, on the country, on L.A., and on USC and our students.”

— Josh Kun, vice provost for the arts

On Dec. 2, Tariq Trotter (aka Black Thought), the co-founder and lead emcee of the hip-hop musical group the Roots, will join King in Bovard Auditorium for a conversation about Trotter’s forthcoming book, The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are.

In the spring, the Cypher Summit Block Party on Mar. 2, led by Bong, will celebrate women in hip-hop. The event, held at the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center during Women’s History Month, will feature performances by the Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective and USC Kaufman artist-in-residence Toyin Sogunro, as well as an intergenerational panel discussion and a participatory sisterhood cypher and closing dance party.

“These events are our attempt to pay some degree of tribute to the massive influence and massive legacy of hip-hop on the world, on the country, on L.A., and on USC and our students,” said Josh Kun, USC’s vice provost for the arts, professor in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and chair in cross-cultural communication.

Trailblazer Julia Ritter strives to make dance a safe space

Editor’s note: Title IX — the landmark legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding — was signed into law on June 23, 1972. In recognition of this anniversary, we’ll be profiling Trojan Title IX trailblazers throughout the year.

The exam was anything but routine for Julia Ritter.

Ritter, dean at the USC Kaufman School of Dance, was teaching in Germany as part of a Fulbright fellowship in 2002. She was nursing an injury and needed physical therapy. The school referred her to a doctor’s office near campus. What came next was bewildering, if not jarring.

Title IX logo“I left the appointment feeling very uncomfortable, and then I got phone calls,” said Ritter, who received multiple late-night messages from a male physician insisting that she return for reevaluation. “It got to the point where I started thinking, ‘This is not normal.’ I vividly remember feeling like I had no place to go, no one to talk to. It was a very vulnerable moment.”

It was also, Ritter recalls, the first time she felt a palpable sense of the stereotype that “dancers are so free and comfortable with their bodies” — a notion that Ritter deemed “problematic” when it comes to professional working conditions.

And it’s nothing new, as a plethora of ongoing lawsuits involving harassment and discrimination at venerable arts institutions around the world illustrate.

For Ritter, the encounter in Germany was indicative of the undercurrents that have long plagued the dance field. Having been a leader in dance and higher education for more than two decades, she remains keenly aware of the power dynamics that lead to extraordinarily uncomfortable situations.

It used to be that feelings didn’t matter, that you had to go out and rehearse or perform at any cost — no questions asked.

Julia Ritter, USC Kaufman dean

“Dance is physical. That’s the nature of it,” Ritter said. “It can be beautiful and moving, but it also needs a greater level of scrutiny because there’s touch and intimacy and raw emotion. There’s also a perception — in classical dance, especially — that female dancers are submissive to the men.

“It’s gotten better,” she said. “People today are more aware of their rights and have a better idea of what a healthy working environment should be. It used to be that feelings didn’t matter, that you had to go out and rehearse or perform at any cost — no questions asked.”

Title IX and its impact on dance

Ritter was in college when Title IX became law in 1972. She remembers thinking then that it had mostly to do with athletes. It was later that Ritter and a generation still coming of age realized what the groundbreaking legislation meant for them. That feeling has carried over to now.

“The discourse around Title IX has often prioritized women’s equity,” Ritter added. “But if you look at the population of dance artists that self-identify as nonbinary or transgender, there’s a much bigger population that needs to be recognized. I think that’s where Title IX has had a really big impact for the dance profession.”

Ritter, an alumna of the Harvard Management Development Program and the HERS Leadership Institute, a leadership development program for women in higher education, says Title IX, indirectly or directly, is having an impact on the way contemporary artists are speaking on their experiences. Those include Jae Neal, a transgender dancer and writer who performs with the lauded New York-based company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham (Abraham is the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at USC).

In a recent article for Dance Magazine, Neal described their nonbinary status as a “tumultuous and beautiful revolution within my body,” and that dance has “long been used to explore concepts of revolution amongst communities.” In February, Neal was one of a handful of company dancers who spent time with USC students during a four-week residency at USC Kaufman.

“Jae is an incredible dancer and performer,” Ritter says. “And their presence resonated with students on many levels. A lot of them see themselves in Jae — someone who is working at a high level who wants to bring equity to their lives and professions.”

What’s next?

As the U.S. reflects on Title IX 50 years later, Ritter takes stock of a world continuing to strive for equity and a field that is becoming more vocal in calling for change, whether it be upending conventional gender norms in classical and contemporary dance or advocating for more diverse leadership at the executive level for positions that have historically been male-dominated.

All these things, Ritter believes, have felt the impact of Title IX and what it set out to achieve. One example: Ritter notes more female, transgender and nonbinary-identifying people helming prestigious arts institutions, including Rachel Moore, president and chief executive officer of The Music Center in Los Angeles, and Sean Dorsey, the trans artistic director and founder of the San Francisco-based Sean Dorsey Dance. She also points to various dance companies — and USC — that are working daily to improve their work cultures and standards.

