Mary Seereiter Oral History, 2003

[00:00:01] Interviewer:
Oral history interview with Mary Seereiter, the 27th of May, 2003. So could you tell me what you were involved with before coming to Lincoln Community College? Can you speak about that?

[00:00:18] Mary Seereiter:
I was Ashland, Oregon, taking dance in 1973 at SOC. And when I was in a dance class there, Janet Disgutner came and did a workshop on modern dance from the University of Oregon, kind of doing some recruiting. And I was intrigued with the idea of going to a four year college. I was already dancing at SOC and doing my studies in anatomy and pre-med kind of curriculum. And so I decided to come up to the University of Oregon in dance. And I actually came up in 1975. I got a Pell's grant and some scholarships and went there to get my bachelor's of science and then on to get my master's of science. And as I did that, I was a graduate teaching fellow there. I was teaching in the community. So before coming to LCC, I was dancing. I was in a couple of companies. In Ashland, I was in a company called Sundance with Leah Holt. We did some performances there. And then when I came to Eugene, I was in Mary Miller's Dance Company and also danced with Eugene Ballet as a guest in Firebird as one of the monsters.

And I started at LCC in 1980 after I received my master's. Do you want me to go on with these?

[00:02:22] Interviewer:
How did your teaching evolve in what ways from then until now?

[00:02:27] Mary Seereiter:
When I started dancing at the U of O, I was in my 20s and I already had two of my children and I realized that I always felt like I was older than everybody else. I had already been very interested in pre-med anatomy and science and so I was very taken with dance as a healing art. And so I was currently, with my dance training, doing studies in posture analysis and kinesiology, idiokinesis, and those kinds of things. And that led me into my laban studies, which I did in 1984, and then I went on to do the body mind centering work in 1990. And I had a sabbatical in 1986 in New York City where I was there for four months and I studied lots of dance, tons of dance. But with that, I was also doing the laban studies. I was doing my prerequisites at the Laban Institute in New York, and now wait a second, that was 1984, and then 1986 I guess I got my laban certificate, and then in 1990 I got the body mind centering.

Those dates are kind of confused. So my teaching has been evolving and influenced by a lot of the healing arts and the somatic studies and continues to be.

[00:04:24] Interviewer:
Can you describe the dance classes within the health and physical ed department? What was the dynamic like?

[00:04:35] Mary Seereiter:
Well, I was hired in the PE department in 1980, and the emphasis was on recreational dance, and a lot of the desire, although I found this out later after I'd been there, that the desire was that I would develop the recreational program, both dance, square dance, ballroom dance, and I had never studied that myself. I had always been a jazz and modern dancer, and so it came as a surprise to me when I found that out after I had been there for quite a few years and was developing more of a concert dance curriculum. And a transfer program for serious dance students, and for community students and students who were interested in personal growth through dance. So that was, it wasn't a conflict of interest, but it was a, how did you say this, it was a, well it didn't, I didn't feel like I was the best person to develop the recreational dance. So we had part-time people who did do that, and that desire was fulfilled, but not by me.

What I did do was I created the aerobic dance training program, which was the first certification program in the PE department. And I trained several teachers who then went on to teach at the Downtown Athletic Club and several of the other fitness centers in town.

And we did a lot of concert dance, and I think that that was a bit of a conflict in the PE department. And so when Jackie Belcher was the vice president in 1988 and took an interest in the dance program and came to some of the meetings in the health and PE department, and she decided that really dance should be in performing arts, and we were moved to performing arts. And unfortunately, the aerobics program and the dance program were separated. And so all the dance classes, modern ballet, jazz came to performing arts, but the aerobics program stayed and I believe kind of fizzled. Other programs did come up, other certificate programs did come up based on that model, but I don't think the aerobics program was one of the stronger points because there wasn't someone to hit it, really. It was a dancer. And the dynamic, there was a lot of common interest in the human body, and there was a lot of the somatic studies.

I think the sort of the competitive mindedness of sports activities and that sort of thing was a different interest in the PE department. And the dance program, the sort of more somatic healing and concert dance was kind of where we kind of split. And so there was a lot of interesting dynamics, but ultimately I think that the split was beneficial. And I believe that the PE department was able to continue their recreational dance activity. And I hope that in the future, I mean, right now we do collaborate some, where I taught the dance fundamentals, anatomy and body fundamentals, which has been part of their certificate fitness program. Although they've taken over that class now, but it served them for a while. And as we get more specialized, we develop our own curriculum.

