Letter to The Latin School of Chicago Board of Directors, Head of School, Interim Head of School, and Director of Upper School

As a young alumna of the Latin School of Chicago, Class of 2005, I was recently appalled to hear word that my alma mater plans to eliminate the dance program from the Upper School curriculum. I would like to first explain how Latin has impacted my life, and what it meant to have that program available to me as a student. Secondly, I would like to point out the importance of upholding Latin’s values with the inclusion of dance as an art form, and how its elimination will effect more than just the school’s budget. Lastly, I propose the seed of an alternative idea, as a means of revising the role that dance currently plays in education.

Let me begin at the true beginning. I chose to attend Latin over the best public schools in the city for a few reasons combined:

• An innovative English curriculum, with an intensive focus on writing skills
• A community with small class sizes, personalized attention, and flexible courses of study
• A rigorous arts program, complete with each of the arts, which could be accessed alongside and within the daily coursework
• A strong base in Classical and traditional Western avenues of study, but with an eye to the changing academic landscape and the future of academic study to include a wider range of viewpoints and approaches to analytical thought

As a dancer, I could easily have attended an arts high school where I might have gained a conservatory level dance education. I also might have chosen a high ranking public school where I would have paid nothing for a first rate schooling. But I wanted a complete program where I could continue a wide range of study: learning college-level writing skills, gaining a broad understanding of all subjects, and continuing my study of dance, theater and chorus all in the same environment of uncompromising excellence and personalized support. I simply would not have attended the Latin School of Chicago if it had not had all of these elements.

From my four years at Latin, I am proud to have learned strong communication skills, commitment and dedication to my goals, the ability to lead a group and take action, to carefully evaluate, study, and analyze down to the smallest detail, and to support my opinions with strong evidence. Every single one of these skills I gained by being in the Latin School Dance Company, and from the rare opportunity to combine that experience with the rest of what Latin has to offer in the classroom. While I was there, Latin was unique. It was one of the foremost schools in the city because it upheld rigorous standards of education in all areas.

As a young African-American teenager from a small school on the South Side of Chicago, I recall with equal intensity the difficulty of my English and dance studies in my first year at Latin: my sorely lacking writing and analytical skills on Humanities tests, and my inability to internalize movement efficiently, negotiate spatial relations, or remain open to various dance performance styles I had never seen before. But by graduation, dance and English had become my two clear courses of study. Thanks to that unique chance to pursue them side by side, I took four English courses my senior year, and completed my fourth year in the Dance Company. I applied to only one college, knowing that because of my experience at Latin, I wanted a school where I could continue intensive study of both within a broader curriculum.

Thanks to Latin, I was able to receive my B.A. from Barnard College with a double major in Dance and English, and a concentration in Creative Writing. Thanks to Latin, I completed an independent, interdisciplinary research project through a four-year grant I was awarded my freshman year at Barnard, as well as two thesis papers and two creative thesis projects. Thanks to Latin, I graduated Summa Cum Laude, earned membership with the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and gained special honors for my work in the Dance major. Those honors where not for being “good” at dance. I could have gone to a conservatory high school and a conservatory college for that. They were for the combination of my choreographic, performance, and academic efforts in the dance field. In essence, because I excel as a “smart dancer.” My 35 page dance research thesis paper, a much more rigorous project than my English thesis, and my current fellowship with one of the premiere dance theater’s in the country both attest to that. Thanks to Latin, academic research and study is a great passion of mine, and I plan to apply to graduate schools this winter. I hope to eventually earn an M.A. in Literature and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies.

Latin’s mission statement stipulates that it aims to give its students “a rigorous and innovative educational program in a community that embraces diversity of people, cultures and ideas.” I want to thank the board, staff, and administration of Latin for having done exactly that for me. The Latin School claims to achieve this powerful mission by “encouraging excellence in all academic and personal pursuits,” and “creating an educational environment in which the pursuit of academic excellence and intellectual growth is complemented by a concern for the moral, physical, psychological and aesthetic development of each student.” Sadly, by eliminating the dance program, Latin will no longer fully live up to its own mission, nor will it remain one of the foremost academic schools with a rigorous arts program. Without dance, Latin will no longer have a complete arts division, much less a stellar one.

