Basic Training: Dean of dance is setting professional standards for students who hope to make it out in the real world

Imagine this: Two dancers with equal talent and training are vying for the last spot in a company. One of them studied at UNC School of the Arts. The other did not.

"Why would they choose a student from (UNCSA) over another place?" Ethan Stiefel asked. "That would be because of the culture that they know has been instilled in this school."

Stiefel, a principal at American Ballet Theatre, starred in Center Stage, a film that recounts what happens when an autocratic director leads a group of young ballet dancers who are competing for a few spots in a professional company. He is considered by many the finest male dancer working in ballet today.

And since September, he has been the dean of dance at UNCSA, which will present "Winter Dance" beginning Feb. 19 at the Stevens Center.

As dean, one of his top priorities is to shape the "culture" that will lead to more UNCSA students landing good jobs in a highly competitive field. In a recent interview, Stiefel described not only big-picture changes in atmosphere and environment (he called it "setting tone") but also new aspects of curriculum, training and the annual production of The Nutcracker ballet.

The task isn't easy. Stiefel described 14-hour days in which he teaches, completes budgets and other paperwork for the UNC system, monitors rehearsals and addresses the many concerns of instructors and students who come to him with issues, complaints and requests. He also works to keep himself ready to perform. That's because he still dances occasionally -- which UNCSA officials support because of its public-relations value.

Stiefel is also doing something he says is not in his job description -- raising money for scholarships to attract the best students and for guest artists who would work with students in every term, not just one.

Stiefel, who already has earned praise among UNCSA officials for his efforts to bring in money, said he has raised "thousands of dollars" -- but declined to divulge exact amounts out of respect for the donors' privacy. He said that the amounts he has raised so far are less than $100,000.

Stiefel is quick to say that his profession is "a tough life." Success in dance derives from such virtues as discipline, focus, perseverce and hard work -- which the UNCSA environment fostered even before Stiefel arrived.

Or did it? Stiefel said he has had to stress "the basics" again.

"That's being on time," he said. "That's being prepared and focused. That means (observing) dress code. That means being ready to work. Surprisingly, some of those things weren't necessarily happening when I walked through the door."

At least one student, Devin Sweet, suggested that greater leniency prevailed before Stiefel arrived. Just the opposite is the case now -- a fact Sweet seemed to appreciate. "You have to observe the rules," Sweet said. "Otherwise, you lose your job."

Stiefel upholds accountability as an ideal -- to the point where, in some instances, dancers who do not measure up in his class get told to drop for 20 pushups.

Stiefel said that he demands pushups when he feels they are appropriate -- as when, for example, he determines that a dancer should have learned a step three weeks ago, that the question shouldn't be knowing the step but improving it.

Stiefel said that pushups are good, because they build upper-body strength.

"If they're not going to have my voice in their head to remind them, then they'll have some physical remnant to remind them. If they don't want to have those physical remnants, then do it correctly."

Winning ways

Current students who attended UNCSA before Stiefel's time will notice some new wrinkles in what is offered.

For example, an acting class has been added to aid dancers in their portrayals of roles in story ballets.

Stiefel has introduced a "training camp" for male dancers; the aim is to augment repetition, the traditional method of learning steps, with other exercises designed to build up a dancer's strength and stamina and to prevent injury.

A dancer might lift weights in a gym, navigate obstacle courses, run up hills, do calisthenics and learn martial arts.

"Too often, people rely on dance repetition to be the means of improvement," Stiefel said. "I'm just saying there are many different ways to improve. Sometimes you have to feel new muscles or wake up different things in your body to actually be able to go forward."

And come December, UNCSA will present a new staging of The Nutcracker, replacing the one choreographed for more than 40 years by Sonja Tyven and her husband, Robert Lindgren, the school's founding dance dean. In an e-mail sent out to UNCSA's campus last month, Stiefel thanked Tyven and Lindgren for their production, calling it "educational and entertaining."

Stiefel said that "some changes" in sets and costumes were possible. "I'm basically looking at freshening up or updating choreographic sequences or some theatrical, dramatic sequences." This approach would uphold his view of what an artist's mission should be: to "be innovative, creative and progressive while being respectful to the traditions that come before."

Lindgren said that he was "surprised and disappointed" by the change, but he was philosophical as well.

"A new dean comes in with new ideas," he said. "The future of the school is in his hands. I wish him well. He deserves support as new dean."

■ Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at kkeuffel@wsjournal.com.