“It’s incredible to see something have continued relevance, even if there’s still work to do,” said Ritter. “For me, the arts have always been about progress. The same goes for Title IX.”

The post Trailblazer Julia Ritter strives to make dance a safe space appeared first on USC News.

Trailblazer Julia Ritter strives to make dance a safe space

Julia M. Ritter is the dean of the USC Kaufman School of Dance. (Photo/Sandra Nissen)

Arts

Trailblazer Julia Ritter strives to make dance a safe space

TITLE IX: The dean of the USC Kaufman School of Dance sees the impact that Title IX has had on the dance profession, but still recognizes the need to make progress.

June 15, 2023

Matt de la Pe?a

Editor’s note: Title IX — the landmark legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding — was signed into law on June 23, 1972. In recognition of this anniversary, we’ll be profiling Trojan Title IX trailblazers throughout the year.

The exam was anything but routine for Julia Ritter.

Ritter, dean at the USC Kaufman School of Dance, was teaching in Germany as part of a Fulbright fellowship in 2002. She was nursing an injury and needed physical therapy. The school referred her to a doctor’s office near campus. What came next was bewildering, if not jarring.

Title IX logo“I left the appointment feeling very uncomfortable, and then I got phone calls,” said Ritter, who received multiple late-night messages from a male physician insisting that she return for reevaluation. “It got to the point where I started thinking, ‘This is not normal.’ I vividly remember feeling like I had no place to go, no one to talk to. It was a very vulnerable moment.”

It was also, Ritter recalls, the first time she felt a palpable sense of the stereotype that “dancers are so free and comfortable with their bodies” — a notion that Ritter deemed “problematic” when it comes to professional working conditions.

And it’s nothing new, as a plethora of ongoing lawsuits involving harassment and discrimination at venerable arts institutions around the world illustrate.

For Ritter, the encounter in Germany was indicative of the undercurrents that have long plagued the dance field. Having been a leader in dance and higher education for more than two decades, she remains keenly aware of the power dynamics that lead to extraordinarily uncomfortable situations.

It used to be that feelings didn’t matter, that you had to go out and rehearse or perform at any cost — no questions asked.

Julia Ritter, USC Kaufman dean

“Dance is physical. That’s the nature of it,” Ritter said. “It can be beautiful and moving, but it also needs a greater level of scrutiny because there’s touch and intimacy and raw emotion. There’s also a perception — in classical dance, especially — that female dancers are submissive to the men.

“It’s gotten better,” she said. “People today are more aware of their rights and have a better idea of what a healthy working environment should be. It used to be that feelings didn’t matter, that you had to go out and rehearse or perform at any cost — no questions asked.”

Title IX and its impact on dance

Ritter was in college when Title IX became law in 1972. She remembers thinking then that it had mostly to do with athletes. It was later that Ritter and a generation still coming of age realized what the groundbreaking legislation meant for them. That feeling has carried over to now.

“The discourse around Title IX has often prioritized women’s equity,” Ritter added. “But if you look at the population of dance artists that self-identify as nonbinary or transgender, there’s a much bigger population that needs to be recognized. I think that’s where Title IX has had a really big impact for the dance profession.”

Ritter, an alumna of the Harvard Management Development Program and the HERS Leadership Institute, a leadership development program for women in higher education, says Title IX, indirectly or directly, is having an impact on the way contemporary artists are speaking on their experiences. Those include Jae Neal, a transgender dancer and writer who performs with the lauded New York-based company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham (Abraham is the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at USC).

In a recent article for Dance Magazine, Neal described their nonbinary status as a “tumultuous and beautiful revolution within my body,” and that dance has “long been used to explore concepts of revolution amongst communities.” In February, Neal was one of a handful of company dancers who spent time with USC students during a four-week residency at USC Kaufman.

“Jae is an incredible dancer and performer,” Ritter says. “And their presence resonated with students on many levels. A lot of them see themselves in Jae — someone who is working at a high level who wants to bring equity to their lives and professions.”

What’s next?

As the U.S. reflects on Title IX 50 years later, Ritter takes stock of a world continuing to strive for equity and a field that is becoming more vocal in calling for change, whether it be upending conventional gender norms in classical and contemporary dance or advocating for more diverse leadership at the executive level for positions that have historically been male-dominated.

All these things, Ritter believes, have felt the impact of Title IX and what it set out to achieve. One example: Ritter notes more female, transgender and nonbinary-identifying people helming prestigious arts institutions, including Rachel Moore, president and chief executive officer of The Music Center in Los Angeles, and Sean Dorsey, the trans artistic director and founder of the San Francisco-based Sean Dorsey Dance. She also points to various dance companies — and USC — that are working daily to improve their work cultures and standards.

