Backstage Past - Frank Parker

The following article was originally published in the Principia College Alumni Dance newsletter, Back at the Barre (Issue #7 - October 2010).

Christine Dunbar's "Backstage Past" column takes a look at the Principia Dance programs over the years.
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The most current DANCE Magazine College Guide 2010-11 lists more than 600 College and University Dance Programs. This number has grown over the decades since the first college dance degree program was established in 1926 at theUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison, under the direction and leadership of one of our renowned American dance educators, Margaret N. H’Doubler.

In the foreword to H’Doubler’s celebrated published book, Dance A Creative Art Experience, Gertrude E. Johnson, Assoc. Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, wrote the following:

“She [H’Doubler] more than any other one person has helped to remove dance from the realm of an applied activity, intended for a somewhat aesthetically inclined few among the students of any given institution, to its place as an accepted educational, scientific, artistic, and above all, creative unit in the lives of students in our present collegiate setup. That her tireless energy, keen intellect, and wide study have made advanced academic degrees attainable for students in dance is, in the last analysis, not to be compared in importance to the possibilities released through creative growth of mind and body. The hundreds of students who have gone out from her classes to carry further the ideas of dance in the educational scheme or elsewhere are the finest witnesses a great teacher and leader in any field may hope to have.”

While Margaret H’Doubler was busy fulfilling her place in the history of American Dance Education, Principia College Professor Emeritus, Frank Parker (1891-1979), had begun his work to progress the understanding of the importance of providing a creative dance experience for Principia students. Many of our alumni will recognize this name. However, since Frank taught at The Principia from 1922-1966, those of us who came to Principia after 1966 may need an introduction.

I was privileged to be granted access to the viewing of The Frank Parker Retirement Scrapbook in the Principia Archives during a recent college campus visit.  I discovered in the biography/historical note that Mr. Parker danced with the touring company of Pavlova, performed as a diseur and mime with Ruth Paige andAgnes De Mille and debuted as a diseur and dance mime at the Theatre Eduard VII in Paris in 1928. Frank earned a bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Chicago (1921 and 1926), studied at Oxford and the Sorbonne, and was a Professor of Fine Arts at Principia College teaching drama, English, dance and fine arts and influencing many students, some of whom became well-known professionals.

In the 1924 Principia College Sheaf, the following was recorded:

“Mr. Parker, in his Salon on March thirty-first, illustrated these principles of the dance. He first sang three old French songs, interpreting them through gestures. His picturesque costume of a medieval troubadour, the close black velvet cap framing the face and the voluminous cape falling in sculptural folds to the floor, made him seem like a carved figure which had stepped from some Gothic castle.

He explained that what would be commonly called the acting out of the songs was, in the truest sense, dancing--the expression of thought and emotion through the body. Two of these songs were naively simple legends, one of a sinful rich man and his charitable wife, the other of Saint Nicholas performing a miracle.

The class in rhythmic dancing next gave illustrations of plastic interpretation of various rhythms. In their visualization of two Chopin preludes, the “Novelette” by Schumann, and the Glazonnow “Bacchanale” they aimed to show the poetic content of the music. Against the colored lights the dancers moved from one exquisite design to another, now and again pausing to form some lovely Greekfrieze.

(Above, a still photo from the 1924 Principia College Dance Concert)

Mr. Parker, in his dance to Rachmaninoff’s “Palichinelli”, contrasted the forced merriment of the jester who performed for the court, with the real tragedy of the jester’s longing for beauty. In quite different mood was the Polish Mazurka, danced by six girls in brilliant full-skirted peasant costumes designed and made at The Principia. The evening closed with a Russian wedding dance. Miss Cornell was a delightfully comic Russian bride.

To those who think that dancing is an amusement without depth of feeling or thought, such an evening of true dancing would be a revelation.”

Well, dear Dance Alums, Frank Parker passed on the year after I was hired in 1978 to develop an academic dance curriculum and Dance Department for Principia College. Here it is 2010 and I’m just now beginning to know the work of one of Principia’s celebrated dance educators!

Why is this so? Because there is a need to not only preserve our dance heritage but pass on this information to future generations so we can build on our strengths of the past.

Since the days of Frank Parker’s teaching, other dance educators have come forth to carry on the cause of Dance in Higher Education at Principia College. You will be hearing more about their work in future editions of BATB.   I invite you to submit stories or memories of your dancing days at Principia so others will know what has gone before.

Christine Dunbar
(C’77 - Special Studies Dance Major,
Principia College Dance Faculty, 1978-1982)