The dance program at Santa Fe University of Art and Design has spent its existence continuously transforming in order to offer the students a more solid dance education. The newest addition to this burgeoning department is modern and ballet teacher Banu Ogan. After growing up in the ballet world, Ogan was introduced to the philosophies of modern choreographer of Merce Cunningham, with which she fit seamlessly. The Cunningham technique is an approach to modern dance which explores the use of direction and space, and emphasizes the creation of choreography independently from the music. “Physically, it really suited me and my personality. And I loved the daring involved with it,” Ogan says. “The way they worked with chance operations and all of the elements coming together on opening night—he dancers not hearing the music, seeing the sets, wearing the costumes until the premier of the dance—I thought that was the coolest thing that I’d ever heard.” She danced for the New York-based company for seven years before teaching the technique at Juilliard and Marymount Manhattan College. Ogan also has been traveling the world to teach workshops and stage Cunningham pieces for more than a decade. All of this experience coming to SFUAD means the dancers will be receiving pure Cunningham modern technique classes that can be applied to their broader dance curriculum. As for her first two weeks at SFUAD, Ogan speaks about her students with an encouraged and eager tone. “They’re really open and interested in learning and that is all a teacher can ask for. So I feel like there will be a really nice exchange between my teaching and their learning,” Ogan says.   In coming to Santa Fe, Ogan has opened opportunities not only for SFUAD’s dancers, but also for herself. While living in...

The first week of school usually consists of meeting classmates and reading through countless syllabi. In SFUAD’s dance department however, rehearsals are already in full swing. With the dancer’s first performance this weekend as a part of The After Hours Alliance Festival of Progressive Arts, and their second just two weeks later in celebration of Greer Garson’s 110th birthday, all seven dance majors have schedules full of rehearsals and brains full of choreography. Shannon Elliott, the chair of the dance department, described a vibrant, eclectic group of five new students. With three new women and two new men, all with different dance backgrounds, hailing from various parts of the country, the diversity and collective experience of the department only seems to be growing. “It’s nice to have this new energy, and just a new comradery that I see occurring. Them working together not only in class, but also in rehearsals,” Elliott says. There are also two new faculty members contributing to the further growth of the department. Banu Ogan, who will be teaching both ballet and modern classes, taught at Juilliard for almost an entire decade after her career with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. A new ballroom class that will address swing, tango and salsa will be taught by Mike Garcia, a prominent figure in the Santa Fe dance scene. “I think it’s great to actually have them here and to see who the dance majors are,” says Elliott. “And to begin conceptualizing how we can move this group forward together.” Elliott also has plans to bring in guest choreographers not only to make original works, but also to teach master classes and set existing pieces on the dancers. With only a week of the new school year under their belts, this upcoming semester is already...