[00:09:23] Interviewer:
When was dance incorporated with theater music? How did this shift come about?

[00:09:23] Mary Seereiter:
I kind of answered that. Do you have any more questions about that?

[00:09:31] Interviewer:
Not really, but I just know that Ed Ragazino, I believe, left in 1986.

[00:09:39] Mary Seereiter:
And there was like an interim chairperson, and then Mr. Reed came in kind of maybe in 1987. That's when we switched. Dick Reed was the department chair in 1988, and we had meetings prior to that. The performing arts were always very welcoming and wanted dance to be part of this department because it just makes sense. And even when I was in the PE department, we would negotiate with Ed Ragazino to be on this stage. And so we were already kind of here as guests, but it seemed like a better combination.

[00:10:25] Interviewer:
Can you describe how teaching a dance technique or movement class is different for you than teaching a lecture class?

[00:10:35] Mary Seereiter:
I tend to go to where the similarities, which is kind of the choreography of it. Where's the flow? What are the transitions? What's following? What concept? How do you get from point A to point B? And even in teaching a lecture class, there's always movement in my lecture classes. And because I feel like learning is a body activity, even if you're in a lecture class, you're still working with the body. Perception, sensation, kinesthetic, if you value that, or not if you value it, but if you work in that way, which I do. And a lot of people do. I mean, there's different learners, so I find that movement can help all the different kinds of learners. And I feel like it just keeps people more active to be moving, and it keeps them awake. The kind of lecture classes that I teach, lemons, have very well to move with, because it's anatomy and body fundamentals. And I believe in embodying the anatomy that I teach, or in teaching looking at dance, embodying some of the movements that you can see it more clearly.

A dance technique class, I feel that the more that I teach, the more that I grow as a teacher, that I tend to step out of the picture more. I guide, but I witness people more. I guide people into movement, but I don't tend to stay in the front of the room demonstrating as much. I tend to move off to the side and let people move and just observe and then give feedback on the observation. When I'm in a lecture class, I'm on the foreground, because I'm presenting ideas more. Although I do like to do things in a lecture class where people work in groups and that sort of thing. So, both are a lot about choreography, developing subject matter content in bite-sized pieces, and then connecting transitions and flow.

[00:13:31] Interviewer:
In what ways have you been the dance department? Have you seen the dance department change since you've been here in respect to curriculum, students, community involvement, and response?

[00:13:47] Mary Seereiter:
I am so satisfied and so pleased because what I see is that it's growing. It's like planting seeds in the early 80s and then seeing them grow. It's always been my desire to have a network and that dance. I'm just writing this paper today about where I've been for the concert this weekend where it's going to do some promo because I'm retiring.

Isidore Duncan and her image of America dancing, it's like that always struck me in how she would dance in nature. It's like that image of just people dancing. I just feel like everyone can dance and everyone has the right, the birthright, to dance. And that's my desire is to, in a way, give people permission by allowing them to have the opportunity in class. Not that I hold the key, but that sometimes people don't give themselves permission. So give them the opportunity. Of course, developing a curriculum that is a strong training ground for people who want to go on and dance or make a career of dance. And of course, connecting and networking with four-year institutions and having our program be a feeder program for the bigger institutions. And all of that's happening. And early on in the 1980s, being involved in Body, Mind, Centering, being involved in Laban, seeing how dance from a personal perspective from my own life, and seeing how it's been a very healing aspect for me, it's been instrumental in a lot of my personal growth.

And wanting to offer that to other people. And so it's been really fulfilling to see that some of the ideas that I had early on are actually being fulfilled. And that, you know, like now when I teach Body, Mind, Centering, there's 30 people in the class, or authentic movement, you know? And it's like, that's just amazing to me. It's so exciting. And it just, to me, it just points to the fact that dance is a viable and essential course of study. And that it offers so much more than just the kinesthetic. It's really a connecting link to the whole Body, Mind, connection and, you know, community, who we are, how we connect with nature, all of that. And I see all these things being manifest in the dance program now. And, you know, I've been the facilitator or, you know, sowing some of the early seeds, but we have been so lucky to have some of the best teachers here that have contributed to that growth, you know?

