Mila Parrish Ph.D

2. b. Embodied History - Repertory Etudes

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My passion for bringing historic dance works to current audiences led me to several community partnership research programs centered around several Repertory Etudes: The Parsons Etude, Donald McKayle’s Rainbow Etude, and Pearl Primus’ Buschasche Etude. Dance scholar and Repertory Etude curriculum writer, Pamela Sofras, identifies the importance of the Etudes in stating, “each generation of dancers was moving farther and farther away from the source of traditional modern dance. Etudes help preserve dances for the generations ahead.” Students learn technical skills as well as social and cultural influences that were part of the creation of the dance. Between 2013-2018, I formed six different Repertory Etudes community partnerships and established valuable connections between UNCG students and K-12 schools. As a result of the departments ongoing interest in reconstructing historical dance works, the needs of K-12 students and teachers in the field for connections to legacy dance techniques (as defined by NC dance standards), I have begun developing an academic course for the MA DE program that centers on the reconstruction process. The course will look critically at the artist’s life, technique fostered, cultural context, and thematic underpinnings of the historic dance work. See the complete list of Repertory Etude performances in A.II.b. and described on my CV.

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