Dance professor displays "contagious enthusiasm for learning"

Prof. Selma Odom, graduate program director in the Department of Dance, is the 1997-98 winner of the FGS Teaching Award.

by Mary Ann Horgan

SELMA ODOM IS DESCRIBED AS AN INSPIRING, SUPPORTIVE TEACHER

Selma Odom, a professor and graduate program director in the Department of Dance, Faculty of Fine Arts, has been chosen as the 1997-98 recipient of the Faculty of Graduate Studies Teaching Award.

The award is bestowed annually upon a member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies who has displayed substantial, significant and sustained excellence, commitment and enthusiasm to the multifaceted aspects of graduate teaching at York. It is intended to recognize a distinguished contribution to the advancement of academic excellence and to the quality of graduate studies at York University. The nomination deadline for the 1998-99 teaching award is Nov. 16, 1998. For information, call (416) 736-5329.

Odom has been teaching at York since 1972, and is one of the pioneers of dance as an academic subject at a Canadian university. In the early 1960s, there were few places in the world to earn an academic degree in dance. York became the home to the first graduate program in dance at a university in Canada, and the first program in dance history and criticism anywhere in the world. York's program in dance is research based rather than performance based.

Odom has been heavily involved with the program for more than 20 years, and has been described as "the central figure" in York's Graduate Program in Dance, and integral to the development of York's dance theory curriculum. She has served as graduate program director for dance for 12 years. She has supervised dozens of master's theses over the years and encouraged many of her students to publish papers. Odom also works well in collaboration with her departmental colleagues and uses team teaching as a technique.

Much of Odom's research has focused on teachers and teaching. She has devoted countless hours to developing an ongoing body of research called the Dalcroze project. Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a method of music education developed by the Swiss composer Emile-Jaques Dalcroze at the beginning of this century. It is a teaching method based on using body movement to enhance the experience of musical ideas such as tempo, rhythm, phrasing and form. Over many years, Odom has been involved with studying not only the method, but also the teachers who have used it. Odom has interviewed, observed, and/or studied with more than 200 such teachers, and she is currently writing a book on various approaches to teaching and the need for more historical research on the creativity of teachers.

She works in the area of multimedia development for education, and has received various grants for this work. One of her projects is called "Women in Art and Performance: Developing an Interdisciplinary CD-ROM," also known as the Joan of Arc Project. One of her graduate courses looked at representations of Joan of Arc in performance and visual arts, and the multimedia work springs from that cross-listed dance and women's studies course. She is now working with York colleagues in dance, music and art history to develop an educational CD-ROM project around the theme of Joan of Arc.

Odom earned her PhD in dance studies at the University of Surrey in England (1991), her MA from Tufts University in Massachusetts in 1967, and her BA from Wellesley College in 1965. Before coming to York, she taught at the University of Michigan and produced educational television programs. Her principal areas of interest are in 19th and 20th century dance, education, performance, choreography, criticism, and aesthetics. She served as editorial advisor and contributor for the International Encyclopedia of Dance, a six-volume publication just published by Oxford University Press, and as a member of the Committee on Research and Scholarship for the World Dance Alliance. She co-edits, along with York professor Mary Jane Warner, Canadian Dance Studies, which began with the publication of Volume 1 in 1994. Volume 2 followed in 1997.

She has a long list of scholarly and professional activities and is renowned for her work on dance scholarship in Canada. Odom is also a founding member of the Society of Dance History Scholars. Her commitment to her students is legendary, as current and former students and colleagues testified in their nomination letters. Odom is renowned for her welcoming and supportive attitude towards her students, her ability to facilitate dance-related colloquia, symposiums, and events that bring together scholars, students, and dancers, and for her encouragement of her students to publish, teach, and present views and information on dance.

Jody Bruner, an MFA graduate in 1983, had many kind things to say in her letter of nomination. "Many qualities make Selma a great teacher. She is inspiring, generous, supportive, and stimulating. I remember leaving more than one evening tutorial vibrating with excitement and unable to sleep. Studying with Selma made me aware that there were plenty of ways to contribute new, exciting scholarship. She encouraged me to stretch myself, to think outside the box... The quality that probably made the greatest impact on me -- both as a student and now as a teacher myself -- was her contagious enthusiasm for learning. Selma was never satisfied with giving us digested or handed-down ideas. Instead, she reinvented her courses from year to year -- always finding new approaches to keep the material fresh. And, of course, she encouraged us to take new approaches. Never before had learning seemed such an adventure to me. Thanks to her example and encouragement, I was able to sustain that sense of excitement and adventure while I completed my degree."