And just, I feel like we've been so blessed with so many awesome teachers, like Kim Fleming, Margal Van Emerson, Marcia McCaffrey, David Miller, some of the earlier teachers, Kathy Jenkins,

Linda Zelenka, gosh, just so many, you know, really, really awesome teachers. And now, the teachers that we have, Laura Bell-Moses, Bonnie Samoa, Cheryl Lemmer, who's been here for, you know, almost the duration, you know, probably two-thirds as long as I have, I don't know, half as long. I can't remember when she came in, needed testing shots. So we attract, you know, just dynamic teachers who really fit into the philosophy, which is an inclusive philosophy. It is a supportive philosophy. It is non-competitive and nurturing. And that, I feel, is what we stand for, you know? And I just love that part about the dance program.

[00:18:57] Interviewer:
Did the performances in the 70s, 80s, 90s, till now reflect the times?

[00:18:57] Mary Seereiter:
Absolutely. I was thinking about that as far as being inspired by some of the early modern dancers. Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, you know, Jose Lamone. And I didn't start until the 80s. But certainly, I've been influenced by, just a personal thing for me, has been nature and industry, nature and technology, and how we live together in a natural world. Keep the balance of progress, the technological balance of progress in order, and that's always influenced my dancing.

[00:19:52] Interviewer:
Let's see, can you recall difficult situations and how they were resolved?

[00:19:52] Mary Seereiter:
Well, one of the most difficult ones that comes to mind, and I don't know how, I'll just tell you about it, and then you would have to edit. And, you know, refine, but I will talk candidly. When we were moved to performing arts in 88, it was never discussed that aerobics would stay. And I think, actually, it would stay in P.E. And I think, actually, the whole program was moved. And then I came back in the fall of 88, and the whole dynamic of school, the whole hubbub was collaborative decision making. And I read in the torch that aerobics was moved back to P.E. It had never been discussed with me. And that was a very difficult situation. It was never resolved. And it was hard because, whereas I understand philosophically why aerobics would be in P.E., I also felt that it had a very, it was based on dance training. It was based on that kind of philosophy, which is not, it wasn't solely fitness. It was more integration of how one feels physically, emotionally, and the whole, it was, you know, dance as a healing art.

But it had that influence to fitness training. And so, you know, philosophically, based on that, I felt like it should stay with dance, it should stay with the founders, because we were the ones that were going to carry the program on.

[00:22:00] Interviewer:
What were some challenges and how did you overcome that?

[00:22:00] Mary Seereiter:
The biggest challenges were always that I was the only full-time person until Bonnie Samoa was hired four years ago. And that was a huge challenge, because even now, with both Bonnie and I working, we both, you know, work in 150% full-time positions. And, you know, I look back and don't know how I did it except to say that I was a lot younger then. I've always had a lot of energy. But that has always been one of the biggest challenges. And, you know, there's a lot to do and a lot of connections to make. No, it's okay until someone knocks on the door.

[00:22:54] Interviewer:
How have your students evolved through the decades till now?

[00:22:54] Mary Seereiter:
That's a great question, because I do feel like students are coming in with more questions, you know, with more well-thought-out questions about what they want and what they want to do with dance. They have a broader view of life. I feel like students are more mature. I guess because a lot of the somatic studies, even if you haven't studied directly, it's a growing field and so it influences a lot of, it has influenced the fitness industry. And so students come in with more knowledge maybe, or more personal knowledge, or I don't feel like I'm, in the early years, it would be more like introducing ideas that nobody had ever even heard about or thought about, or, you know, it's like, what is that? And now I feel like people at least have heard about the body-mind connection and understand that, you know, they understand how we make choices influence our lives and how energy works. And, you know, it's like, and how healing is not just, you know, based on the misery industry, you know, healing is a daily, you know, way of being.

Okay, let me, yeah.

[00:25:09] Interviewer:
So can you comment on the student's commitment to mastering a particular technique or choreographing a dance piece?

