The students and their pursuits are as follows:
- Jade Boardman ’03 has a graduate assistantship in dance while working toward a master of fine arts degree at Sam Houston University.
- Natalie King ’03 has a graduate assistantship in dance while working toward a master’s degree in dance at Arizona State University.
- Lauren Mills ’03 has a graduate assistantship in dance while working toward a master's degree at American University.
- Liz Waring ’02 is working toward a master’s degree in dance education and will begin a teaching assistantship at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, beginning this fall.
Sweet Briar’s dance program has always been successful at placing students, but for Mark Magruder, SBC professor of theatre and dance, this is a rare but highly satisfying post-graduate scenario.
"It’s unusual to have four students apply for grad school and have all of them receive T.A.’s or G.A.’s," he said. "We have managed to place students in graduate schools and, at times, they have received a T.A. or G.A. their second year. This is a first to have three students from one year to receive these honors."
Although there is no foolproof formula for this level of success, Magruder likes to think it has something to do with the individuality and challenging nature of Sweet Briar's program.
"The graduate schools see the strengths and uniqueness of our program," he said. "Sweet Briar has an excellent dance program that allows students to grow in many directions. Each student is an individual at Sweet Briar and they are allowed to show their individuality by the number of choreography classes required.
"Everyone’s choreography looks different. We appreciate this because we aren’t trying to be a cookie-cutter, assembly line-type program."
While small classes allow for a lot of hands-on instruction, Magruder also believes in giving his students plenty of room for discovery. An example is a required student-produced senior dance concert where students’ skills and creativity tend to dramatically blossom.
"We demand a senior dance concert that two seniors often share," he said. "This is an unusual requirement because students are in charge of every aspect of the production that they produce — from choreography to finding dancers to organizing a technical crew to designing posters. That is a lot to ask at the undergrad level, but it sets our dance majors apart from many in the country."
Sweet Briar’s record of success at placing students in graduate programs — along with the networking that results from it — has significantly elevated the College’s status in graduate school circles, Magruder said. He noted a particularly strong connection with American University in Washington, D.C.
"In some ways, a network of Sweet Briar graduates is helping the students now."
By making a point of keeping up with his graduates, Magruder can point to several recent success stories. Two students are teaching at college level: Catherine Zahrn ’98 has an M.F.A. in dance from the University of Hawaii and is teaching dance at the University of Georgia, and Marisha Bourgeois earned a master's degree in dance from American University and now teaches at Northern Virginia Community College.
Charlotte Rognmoe Gilbar ’98, although she hasn’t yet attended graduate school, is teaching dance at Lynchburg College. Amy Mullen ’02 was nominated best student choreographer in spring 2002, best student performer in the Mid-Atlantic region at the American College Dance Festival, and performed her solo, “Groove,” at the Kennedy Center.
"The dance program tries to keep close contact with its majors who have graduated," Magruder said. "Our students who have attended graduate school all seem to be doing remarkable things in the field of dance."
Here is what he had to say about the four SBC dance graduates who recently received T.A. and G.A. placements:
- Liz Waring and Natalie King — "Liz was always interested in teaching from the get-go," he said. "What she did at Persons County High School (in Roxboro, N.C.) is incredible. She took the program from very few students to 50-60 kids. Natalie and Liz both received the NK-12 dance teaching certification and have K-6 elementary education certification. This has certainly helped them in obtaining their T.A.’s.
- Jade Boardman — "She is one of the most electrifying performers Sweet Briar College has ever seen," he said. “She had so much energy and at times would move so fast that if you blinked, you might have missed some death-defying feat. She stretched the edge of the envelope as to how you could perform at Sweet Briar.
- Lauren Mills — "As a student, Lauren found choreography to be her supreme calling. Her works were always very well thought out and thought provoking. Lauren also excelled at the technical work of theater — she stage-managed, ran sound and lights, and in graduate school has taken over many roles in technical aspects. She’s even done some costuming now.
"As dancer, Natalie always impressed everyone with her incredible technique and prowess," he said. "Toward the end of her time at Sweet Briar, her emotional range in performing grew so that she could really move and hold an audience’s attention."
"Sam Houston State is going wild over her. She’s also being courted by two dance companies."
"She’s really gotten to be quite the technical wonder."
For information on the SBC dance program, please contact Mark Magruder at (434) 381-6150 or mmagruder@sbc.edu. For media inquiries, please contact Shannon Wells, SBC media relations coordinator, at (434) 381-6388 or swells@sbc.edu.