Odom's colleague, Prof. Norma-Sue Fisher-Stitt, wrote in her letter of nomination, that "It is fair to say that Selma Odom has been the central figure in the history of the Graduate Program in Dance. Dr. Odom's initial vision shaped the overall program and its curriculum, and her consistent involvement over the past 20 years has been enormously influential in the program's evolution... I feel both privileged and enormously fortunate to have had Selma Odom as a teacher when I was a graduate student," wrote Fisher-Stitt. "Her expectations were high and her teaching was rigorous. I learned various methodological approaches and I was introduced to an enormous array of materials. However, I also observed and experienced how much Selma cared about each of her students as an individual. To this day, her opinion is extremely important to me. I seek her advice regularly and I am indebted to her as a scholar, a role model, a colleague, and a friend."

The Gazette spoke to Prof. Odom recently about her teaching philosophy and experiences. This issue includes excerpts from that discussion.

Gazette: What is your philosophy of teaching?

Odom: My philosophy has been to learn from my students and from the evolving dance scene. I have a tremendous curiosity about dance in the widest sense, so I think that has made me able to work with this very broad spectrum of students we have here at York. They bring their own cultural background and knowledge of many kinds of dance, and that's been a great pleasure, because gradually the whole world of dance has come here in some way. It was such a new field when I was starting out that it was sometimes a struggle to keep ahead of my students. I was so young and knew so little that I'm amazed I managed as well as I did! There still aren't that many places in which dance is an academic subject at the university, although there are many more than there were 30 years ago. Several of us work very collaboratively as faculty members, although I have probably been the longest lasting. I see myself as having grown up in the field, almost at the same time as my students.

It is very important to listen, to try to be where your students are, and to walk alongside of them, to be a mentor. You need to create an environment in which they can experiment and take risks and respond to each others' work. In my upper level courses, I am only one person in a community of voices, and other peoples' responses are equally valid.

Gazette: Can you describe some teaching tips that have worked for you?

Odom: I don't think in terms of tips, but in our department we tend to talk more about the response we get from our students. In the dance program, we are constantly exchanging experiences in our program about things that work or don't work, and we are eager to communicate. We often discuss the wonderful way that our students seem to be able to take an assignment and discover how much meaning and material is there once they have started to pursue the topic. I have tried to be a keen listener and to give constructive responses, and to create an atmosphere in which everyone in the class can do the same. I really try to ensure that the classroom atmosphere is not a competitive one but a cooperative one. In other words, students can feel free to take risks and experiment and try different things, and they all succeed in some way. The students comment on one another's work in a constructive way, and we will talk about further things that can be done on a given topic, but it's done in a very positive and encouraging way.

In my Research Methods Course, which all of our graduate students take, I try to introduce them to current theory and thinking in the field as well as to important previous work. I also try to help the students become very well oriented to the task of doing research in libraries, archives and museums, but also now using electronic cataloguing and the Internet, so it's largely a bibliographic project. Most students in our program do a thesis or a major research paper, so this course is intended partly to get people ready to pursue independent research. I'm always trying to convey an understanding about strategies for finding information, whether it's through the Internet, Yorkline, or the Sound and Moving Image Library. Students need to know how to define tasks of research. In the master's program, we tend to work very much one-on-one with the students to help them in structuring the work, whether it is a written piece, a video documentary, or a performance with a lecture-demonstration.

In the "Dance Writing" course, the whole purpose is to get people involved in understanding different types of writing. The emphasis is on the communication of ideas through writing, and I try to help students in developing their written communication skills. I try to convey to my students how important it is for them to become articulate and well spoken about dance so that they can write good, interesting dance reviews or articles, or proposals for funding, or whatever.

Gazette: Why did you become a teacher?

