Princeton Celebrates 50 Year of Dance on Campus

Princeton Alumnus David Roussève; Associate Director of Dance Rebecca Lazier; Director, Lewis Center for the Arts, Tracy K. Smith. Photo: Hope VanCleaf

In 1969 Ze’eva Cohen began teaching dance on Princeton University’s campus. For 40 years she nurtured dance from an extracurricular program to full inclusion in the curriculum, and established a certificate program. The structures she created are embedded in the program today and provide the scaffolding we continue to build upon. In December 2019 we celebrated 50 years of dance on campus with a gathering of current and past faculty and students. 

The stories I heard all described how dance connected each person to a larger sense of themselves and the worlds around them. The stories clarify for me that movement is a way to know the mind. Dance provides many paths to understanding how we know ourselves and how we are in our bodies. Movement is a portal into the realm of physical understanding and this embodiment creates knowledge. Dance is also community and social practice. In the studio and on stage we encounter people, understand ways to know our communities and the world around us and through this discover tools to make impact.