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Other voices: dancers, choreographers and teachers speak frankly about their experiences regarding race and dance.

Article Excerpt
David Hochoy

"When I began studying dance in the 1970s I had never seen any Asian dancers and I didn't know if I would have a future in dance. That began to change when I saw the Ailey company and their Asian dancers. When I joined the Martha Graham Company, Martha had a fascination with Asian people. She told me a story of when she was younger being mistaken for being Chinese in a Chinese restaurant; she seemed to relish the thought. Because of my race I was given roles I never expected to get. There were also roles that grieved me, but I knew that was part of the deal. When I was rehearsal director, Martha ran the company like a court: There were people who were let into the inner circle and people who weren't. I think one of the reasons I was let in was because I was Chinese and she felt she could trust me because of that."

--David Hochoy, artistic director, Dance Kaleidoscope (Indianapolis)

Monique Haley

I remember a ballet teacher who told me to "Stop sticking my butt out." I said, "I'm not. I can't do anything about that. It's not going anywhere." I didn't have too many African Americans in my class. In college I was one of only two black students in ballet class. We hardly ever got corrections. It seemed like we were being bypassed. My feeling was she thought "They don't have what it takes." Later I was always getting roles where I was supposed to have soul or be spunky. They'd tell me, "Be more spunky" or "Be more soulful." I didn't know what they wanted. But I'd give a movement more hip or groove, or I'd give a ripple to my arms. Then I'd see if that's what they wanted.

--Monique Haley, jazz dancer with River North Chicago Dance Company

Patricia Hoffbauer

In the late '80s and early '90s, multiculturalism was a visible policy. The foundations were interested in diversifying their funding. It was a critical moment for me and other artists of color, but there was a complicated side to it. We were expected to do things that had to do with our ancestry--African, Indian, whatever. But white people were not asked to look at their racial identity; they were not asked to do anything different from the minimal, abstract, angst-driven modern dances that they'd been doing. My dances were misunderstood. In one dance I wore a carnivalesque outfit and sang the Chiquita banana theme song while a white...

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