As the first Black woman to ever sit as Director of Juilliard’s Dance Division, Alicia Graf Mack has worked diligently to progress the school’s standing legacy as a beacon of inclusion and innovation in dance. With choreographic leadership from Sidra Bell, who herself was the first-ever Black female choreographer commissioned by the New York City Ballet, Mack is leading the class of 2025 into an experimental new expression under that very mantle.
Yielding, described as a work in three movements, finds the “second years” of Julliard delivering motions they co-choreographed under Bell’s expert leadership for their annual New Dances presentation. Set to string quartet music composed by a fellow Juilliard student, Masters of Music candidate Jacob Beranek, the piece will show December 7 through the 11th at Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater.
“Many schools since Juilliard’s founding in 1951 have modeled their education model for Dance around Juilliard’s curriculum because it emphasizes ballet and modern dance equally,” Mack tells ESSENCE of the program. “I wanted to make sure that going into the 21st century, we continue to look at the curriculum and continue to innovate as the field innovates.”
Those innovations include doing away with gendered class splits or even traditional gendered roles in dance. When the students perform, it’s not uncommon to see a female student lift her larger male dance partner, turning traditional expectations of ballet and modern dance performances on their heads.
“I just wanted to make sure that our students are tooled to be able to find their way. Also, I wanted them to be able to take even more creative agency in their work,” Mack says. “The curricular arc that we’ve created over the last five years is to really find a foundation in technical languages of ballet and modern dance in the first two years. Then the third and fourth year, we start to go into more contemporary ideas and really allow the students to jump in and start to create and shape so that when they graduate, they are prepared to be leaders in the field and to collaborate with people like Sidra who will ask them to have a voice in the room.”
Bell, whose first big commission was with New Dances in 2008, feels that the creation of Yielding is a full-circle moment.
“Alicia brought me in last year to work with Choreo Comp where I was mentoring the juniors who were also working with the second years,” Bell says. “There’s just circular history that I’ve had with the school. To have it come back around to be able to do New Dances again really feels like a gift. Almost 15 years of being in relationship with Juilliard.”
Bell’s approach gives the students a baseline to work with, then asks them to improvise, add, subtract, and segue into new movements, giving them ownership over the final outcome of the choreography.
“The actual piece is about 14 minutes long, but the amount of material I have is probably 30 minutes long,” Bell says, speaking with ESSENCE about halfway through the piece’s composition. “That’s something I wanted to happen in this process so that they had to be responsible for devising, keeping responsibility for the different tracks, and being a part of the editorial process. We’re working with a student composer, Jacob Barnick, which is also really exciting.”
“It does feel like a very special responsibility,” Mack says of leading the program. “I think the background, my personal background, and my dance background as well as my education also has helped to give me a greater understanding of where I’d like to see Juilliard go in the future.”
Ultimately Bell and Mack each want the students of the program to become leaders of tomorrow, ready to go in whatever creative direction their interests lead them.
“I see Juilliard Dance being a place for young creative leaders. I really value creating an environment where dancers feel like in whatever mode or direction they want to go in after graduation, they will feel supported and successful,” Mack says, noting that she had just recently met Juilliard Dance alum Luis Alberto Rodriguez, who is now a highly-coveted fashion photographer that recently shot Serena Williams for the cover of Vogue. “Whether that’s going into concert dance or to Broadway or into film or to become an actor after, or go back to school to retool and do something else, I want to make sure that they’re ready.”
Yielding shows during Juilliard’s New Dances: Edition 2022 Peter Jay Sharp Theater December 7 through 11 with two performances on December 10. Get your tickets HERE.
