Modern dance strips away the sequenced movements of other classical dance forms and opens it up to free-hearted motions. It requires an understanding of dance as an art form.
Leah Crosby, a senior dance student in the Honors Tutorial College program, came to Ohio University with this idea instilled in her.
Modern dance strips away the sequenced movements of other classical dance forms and opens it up to free-hearted motions. It requires an understanding of dance as an art form.
Leah Crosby, a senior dance student in the Honors Tutorial College program, came to Ohio University with this idea instilled in her.
“Leah came in with a good sense of dance as an art form, and how dance relates to other art forms,” said Tresa Randall, associate professor of dance, and Crosby’s mentor for the HTC program. “So I feel like she came in already with an understanding of what she was interested in, and so how I’ve seen her grow has to do with the sophistication of the kind of work that she’s been doing.”
Students in the HTC program each semester must enroll in one-on-one or small group classes, which allows for individual attention not often seen at the undergraduate level.
Mentors involved in the HTC program see their mentees grow not only on an academic level, but on a personal level as well.
“I think that (Crosby) has a very high level of seriousness about her work as an artist,” Randall said. “In terms of class work she doesn’t shy away from a challenge.”
Randall added that she has seen Crosby emerge as a leader in not only dance, but also in HTC.
Randall wasn’t the only person that Crosby has touched while at OU.
“She’s a tremendous student, dependable, reliable and a good friend,” said Debra McAdoo, assistant to Madeleine Scott, the director of the division of dance. “I have the utmost respect for her work and her efforts in the dance department.”
Starting dance at a very young age, Crosby has known about the art of dance for sometime now. But it wasn’t until a little later in life that she had found her true calling among the dance field.
“I was three when I first started dancing in the little baby ballet classes and then I went to Alfred Ballet Academy through my elementary school years and then when I was thirteen I discovered modern dance at a summer program and I totally fell in love with it.”
After Crosby graduates she would like to perform with a variety of different companies, and then eventually have her own company. She also expressed that she would like to become a dance professor because she enjoys teaching.
“I think I’ll have many different jobs and several great careers,” Crosby said. “And I think even if I’m not doing dance work, the stuff I’m learning here about really learning how to communicate your ideas to others and how to work as a group and as an individual and to be very well organized and self disciplined; that can manifest in a variety of ways.
“I just have an affinity for dance,” Crosby said. “Sometimes my heart loves it more than my body does.”
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