[00:25:18] Mary Seereiter:
Yes. As I'm thinking about that, I think it's, you have a student population that's diverse in all kinds of commitment levels. So, you know, I like to think of myself as being accepting of wherever people are, and I have requirements and standards, so students do need to come up to a basic standard as far as completing a project. But you have some students who just work way over the expected amount of time and more perfectionist, you know, and loving the process, and then you have students who do the minimal. So I like that about the student population, because I think people learn how to be with each other, and they learn from each other, you know, people who are, who overcommit and are perfectionists learn that, well, you know, maybe I don't have to push so hard, you know, and other people see people who just put so much work into every project that, you know,

they can do a little more. And as far as the choreography, the last concert, the works, I think, represents the level of student choreography at this point in time. It's just really high, and I think it's certainly Bonnie's influence on students and taking them through the improv comp and choreography. And it's just really representative of what she is contributing to the program. The quality is very high for a two-year community college to have students at that level be choreographing with such depth and understanding of the tools of choreography. And then I also think just because we have the dance company that students work in the process with us, and they see the process, and they're willing to try all different things and stay with the process, because we work really collaboratively. Bonnie and I both do, and I think students see that.

[00:27:40] Interviewer:
Could you speak about the dance company here? When did that come about?

[00:27:45] Mary Seereiter:
Well, I formed Lane Dance Theater in the early 1980s, and it was a student company for six years, and then I formed Seawriter Dance Company, and we were a company for four years. And we performed at the Holt Center for the opening celebration, and we performed in Bend and in Portland, and we actually did a bit of touring around. And then Lane Dance Theater has been an on-and-off company, and then when Kim Fleming and Margot Van Umerson became faculty, we kind of let it go, or I kind of let it go. And we did more student works where each faculty person would choreograph on the students, but we didn't really have a company, because Kim would work with ballet people, Margot would work with people in her class, and me also. So it was different groups for each piece. And then when Bonnie came, we decided, let's do it. Let's have a company, and it's in its fourth year now, and we have people who have been here for four years in the company.

And that's really been our goal, that there could be senior dancers in the company, and that it could be an ongoing kind of thing. And we give scholarships to the people who are in their second, third, and fourth year for scholarships for the credits of being in the company. And next year we'll have guest artists being working with the company, but to me and to Bonnie also, it's so important to have that performing outlet, and I think it gives them a chance to feel belonging to the dance community here, and for students who aren't in the company to have something to strive for as a model, and to have experience in what it means to be in a company, and work together and commit to the process. Yeah. So that's it.

[00:30:06] Interviewer:
Can you share how the dance department collaborates with the theater and the music departments, and is there a particular performance, or several performances that stand out for you throughout the whole, you know, throughout these years?

[00:30:21] Mary Seereiter:
Throughout the years, well, in 1988, as I had mentioned before, that's when we came over to performing arts. And in that time, Ed McMianus produced electronic music artistry. And every year that they had that, I was involved in some way, either doing solos or having student works in the show. And we would collaborate with the musicians. The first year was, oh, I forget his name, William Goldstein, I think, and soundscapes, or landscapes, or oceanscapes, something like that, and actually did about a half hour of movement. All right. So Ed McMianus and the dance program were not a dance department, but a program in the Department of Music, Dance, and Theater. Everybody always says that wrong, including myself. Ed McMianus and I have collaborated for many years, as long as electronic artistry went on. And one of the pieces I remember, Skip built me a ladder that went up the side of the theater. It was just like a rope ladder, and I climbed up the ladder and hung on my knees like I used to do as a kid.

And then I had this one duet with this, God, what was his name? I don't remember his name, but he did Neon. And we did a piece together, but the piece that's more memorable was, I had neon, the word escapes me, it's where the light comes out of these little tubes. And I made a costume that was completely covered with the tubes, and so all you saw was these endpoints. Fiber optics was a fiber optic dance, and I remember Ed McMianus tell me I looked like a polar bear underwater, because you couldn't see the form, it was just this moving, it was bigger than me because the fiber optics stood out like hairs all over my body. So we had a lot of fun doing stuff like that. And then I've choreographed many musicals, the plant eating musical, Feed Me, what is that one? And Little Shop of Horrors was so fun to do, and Jerry Seapert was the director, and we had a blast doing that, such a good time. And Skip made this big plant that actually ate people, that was great.

And I want to say as the world turns, but I can't remember, I'm sure you can get names from Myrna of all the musicals that we did. Well Chorus Line was the huge one. Chorus Line was not that long ago, maybe six years ago, and I loved doing Chorus Line with Joseph Gild. We brought in Joseph Gild from University of Oregon, and he was fabulous to work with. And Jim Greenwood was the music director, and Kimberly DeMoss was the vocal coach. And the thing that I loved about it was I got to work with all these jazz dancers who are my contemporaries from Eugene. And so it was so great, because there used to be a big jazz dance contingency. In fact, that was the heritage of Lincoln Community College. Nikki Foster used to run the program or be the full-time person, and then she married Tim Foster, who was also a jazz dancer. So they had a lot of jazz here, and I used to do jazz quite a bit. Yeah. So it was so fun to get all the jazzers back together, like Cheryl Tucker, Pamela and Mark Siegel.

