Looking down on the Tomlinson Theater stage, Terry Beck, BYR ’79, felt mesmerized. Up in the lighting booth, he watched bodies sway as the Zero Moving Dance Company rehearsed. At the time, he was a special education major fulfilling a work-study job.

Beck didn’t know much about dance or theater, but he was inspired. He took as many dance classes as he could, eventually matriculating to the Dance Department and joining the dance company he once observed from afar.

Now Beck is returning to the Tomlinson Theater stage to perform as a guest artist. This event on Sept. 6 and 7 kicks off the Dance Department’s 50th anniversary celebration.

“When the opportunity came to perform again at Tomlinson Theater, I jumped at it,” said Beck, who founded Terry Beck Troupe and has choreographed for numerous dance companies. “This whole avenue of possibilities opened when I chose dance. I celebrate 50 years of the department at Temple, especially knowing how it changed my life.”

Beck is premiering a piece called Harbour, featuring a cast of Temple dance alumni, a current dance PhD student, current and former faculty, and other Philadelphia dancers ranging in age from 60 to 84.

“I believe that once you identify as a dancer you’re always a dancer. It’s part of you,” he said. “Very few people are doing work for more mature dancers. Harbour is a meditation on aging and dance. It’s about what it is that continues to call us. What drives us to perform and continue to move? How does a mature body move?”

In addition to Beck’s performance, the Dance Department is offering a slate of events throughout the 2024–2025 academic year to commemorate the 50th anniversary. Its extensive programming includes an alumni speaker series with prestigious scholars; a showcase highlighting the work of four alumni; an online media festival; and exhibits in the Special Collections Research Center, the Blockson Collection and Tyler’s STELLA gallery, among other events. The celebration will culminate in an alumni reunion and conference and show celebrating the past, present and future of Temple Dance in April.

“I’m looking forward to coming back and being part of this community again,” said Enya-Kalia Jordan, BYR ’19, who is performing in the dance alumni showcase on Oct. 4 and 5. “I learned a lot and appreciate the resources I had while I was at Temple,” added the dance MFA alum who leads own dance company, Enya Kalia Creations.

“The pandemic was hard, especially for these students in movement,” said Laurie Benoit, associate director of dance production. “This celebration of dance is an opportunity to start pulling our community back together. There’s a sense of Temple being a home and a family."

Dance at the university was not always recognized as a fine or performing art. Rather, it originated in education. In 1910, dance classes were part of the physical education bachelor of science degree. A dance major officially launched in 1970 in the College of Education, and soon after, Temple began offering bachelor, master and doctoral degrees in dance education. The Dance Department earned accreditation on April 25, 1975, in the newly established College of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. This was the first department of dance to be accredited in Pennsylvania higher education, followed soon after by Slippery Rock University. Conwell Dance Theater was transformed from Temple’s original basketball court and indoor track in the 1980s.

Students shown in a dance class at Temple circa 1980 (Photography source: Temple University Libraries Digital Collections)

Since then, the department has significantly evolved. Now housed in the Boyer College of Music and Dance, it offers a bachelor of fine arts, master of arts, master of fine arts and dance PhD. Additionally, it includes minors in dance and hip-hop dance and culture and undergraduate certificates in dance and performing arts.

Students receive intensive training in a range of genres including ballet, modern/contemporary, and African and Asian diasporic. They often combine these styles in their creative work.

“Choreography and performance are changing as students become exposed to all these styles, and you can see this hybridity in senior BFA concerts, for example, with the nuances they’ve been exposed to at Temple,” said Karen Bond, chair of dance.

“I chose Temple because of the diversity of dance styles we train in,” said Sara Hicinbothem, Class of 2026. “There are so many opportunities.”

The Dance Department offers many different styles, including African diasporic. (Photography by Joseph V. Labolito)

“Temple has this amazing way of combining performance and technique with academics,” said Benoit. “Our students have a strong technical performance curriculum, and they take rigorous theory courses. The department is committed to creating thinking dancers. Our students are concerned with social justice and do a lot of work where they’re thinking about the world and how they can impact it.”

Dance continues to grow at the university. The department plans to relaunch its master of education to now provide Pennsylvania pre-K through 12 dance teacher certification, which was finally legislated in Pennsylvania in 2023 after at least 50 years of advocacy from department founders and faculty.

“The Dance Department has a responsibility to offer teacher certification programs to honor our origins in education,” said Bond. “We also have a responsibility to North Philadelphia to educate students in our region to become pre-K through 12 teachers. It’s important for children to have dance in schools.”

Recently, the department received its largest gift in its 50-year history. The six-figure Edrie Ferdun Fund for Dance will help meet various departmental needs including recruitment and tuition scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students, support for student success and wellness programs, capital for facilities maintenance and updates, and 50th anniversary programming.

Dance at Temple combines performance and technique with a strong academic curriculum. (Photography by Joseph V. Labolito)

Amid all this transformation, the mission of the Dance Department has remained constant. “I’m impressed by the consistency of the department’s vision as an inclusive, holistic and culturally sensitive place. That’s what brought me to Temple,” said Bond. “Every education institution should have a dance program. Dean Stroker once said to me that to lose dance as part of the Center for Performing and Cinematic Arts would be like losing a limb. Dance cognition is unparalleled because you’re using your physicality for learning more than in any other art form."

The future of dance at Temple is bright. “I think Temple will continue to expand its program and look at dance as viable because of all the things it can do for a person’s life,” said Beck. “Temple Dance offers students a constructive approach: This is what you can do now, and this is how we can help you achieve it here and beyond. There’s a lot of passion behind the want for the program to continue.”