“It’s incredible to see something have continued relevance, even if there’s still work to do,” said Ritter. “For me, the arts have always been about progress. The same goes for Title IX.”

The post Trailblazer Julia Ritter strives to make dance a safe space appeared first on USC Today.

Trailblazer Julia Ritter strives to make dance a safe space

Julia M. Ritter is the dean of the USC Kaufman School of Dance. (Photo/Sandra Nissen)

Arts

Trailblazer Julia Ritter strives to make dance a safe space

TITLE IX: The dean of the USC Kaufman School of Dance sees the impact that Title IX has had on the dance profession, but still recognizes the need to make progress.

June 15, 2023

Matt de la Pe?a

Editor’s note: Title IX — the landmark legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding — was signed into law on June 23, 1972. In recognition of this anniversary, we’ll be profiling Trojan Title IX trailblazers throughout the year.

The exam was anything but routine for Julia Ritter.

Ritter, dean at the USC Kaufman School of Dance, was teaching in Germany as part of a Fulbright fellowship in 2002. She was nursing an injury and needed physical therapy. The school referred her to a doctor’s office near campus. What came next was bewildering, if not jarring.

Title IX logo“I left the appointment feeling very uncomfortable, and then I got phone calls,” said Ritter, who received multiple late-night messages from a male physician insisting that she return for reevaluation. “It got to the point where I started thinking, ‘This is not normal.’ I vividly remember feeling like I had no place to go, no one to talk to. It was a very vulnerable moment.”

It was also, Ritter recalls, the first time she felt a palpable sense of the stereotype that “dancers are so free and comfortable with their bodies” — a notion that Ritter deemed “problematic” when it comes to professional working conditions.

And it’s nothing new, as a plethora of ongoing lawsuits involving harassment and discrimination at venerable arts institutions around the world illustrate.

For Ritter, the encounter in Germany was indicative of the undercurrents that have long plagued the dance field. Having been a leader in dance and higher education for more than two decades, she remains keenly aware of the power dynamics that lead to extraordinarily uncomfortable situations.

It used to be that feelings didn’t matter, that you had to go out and rehearse or perform at any cost — no questions asked.

Julia Ritter, USC Kaufman dean

“Dance is physical. That’s the nature of it,” Ritter said. “It can be beautiful and moving, but it also needs a greater level of scrutiny because there’s touch and intimacy and raw emotion. There’s also a perception — in classical dance, especially — that female dancers are submissive to the men.

“It’s gotten better,” she said. “People today are more aware of their rights and have a better idea of what a healthy working environment should be. It used to be that feelings didn’t matter, that you had to go out and rehearse or perform at any cost — no questions asked.”

Title IX and its impact on dance

Ritter was in college when Title IX became law in 1972. She remembers thinking then that it had mostly to do with athletes. It was later that Ritter and a generation still coming of age realized what the groundbreaking legislation meant for them. That feeling has carried over to now.

“The discourse around Title IX has often prioritized women’s equity,” Ritter added. “But if you look at the population of dance artists that self-identify as nonbinary or transgender, there’s a much bigger population that needs to be recognized. I think that’s where Title IX has had a really big impact for the dance profession.”

Ritter, an alumna of the Harvard Management Development Program and the HERS Leadership Institute, a leadership development program for women in higher education, says Title IX, indirectly or directly, is having an impact on the way contemporary artists are speaking on their experiences. Those include Jae Neal, a transgender dancer and writer who performs with the lauded New York-based company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham (Abraham is the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professor in Dance at USC).

In a recent article for Dance Magazine, Neal described their nonbinary status as a “tumultuous and beautiful revolution within my body,” and that dance has “long been used to explore concepts of revolution amongst communities.” In February, Neal was one of a handful of company dancers who spent time with USC students during a four-week residency at USC Kaufman.

“Jae is an incredible dancer and performer,” Ritter says. “And their presence resonated with students on many levels. A lot of them see themselves in Jae — someone who is working at a high level who wants to bring equity to their lives and professions.”

What’s next?

As the U.S. reflects on Title IX 50 years later, Ritter takes stock of a world continuing to strive for equity and a field that is becoming more vocal in calling for change, whether it be upending conventional gender norms in classical and contemporary dance or advocating for more diverse leadership at the executive level for positions that have historically been male-dominated.

All these things, Ritter believes, have felt the impact of Title IX and what it set out to achieve. One example: Ritter notes more female, transgender and nonbinary-identifying people helming prestigious arts institutions, including Rachel Moore, president and chief executive officer of The Music Center in Los Angeles, and Sean Dorsey, the trans artistic director and founder of the San Francisco-based Sean Dorsey Dance. She also points to various dance companies — and USC — that are working daily to improve their work cultures and standards.

“It’s incredible to see something have continued relevance, even if there’s still work to do,” said Ritter. “For me, the arts have always been about progress. The same goes for Title IX.”

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