Pamela wasn't here in the early years, but Mark certainly was. And Donna Briggs didn't do it, but Kara Seiler, and just a bunch of people that used to be in the big jazz scene. So that was fun. And then two years ago, or three years ago, we did a joint performance with the Lane Symphonic Band and Lane Jazz Band, and Bonnie and I both choreographed for that. And I think it was well worth it. It was wonderful. But it kind of points to why we don't do this more often, and that is because it's so hard to rehearse together. And musicians, you know, they need to rehearse by themselves. Dancers need to rehearse by themselves, but then you need to come together. And what happens is the musicians who are in the symphonic band and the jazz band, they perform all over the place. So they're not free, you know. And that was the, it was very difficult because timing is crucial in dance.

And in jazz, there's a lot of improvisation. So for the dancers to be able to hear where they were going and where they were marking certain points in space without a lot of rehearsals was kind of running by the seat of our pants in a way, you know. So it was stressful, but well worth it. And, you know, it was a good scene, and it came off really well. But I think that we all kind of go, whoa, you know, that's a lot of work, and it's enough work to just put a dance concert together. But it's great when it happens. Barbara Myrick and I have done lots of things together for electronic artistry, and even in the dance concerts where she's played music in her and Larry Clabby. Actually, I did this one piece called, gosh, the names just escape me, but it had five sections. And touch and go was the name of the piece, and it had five sections, and it was Larry Clabby and Barbara Myrick that played all five sections. It was really, really fun to work with them because they, they're easy to rehearse with, you know.

They'll do what needs to be done in order to pull it off really well. I've collaborated with Nathan Comack in a percussion piece, and Sherry Barr and I danced in that, and with Two Dance, which is a company that Sherry Barr and myself formed for a number of years. And the theater department, of course, is mostly in the musical theater realm, but also Patrick Torelli did Wings a couple of years ago, and I came in and choreographed on that. He's done other things where he's invited Marco Van Umerson to come in and choreograph, and Bonnie to come in and look at things. And so the art form just lends itself very well, both art forms, to like come in and see this.

[00:38:04] Interviewer:
What do you think from your perspective?

[00:38:06] Mary Seereiter:
So it's kind of exciting in that way that we can help each other from different points of view.

[00:38:15] Interviewer:
So in addition to the amount of time actually teaching classes, I would think it takes much more time in preparation and, of course, like zillions of hours. Also like in rehearsals, and can you speak about that?

[00:38:31] Mary Seereiter:
Because I think people who don't really understand maybe the theater department or music or dance have no idea how much time students really put in. And also the instructors and everyone else and all the volunteers. Right. That's good.

It's amazing. Yeah, and luckily I have, at the present time, recently I have a studio of my own. And so I go down there every day before class, and I spend at least an hour in preparation when the class is already planned. So I go through the plan. If I'm doing a new class, it can be up to three hours that I'm working on the class. And some of the time for us is that we don't have accompanists. And so you're selecting music, and you're trying to find the right piece of music. So every time you change the music, you're reworking your phrasing, reworking the material, the content of the class. And so you're creating new material and new content. The way that I look at it is, in order for people to understand, to me, and you asked me that question actually, what's the difference between studio and lecture? And to me, it's very similar to preparing a lecture. You order writing a paper, you know, you write it, and then you rewrite it, and then you rewrite it, and edit, and add,

and, you know, it's like, it's a reworking, it's a process that happens. And you are authoring new material all the time. It's funny, because I have files of notes of old classes. Some day I'll just use this material, and I never do. It always has to be new, because I have to be excited about it. It has to be current. And I think that as teachers, we're constantly influenced by movement that we see around us, you know, new ways our bodies are being, you know, new ways that we want our dancers to grow, or, you know, new ways of approaching technique. So it's a growing process, and it keeps changing. So the material has to change. And then rehearsals, whoosh, shish kabab, that's, yeah. I am in the process right now thinking, now that I'm retiring, am I still going to work with the company? And some of the thought process is, wow, you know, that's a huge commitment. Because it's not just in the studio work, and you spend so much psychic energy, creative energy thinking about,

how is this forming, what am I trying to say, you know, where am I going, what's the origin, what's influencing me, you know, how is it coming out? And it's a great deal of time, very exciting. I think that in rehearsals it's exciting and depressing and scary and frightening and all of those things, because you're constantly confronting yourself. And, you know, our bodies are our instruments, so we're confronting ourselves through our bodies.

