Chair and Professor Nadine George-Graves introduces speakers and offers a tribute to Professor Karen Eliot.
Professor Susan Van Pelt Petry honors Professor Karen Eliot.
Associate Professor Hannah Kosstrin honors Professor Karen Eliot.
Assistant Professor Daniel Roberts honors Professor Karen Eliot.
Professor Karen Eliot accepts her recognition.
Karen Eliot Enchainment
A Tribute to Karen Eliot by Susan Van Pelt Petry, inspired by T.S. Eliot
Elegant restrained
Not to be fooled
Precise detailed
And generous to the end
Clarifying, detailing
Holding the line
Quietly demanding
The best out of all
No excuses, only pure
Curiosity, love of the moment
Explicit direction
Implicit passion
Professors Susan Petry, Hannah Kosstrin and Daniel Roberts honored Professor Karen Eliot with heartfelt speeches at the autumn “Informance” held via Zoom on December 4, 2020. Dr. Eliot retired in December 2020 after more than 27 years of service to Ohio State Dance. After the tributes, Susan Chess, the same accompanist who played for Dr. Eliot's interview to join the faculty, played her piano to lead the department in the closing of the Informance with everyone dancing Dr. Eliot’s Reverance choreography that she leads to end every ballet class.
Dr. Eliot danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She has a PhD in English from the University of Georgia and a BA from Cornell University. Her book Dancing Lives: Five Female Dancers from the Ballet d'Action to Merce Cunningham (University of Illinois Press, 2007) investigates the contribution of the performer to the larger history of western theatrical dance. Her current research is on the intersection of the Second World War and the development of ballet in Britain, and has been supported by an Ohio State Arts and Humanities Seed Grant (2004), several College of the Arts Research Grants and a Coca Cola Critical Difference for Women Grant (2007-08). In 2010 she was awarded the Howard D. Rothschild Fellowship in Dance at Harvard University’s Houghton Library for research on British choreographer Mona Inglesby. Her article on Inglesby and the International Ballet appears in Dance Chronicle. A new anthology on dance history and methodologies, co-edited with Melanie Bales, was published by Oxford University Press in 2012. She currently serves on the advisory board for Dance Chronicle and was Recording Secretary for the Society of Dance History Scholars from 2001-2007. She has presented her work at international conferences including the International Early Dance Conference in Ghent, Belgium (2000), and the Sound Moves Conference at Roehampton University in London, England (2005). She has directed several student performances of choreography by Merce Cunningham. In 2006 she directed three solos from "Changing Steps" for an MFA candidate in the Department of Dance, and in 2004 and 2005 she directed both Ohio State students and students from the University of Minnesota in Merce Cunningham's Inlets 2. Her articles and reviews appear in: Dance Chronicle; Eighteenth-Century Women: Studies in their Lives, Works and Culture; The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Book Reviews Online; Journal of Women's History; and Dance Research Journal.
In lieu of other gifts, Dr. Eliot has requested donations to the Dance Innovation Fund which supports technology, equipment and facilities keeping Ohio State Dance at the forefront of innovation in dance production, multimedia performance and collaborative art-making practices. Expenditures will be at the discretion of the department chair or their designee.
