“I’m sure that many faculty members would be interested in embracing dance as a cultural revolution in our curriculum,” Foster says.

Bergmann says Harvard needs to do more to promote dance.

“This is the 21st century and Harvard has an incredible history of longevity, but the arts still seem to be seen as a social event,” Bergmann said. “The arts need to come together and be represented. We need to place more value on the arts.”

Hoping for a Good Review

With new administrators in the Faculty promising a broad-sweeping curricular review, some say they hope the next few months may be the dancers’ chance to get the courses they’ve always wanted.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Benedict H. Gross ’71 says the administration will consider dance as part of their curricular review.

“One of the topics we are going to consider in the review is the interaction of curricular and extra-curricular activities, particularly in the arts and public service,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I wouldn’t want to predict where we will end up a year from now, but it will certainly be considered.”

Bergmann says she has submitted a proposal for another dance course under the Committee on Dramatics, but there has not yet been an official proposal for an additional Core course. To add a Core course, a proposal would have to come from a faculty member on the tenure track. Bergmann’s status as lecturer does not permit her to teach in the Core.

Braxton-Brooks says she remains optimistic that more students will find academic opportunities to study dance.

“In the past few years I’ve seen a trend in the course catalogue of adding more performance theory classes,” she says. “This gives me faith that Harvard is expanding their idea of what they consider academic.”

“After all, art at its best always engages the mind,” she says.

—Staff writer Wendy D. Widman can be reached at widman@fas.harvard.edu.