[00:42:11] Interviewer:
How much time, for example, does the company rehearse every week?

[00:42:18] Mary Seereiter:
The company rehearses when we're in production four nights a week for two hours a night, so that's eight hours. And then when it gets to tech time, it's more like five hours a night and more like six to seven days a week, you know, which is the last two weeks before a show. Like Bonnie was here all over the Memorial Day weekend. She was here both Saturday and Monday, and Sunday for herself rehearsing. So, yeah, it's a great deal of time, yeah.

[00:42:56] Interviewer:
Okay, with all the budget cuts occurring, how is the dance department able to continue to exist,

[00:43:03] Mary Seereiter:
and do you see this affecting students in any way?

Yes, I do see it affecting students, and I have, ever since I have been here, which has been 23 years, there has been budget crises that have constantly been, you know, a burden. And we continue to exist, we continue to grow, and I feel that the direction of the dance program has had that aspect, that, you know, reality in our consciousness from the time I came on. And so we have created a program that is self-sustaining, you know, with hip-hop and jazz, and, you know, the way that we've formed our classes, the classes are self-sustaining. So I think the dance program will continue to exist, and the college cut most part-time classes, and we do exist with a lot of part-time instructors, but what the college has done was instigated this method that they call self-sustaining. So in other words, the tuition goes to paying the instructor, and each instructor needs a certain amount of students depending on their wages. So like Cheryl needs like 23 students. Well, she gets 50, so it's not a problem, you know.

So luckily all of our part-time classes are huge, and Bonnie and I teach the higher-level classes, the more advanced classes, which tend to be smaller. This is affecting the students because for some of these classes that are not lecture classes, they're two-credit classes, the college is in discussion about doing an added fee so that the price of these classes comes up more to the price of a three-credit class. To me, this is deadly, and I think, you know, as the college is looking at that, they really need to evaluate that because students will not take classes if they're going to cost as much, because that's one of the advantages of doing dance classes, P.E. classes, that, okay, I can do my work out at school, I can do my dance training at school, and I'm not paying as much, you know, as the other classes. So I hope that they reconsider that.

[00:46:00] Interviewer:
So what has inspired you throughout all these years, and what continues to inspire you now?

[00:46:08] Mary Seereiter:
What inspires me, honestly, as the students, you know, it's, well, I'm getting emotional about that, but I was just thinking this sweet student who was here for probably a month and a half in modern two left, and I didn't see her, you know, and she just wrote me this letter about the impact I had on her life, and it's like, that just, it's like, that inspires me. It's like, and not just that people will go on and dance, but that they get in touch with themselves, and I know how important that was for me. And, you know, it's like that I can, you know, help people to find more.

So we were on What's Inspiring, should we go on with that? Yeah, sure.

You know, I don't know, there's a lot to say, but I don't know how much more that I should say, but just that I feel that dance, because it's dealing with the body and the kind of dance that we do here is, or the kind of dance that I love is, it's a practice, like a contemplative practice, really, you know, where you're, what's important to me is to really be real in the dance and be truly who you are and be present and feel your body, you know. I always say, come into your body, and sometimes I wonder if people really know what I mean, and what I mean is, you know, experience, the physicality, and through the physicality, there's emotion, you know, when we're in our bodies. And I think that people are drawn here who are on a self-request, you know, and I always am amazed at the kind of people that come into classes and just feel like things happen for a reason, and that inspires me to see people on their quest and traveling with courage, you know, to look and to discover who they are and to work on themselves.

And it probably is a good time to maybe jump into the kind of classes, you know, because some of the classes that really bring this out are authentic movement and body-mind-centering, and authentic movement is, it's a dance therapy model, and when I talk about it just in layman's terms when people say, what is that, you know, I really feel like it's learning how to be with yourself without judgment, and I think we carry around these huge, big, gigantic critics that keep holding us back from our true potential, and I feel like authentic movement helps to get that critic in perspective and to come forward with just being in the moment and letting the moments evolve, moving through the moments. So authentic movement is a meditation, it's a practice, it's being present with yourself, moving in the moment, it's working with the unconscious, it's working with bringing the unconscious forward, it's working with tracking yourself from this moment to this moment through the physical movement, through the motion of what your body is doing.