Odom: I found it very interesting to share what I knew. I did my initial teaching in a community setting, so I was looking for employment in recreation departments, and was offered the chance to teach an adult education course in dance. I had done some teaching as a high school student. I'm not a great dancer per se, so I didn't want to train dancers technically at all. I was always more interested in the choreographic side of dance, and did a lot of choreography when I was younger, so when I found myself in teaching settings, I quickly tried to engage the students in dramatic games and musical improvisations where they could become choreographers of movement. That initial idea did carry over into the university setting. I never saw myself as a lecturer or presenter of planned lectures. The field wasn't there yet, and there weren't good materials to produce lectures from, but also, students weren't interested in that. I tried to work out ways for them to use their imagination to recreate or construct understandings of dances, dancers' lives, or dance in social settings. I don't want to stand at the front and lecture. My interest is in involving people in a collective effort or discussion to imagine or understand or analyze. We take turns presenting to each other. I like to have my students do a lot of presenting rather than writing papers. It's more fun to show each other things and demonstrate things than to try to say something only in a verbal context. I like to put all these things together.

I view myself as a kind of stage manager, or a catalyst for the students in developing and discovering for themselves what they can know and what they can do. Undergraduates would sometimes rather have things dictated to them. Most think of dance as a studio endeavour and don't dream there are so many other aspects so I try to get them to make discoveries about how many resources there are and just how much information is there. I also try to encourage people to respond to each others' work. In my graduate classes, students give talks and demonstrations instead of written assignments. Then all of the other students hand in written responses to all the presentations. The students then get many responses instead of just hearing from the teacher. That's very important. It's a question of enabling people to work together in a way that brings out the best in each other.

Gazette: What kinds of teaching techniques have worked well for you?

Odom: I experiment continually and I keep revolving assignments so that I can make new discoveries. I don't stick with any one way of doing things. I like to create a classroom which people feel is theirs, and in which they are vocal and active participants. In the introductory courses, I try for more and more effective ways to get people interested in thinking of dance as an academic discipline. Certainly, I try to keep paying attention to what my students are like and what they are interested in. In the field in the last 10 years, everything has broadened out, and a lot of new research has been published. I began working on a new focus with jazz and cross cultural aspects in my undergraduate introductory course partly because I know the students are interested in musical theatre and jazz. I enjoyed building that up. The subject matter does not lend itself to straight lectures. We might try some steps or a choreographic structure by making a sketch of it or learning a historical style of dancing by taking a little lesson. With graduate students the groups are much smaller, sometimes 10 people. They'll work in a seminar room or studio, and we might have a very active discussion or demonstrations.

The Centre for the Support of Teaching has been a wonderful resource for me for reflecting on all kinds of areas in teaching. I have used a lot of different resources there to find things. Their ListServ is really interesting. They have good resources. I love to read about other peoples' teaching experiences and think about what I might do with the way I might benefit from other peoples' experiences. In the dance department, we do a lot of team teaching, so I've had the opportunity to work closely with most of my colleagues, with Norma-Sue Fisher-Stitt and Mary Jane Warner. Team teaching gives us the chance to learn from each other and enrich our experience as colleagues.

Gazette: What was one of your best experiences in teaching?

Odom: First let me say that the energy that comes back to me from working with young people is thrilling. That's why I'm so happy to be with people at the time when they are discovering their intellectual capabilities and embarking on life adventures. There are so many things happening, and the students are developing and changing. It's tremendously rewarding for me.

One of my best experiences happened quite recently. There was a man in our undergraduate program, and he was taking my introductory course. He was a mature student with a learning disability and doing exams and written work in a special context. One of the exams required students to write a response to a video example. I encouraged him to come and do that part with the rest of the class. He did it, and did quite well, and I told him he was a good writer who could get his ideas across well. A few years after he had taken the introductory course, he said he'd like to take my graduate dance writing course. I hesitated about this, because his grammar, spelling and usage were not at the level of a lot of people in the course. But I thought his ideas were strong, and he was very intelligent, so he was allowed to enrol. One of the first assignments was to write about a dance memory in the third person based on an experience of their own. He wrote about going with his grandmother to a church service while he was growing up in Jamaica. He described the movement and the music and the whole setting. It was a wonderful and astounding piece of writing. Everyone in the class was just bowled over. Throughout that whole course, he continued to produce remarkable writing. That was quite exciting. The flow of ideas was there and I thought: this is someone who could be a writer. Although the spelling and editorial aspects needed extra attention, he had an original voice, and the atmosphere in that class cultivated it. I learned that he enrolled in three courses involving writing the following year, in other parts of the university. He got very involved with writing, and wanted to pursue fiction writing or maybe some film writing. That was great. He had such a positive experience from that first course that he took the ball and ran with it. He found out what he was capable of, and our class environment must have been supportive or he wouldn't have continued with it.