This is not to say that Latin is alone in eliminating its arts faculty one by one, beginning with dance. It is no coincidence that I attended the only Ivy League dance major that exists in this country. Apart from the heartbreaking tendency to terminate arts programs before any other budget cut in schools across the country, dance is often widely ignored as an academic field even at the university level, despite the fact that American universities are where dance innovation has been rooted since the 1930’s.

Arts education has always struggled in this country, especially dance. Blame it on a societal fear of the body and tendency to disconnect the body in motion from academic study; blame it on the difficulty of delineating creative values in legislative language; blame it on an “American dream” mentality, claiming that work not producing monetary value is not valid. Regardless, this kind of disrespect for dance in education is a trend throughout this country. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 13,053,787 students enrolled in public high schools in 1999-2000. But only 14% of public schools offered dance education that year. A sad fact for the majority of this country’s students that can only have gotten worse with recent financial shifts. It is thus, as it always has been, the duty of privately funded schools to pioneer the way toward what school should be, even if that cannot yet exist for millions of public schools. Historically, private institutions include those educational elements that other schools cannot. If none of our students have access to dance, already so underfunded and undervalued, who will be the next generation of adults who do value it, who do fund it? Who will put those crucial analytical and inquisitive skills they learned in school to the test by choosing to attend a dance performance or support a struggling company?

If The Latin School of Chicago chooses to cut dance, making the arts the first to suffer from budget limitations, it chooses to join the rest of those schools across the country in limiting the range and rigorousness of its available programs. The mission of fostering “excellence,” “growth” and “development” in all areas will simply no longer be applicable to Latin as it follows this shameful national trend. Let alone “innovative.” How can a school claim to be innovative if it is doing exactly the same thing as every other school, especially those schools which it seeks to rise above in its standards of education? If this decision is implemented, perhaps a reevaluation of the school’s mission statement will be in order, to give a more accurate description of Latin to the next generations of families and young people who will have access to only some of the arts, a less diverse pool of classmates, no exposure to dance as an art form through their educational institution, and thus no interest in supporting it in the future.

As this long-standing program comes up for debate, I return again and again to the purpose and mission of the Latin School of Chicago. This seems a crucial moment of reevaluation for the school. Rather than further limitation on the arts, Latin might take this opportunity to create a shift in its own thinking – and eventually the thinking of educators and administrators across the country – as regards the field of dance. Rather than eliminating a program that currently serves only a small population of students, why not follow the true spirit of Latin’s mission statement and utilize this moment of reevaluation to find ways of using dance – and all performing arts – as an even more vital and innovative means for teaching critical thinking, writing, and response? If Latin wishes to maintain its current mission statement and academic integrity, I would propose a truly “innovative” approach. Why not include a broad performing arts awareness and analysis class in the curriculum, which would expose students to each of the arts, their history up to current times, theory, practice and criticism? This would not only give students appreciation for these forms, but also offer yet another angle from which students can hone their analytical and critical skills, learn persistence in problem-solving, and develop an aesthetic perspective through their own creativity. A private secondary school such as Latin has the unique opportunity and responsibility to give high school students a broad range of studies as tools to use after graduation, as they continue on in only one or two chosen avenues during college. Dance can only add to that range, not detract. By eliminating it from the curriculum, the range of tools offered is deeply diminished. As arts education trends suggest, who better than a school like Latin to be a model for innovative secondary education into the next generations? Is it not the responsibility of Latin’s administration to defend its programs, even amidst financial troubles? I hope that you and your colleagues can truly look at this issue not from the eyes of a society that undervalues dance education, or out of pure financial equations, but from the perspective of a true pioneer, leader, and advocate for education, and determine whether cutting a unique and valuable program is truly the solution.

Thank you again to Latin’s faculty, staff, and board for the four wonderful years of education and support, as I developed the mind and awareness I now cherish. I truly hope this letter is able to bring another perspective to the table as you debate this issue with other alumni, parents and students. Thank you, as well, for your time and attention.

Sincerely,

Tara Aisha Willis

The Latin School of Chicago ‘05

Barnard College, Columbia University ‘09