It enlightens or illuminates meaning in movement, it illuminates the knowledge of the body, it illuminates self-awareness, and we teach that here at Lane Community College, which is pretty unusual, it's not very, I don't know of any other community college that does authentic movement, and yes, I am so interested in authentic movement, and it has been my passion to introduce it here, and one of the reasons is because when I go to school to take authentic movement, it costs thousands of dollars, and here is something that people who are on the poverty line could really benefit from, and it has been a mission of mine to bring this kind of work forward to populations who can't afford it, and would never even know about it, you know, and then body mind centering also costs thousands of dollars, which the school made it possible for me to go. I paid for my tuition, but they gave me the time off, you know, the school did pay for my law bond studies, but not for my body mind centering, and it cost, I think, $5,000 a year for five years,

so that's quite a chunk of money, and I say school made it possible because if I didn't have this job, I wouldn't have had the money to pay for it myself, you know, anyway, that's about money, but body mind centering is, gosh, it's a wonderful form of study of the body, of the physiology of the body, and so we study, and we move, and we practice, and we look at and evaluate movement from being in the womb to learning how to walk, and so there's watery patterns that we did in the womb that support the more skeletal patterns that we learn after we're born, and we begin to travel on ground, and we look at all the systems of the body, the muscle, the endocrine, the bones, the organs, you know, the fluid systems, and it's all embodied experience, so again, it's working with who are we, you know, and there's just a wealth of material there for us to learn, so this is offered at the community college also, which is highly unusual, I don't know of another community college that has this kind of work,

you can find this kind of work in, like UCLA or Naropa, you know, four year institutions, private institutions, but it is unusual, and we're pretty happy about it and pretty proud of it.

[00:53:49] Interviewer:
You did speak kind of about your community involvement, but I would think with all the things happening here at LCC,

[00:53:57] Mary Seereiter:
you know, for you, that there wouldn't be any time for community involvement, but I know you do though, so do you want to speak about your community involvement for over the years? Well, it's funny how the networks in dance go. Many of dancers around town used to be students of mine, so I try to, you know, make sure that I get out and see what's happening. Sherry Barr at the University of Oregon did the Laban Movement Studies with me in the 80s, she lived in New York, she was the director of dance at Potsdam, and then she moved here and got a job at the University of Oregon, so, you know, of course we support each other's work, and I came from the University of Oregon, so I like to go there and see what they're doing and support their work. My belief is that the dance community, we need to support each other, and we need to see what each other's doing so that we grow as a community. So I always go see Mark and Pamela's work, and I always go see anything that, pretty much anything at the Holt Center, anything at the University.

Zapp comes here, you know, Sheryl's and Cindy's really act, and Daryl Caw, who's the director of, he's the marketing director right now at the Holt Center, and he was in Chorus Line with me, you know, so he lets me know what's going on there at the Holt Center, and he's even like, gosh, he's so great, because I was, I forget what the company was, I saw it was Eugene Ballet, and he announced the show out at Lane, which is highly unusual, you know, and so he's that kind of a person networking, and, you know, Margot Van Armisen is part of our community here at Lane, and certainly go and see her work, and Eugene's celebration, there's all kinds of work there, so I personally like to keep involved, and I like to go to theater productions, and music productions, too, when I can, so, and then we bring in guest artists from the community. Collaborations is, collaborations has been going on for many, many years, but it used to be more modern ballet and jazz, and we would invite people from the community to come in.

Now collaborations, because Bonnie and I have been kind of doing our own shows, we focused collaborations with more rhythmic kinds of dance, so last year we had flamenco and African hip-hop and jazz, and it seemed like there was one other, but I can't remember, oh, salsa, yeah, and so next year we'll do the same, we'll have a lot of different all-dances rhythmic, but there's, you know, that kind of more primal rhythmic forms. And in collaborations with Bonnie and I are going to bring in people from the community to work on the company, and that sort of thing, so I think it's really important.

[00:57:24] Interviewer:
Talent grants, and or scholarships available to students like within the dance department,

[00:57:29] Mary Seereiter:
and how often are they given, and do you know how many?

