It is Thursday April 19. I am in the final weeks of the semester before retiring. Things are going well. The retrospective concert was a huge success in every way. There was a great review in Theater Jones and Rick Nelson, critic for the Minneapolis StarTribune wrote a lovely article called How to celebrate a dancer’s retirement? With dance, of course. I have five classes left in Jazz III, one more faculty senate meeting, three days of student Evals, the last faculty meeting of the semester and commencement on Saturday May 19. That will be the official end. There is also a very fancy dinner for retirees at a club with a dress code. I have decided that I won’t attend. My dance card is getting very full.
We are going out to Fort Worth with Patty, our Chair to do interviews with Les Johnson and myself as the final pieces for the documentary. The documentary will include excerpts from the concerts, the panel discussion and oral histories with Cathy Young, Linda Andrews, and Mariusz Olszewski. I am really looking forward to the finished product.
Jazz III decided to revisit Mahalia Jackson for their movement finale. We are doing In the Upper Room again. I never tire teaching it and all the students in the Division have done it at some point. It is a great way to end things on the teaching front.
We will be doing it next Thursday, April 26. I will, of course film it with my trusty Kodak flip camera. Don’t know when I bought it – a long time ago – but I have been using it probably for ten years. It takes great quality HD video. Over the years, the Division has bought faculty various recording devices, mini DVD cameras, cameras that used a sim card, but nothing can compare to my flip camera. On one of my trips home to Mount Carmel, I actually filmed the Mother of Consolation grave yard and and the All Saints resting place just outside of Elysberg, Pennsylvania where my mother, father, Anna and Joe Savidge and Joe and Bertha Chesney are all buried.
The Office – I have been slowly moving out of my office. All the books are gone except for The Price of the Ticket, a large anthology of James Baldwin’s essays, prose and poetry. I have one name banner from the National Endowment for the Arts left as well. The last to go will be the posters and photos hanging on the walls. My next door office neighbor, Anne Westwick who teaches Yoga, Modern, Ballet and Composition has happily agreed to take my mini-fridge. I had a defunct TV/VCR and an old “boom box”. Meadows Facilities took them to be recycled. The drawers are empty except for a few papers I might need. Here are my almost empty shelves.
Here are some of the photos on the wall above my desk.
Center is a JAZZDANCE poster from 1998, celebrating the 100th birthday of Duke Ellington. I choreographed the full length Scene Unseen, commissioned Cathy Young to create Zero Cool and inited Zoe Sealy to restaged her New Orleans Suite. In the middle is a photo of Judith E. James Ries and Jeffery Peterson for GET HAPPY (The Judy Garland Project). Below is a gift from Simon Sargon, a page from the score of Deep Ellum Nights. To the far left, it’s the amazing Betsy Haug teaching across the floor sequences at the Ron Forella studio. Top right, I am lifting Cathy Yong – below that is Angela Lansbury in MAME., singing That’s How Young I Feel. In the photo, I am to her left.
Just back from my last Faculty Senate meeting. It was special because they gave out the Outstanding Staff awards. Chuck Donaldson & Janet Stephens were among the winners. They are amazing. They work in Meadows as advising specialists. They split up the alphabet and help students and the faculty who advise those students expert advice on how to graduate on time.
At the moment, there are three versions of the University Curriculum running concurrently. Students most often want to double major or have a minor in addition to their BFA in Dance Performance. Chuck & Janet help us navigate this sometimes complicated process. They are the best – Congratulations!
I will be teaching my last Jazz III class tomorrow.
My last class in the Division of Dance is now behind me. It was a great group, just big enough, very focused and very positive.
Saw the Senior Dance Concert last night. Kendell Miller-Roberts created the most amazing dance. She is a double major in Dance and Human Rights. It has been so interesting getting to know her. I think she is the perfect example of what a liberal arts education is all about. All that is left is data transfer from SMU’s laptop to my personal laptop – that’s tomorrow. A faculty meeting on Tuesday (I may make some food) and three days of Evaluations, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The graduation ceremony is on Saturday May 19.
In the midst of the first days of evaluations. All phots are gone from my office. I just know that when I do move out, there will still be a box full of stuff. I gave my Bose sound system back to the Division. It have used it in all my technique classes and in all of my rehearsals. I was able to buy it with funds left over from the Teaching Jazz Symposium, the first of which was in June of 2012 – six years of remarkable service.
There was dinner last night (May 8) for retiring faculty sponsored by the Provost Steve Currall . I was not able to attend. The Provost’s administrative assistant dropped off a gift this morning. It is a beautiful midnight blue bowl designed by Elsa Peretti. It is inscribed: Professor Daniel Buraczeski Southern Methodist University 2006 – 2018. I thought there was a mistake since I started at SMU in 2005. Myra and Patty said that it starts when I was hired as full-time faculty. I was a Visiting Artist in Jazz in 2005. Makes sense.
More retirement events. Just got these beautiful flowers from former New York City jazz dancer, Tee Scatuorchio.
Scene Unseen Lives – got an E-mail from Carter Alexander yesterday. Carter is an amazing ballet teacher who has been hired for an entire year at SMU, 2018-2019. The students love him.They learn a lot. He was let go when the Division hired Complexions co-artistic directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson for a year. Carter also choreographs and has made a new work for the Launch of Ballet Dallas. Ballet Dallas will now be the professional company of Contemporary Ballet Dallas, the school on Mockingbird Lane. Are we confused yet? There are to be four premieres. One woman is in all four dances and to give her a short break, Carter thought it would be great to have Adrian Aguirre and Albert Drake perform Scene Unseen. I said yes, of course and we got all the details worked out – costumes and chairs. Our chairs are gone again for a few days, as they were for weeks in preparation for the retrospective of my work.
All that is left in my office is a roll of paper towels, an NEA nameplate and the James Baldwin book, The Price of the Ticket. Graduation is on Saturday. After that, the last controversy will be turning in my keys. I want Brandi to have them. I hope that happens.
Song Awakened Lives – another dance continues to stay vibrant and alive. Zenon will perform Song Awakened at St. Catherine University in Saint Paul June 8 & 9. It used to be the O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at the College of St. Catherine. Song Awakened had its JAZZDANCE premiere there in 2001. Zenon performed the dance in Dallas as part of the mini-retrospective. It was beautiful. The ensemble work, in particular, was breathtaking. This is wonderful symmetry.
SCHEDULE – This is the schedule I used to keep track of the spring 2018 semester. This schedule is also posted on a site called CANVAS, but I am a huge fan of paper, sorry. I find it easier to remember things is I have read them on a piece of paper, as opposed to a digital version.
It is Sunday May 20. The countdown has come to a conclusion. Last night the graduation diploma ceremony was held at 6:30 outside in front of the Meadows School of the Arts. It was just above 90 degrees and the program lasted an hour and three quarters. The Division of Dance presented their graduates at about 7:45. The faculty all move to the side to individually congratulate the students. I always go to the end of the line. It has been a tradition fo me to hand them a rolled up “jazz dance diploma”. It is this wonderful quote by James Brown. At the end of the ceremony, the dance faculty met in the office for a champagne toast in honor of my retirement, Patty’s upcoming sabbatical and Christopher taking over as Chair. Myra left the graduation ceremony early – not feeling well.
I had just odds and ends left in my office, a lamp, bottled water and this amazing gift that Tori Walker made for me. Just back from retrieving them. So, Tori, using this website, I’m sure, matched a recipe with every single dance I have choreographed.It took my breath away, yet again, Ms. Tori Walker. There are a few photographs that I don’t have and have no idea how she found them. It is a lot to take in.
This will most likely be then end of the Countdown post.