There's six talent grants, six terms of talent grants a year, so what we usually do is select three people and give them two terms, winter and spring of talent grants, and so that happens every year, and we select people by their potential as dancers, their commitment to dance, their goals in dance, their creativity, their artistry, you know, sometimes we select people who want to continue being dancers, sometimes we select people who want to be teachers, you know, so it just depends, we're looking for outstanding students, people who are really committed. And then scholarships, we give the company scholarships after they have committed to the company for a year, then they receive scholarships, and we have done on an individual basis scholarships depending on a student, so if a student is around and they don't fall into the talent grant, but they're in financial need, we have done scholarships, just a one-time kind of scholarship to allow them to take class for the year for a term.

[00:59:05] Interviewer:
And does that come from like the Lane Foundation scholarship?

[00:59:10] Mary Seereiter:
The Lane Foundation is kind of the holding tank for the money, but we need to raise the money, so it's not money that we're given from anybody, and this is something that I have done and Bonnie helps continue to make this happen, and that is years ago, along with the budget cuts, this is how my brain works, it's like how can the dance program survive? So I instigated this thing where we do outside groups come in and they rent the facilities and they pay a rental fee that goes to the dance program to the foundation and then we use that money to give scholarships. And so some of the companies are dance for a reason, although we give them a huge offset because it's for a benefit. ZAP comes in and on your toes and other Marvels come in a couple of times too, so that's one of the ways, and then through our dance concerts, sometimes we actually make money on the dance concerts and that goes to the foundation, so that's how we get the scholarship money. Yeah, it would be nice if it just came from them, but no, we have to raise all of it.

So Bonnie and I are constantly looking at how many people we have in the company, how is this money going to be sustainable, can we sustain these scholarships, because we've kind of made an agreement with the company that if you work for a year, then we give you a scholarship the next year and it's like, can we keep doing that?

[01:00:53] Interviewer:
How many people are in the company right now? Do you have like a limit of how many people can we get?

[01:00:59] Mary Seereiter:
No, we don't have a limit and we work with quite large numbers. There's 12 people in the company right now. Yeah, so yeah, and then from my respire concert, 10 of them were in that concert and then there was an alternate group, not alternate, but a group added in that augmented the company, so there were 19 dancers in that show. Yeah, yeah, that's good.

[01:01:32] Interviewer:
Is there anything else you want to speak about that we haven't, you know, come in?

[01:01:41] Mary Seereiter:
Maybe we could turn it off and you and I talk.

[01:01:43] Interviewer:
Well, I was going to ask you like what your vision is for the dance department here at Lane Community College, where you would like to see things go?

[01:01:54] Mary Seereiter:
I would like to see the dance program continue as a transfer program, continue the company, continue accommodating people who have never danced before and have always wanted to dance or are just exploring dance and won't ever go on and dance but get a lot from it. So I would like all of that to continue. I think the other thing that I would like to continue, and I know Bonnie supports this, is developing the somatic studies so that we would become a pre-dance therapy program. And I could see doing that, even though I'm retiring, I could see doing that on a part-time basis because the two classes that are obvious for that are authentic movement and body-mind-centering. And I think it would be great to have those two classes all year long, you know, and that would be the two classes. And there's dance therapists in town who have brought this up to me who would love to see that happen and have Lane be that kind of first-year, second-year study ground for people who are interested in dance therapy.

Yeah. And, you know, because there's so many dance therapists, that it could happen. The one stumbling block is that it would have to be 300-level courses, you see. And so how does that work? We would have to somehow work within the university system. And I'm not quite sure how that would work. But now that I'm retiring, I'll be able to put a little more time into it, you know. But I think that that would just fit so nicely, and it could be like summer courses of study, you know, more intensive blocks of study, yeah, weekends, you know, modules. So, and then I, you know, I think that that dance at Lane is inclusive, you know, and I would really like to see that continue. I think as the company develops, there's not a danger, but that just we need to stay mindful and not getting too elite, you know, as our dancers keep improving, you know. It's like the quality goes up and up and up, and so we need to keep the breadth of that inclusiveness so that, you know, like I said, people who are afraid to step out on the floor and afraid to, you know, expose their bodies, that there's still that welcoming for them, that they can come in and feel comfortable and feel like they are safe to step on the dance floor. That's what I'd like to see.