|
Before the Internet started linking people around the world, the University of Hawaii had Carl Wolz. UH honors dance
visionary Carl WolzBy Nadine Kam
nkam@starbulletin.com"He really connected us so we knew what was going on. He really put Hawaii on the map," said Mimi Wisnowsky, who teaches dance at Kapiolani Community College but says that if not for Wolz's encouragement in dance, "I probably would have gotten into something else."
Wolz, a dancer, scholar and educator who died in New York on Jan. 2 at the age of 69, will be remembered by his many protégés, fans and supporters in a celebration of his life at the UH Earle Ernst Lab Theatre beginning at 5 p.m. tonight. Speakers will offer their memories, and there will be video screenings of Wolz's works.
Reiko Oda met Wolz in 1962, five years after she started the Reiko Takakuwa Oda Ballet School. At a mere 4-foot-11, Oda said she was overwhelmed by the 6-foot "giant" with lofty ideas on how to grow a dance program at the UH.
"You know how you meet someone and hit it off, and you talk and talk so you forget the time? He had so many ideas, and at that time no one was thinking that far ahead, but the more I got to know him, the more I became convinced he would be able to make it happen."
Where:Earle Ernst Lab Theatre, University of Hawaii A Celebration of the Life of Carl Wolz
When: 5 p.m. today
Admission: Donation to World Dance Alliance, Dance Notation Bureau or UH Foundation -- Carl Wolz Award; no flowers
Call: 956-7622
What happened was, Wolz -- who had grown up in St. Louis, and made his way to Juilliard in 1959 as a student of dance after putting in four years in the Navy -- found himself in Hawaii as an East-West Center fellow. While working toward his M.A. degree in Asian studies, he taught dance classes at UH and in 1965 became the school's first full-time dance instructor, later building the dance curriculum within the Department of Theatre and Drama.
A year later, Wolz worked with others in the community to form the Hawaii State Dance Council, serving as its president for 12 years.
Bringing various modern, ethnic and ballet companies together to advocate for dance seems an obvious and natural progression, but it was not an easy task, Oda said. "The groups didn't share their knowledge with outsiders. But he made it happen. He wasn't one to sit down and say, 'Aw, shucks.' He was never discouraged. He only encouraged. He would have been a great moderator because he had the ability to listen and overcome dissension."
One of the problems in gaining support is the perception of dance as an elite, snobby art form. The solution to this was to expose all schoolchildren to dance.
"He got so many different things started," said Judy Van Zile, a professor of dance in the UH Department of Theatre and Dance, who said Wolz was instrumental in establishing the Artists in the Schools program and helped organize some of the State Foundation-sponsored hula workshops in the early 1970s, leading the way for the Hawaiian dance renaissance. "He had a commitment to all different kinds of dance, which is important to our community."
"He was very clever," said Oda. "He would write scripts based on real events. When the astronauts went into space, he set modern dancers in a spaceship. The children were so excited. This was something they had never seen in books. Some of these kids had never seen anyone wearing a leotard!
"He used ideas we didn't think about. He'd have people upside down, or he'd do a dance on crutches. He looked like daddy long legs."
"He was able to instill in students a kind of vision. He brought out the best in everyone."
Wolz left Hawaii in 1983 to became the first dean of dance at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. He became known internationally for his founding of the Asia Pacific Dance Alliance, which eventually led to the formation of the World Dance Alliance, for which he served as president and then executive director from 1988.
"He was a worldly person," Oda said. "I think that's why his instructors at Juilliard encouraged him to go to Japan. He was en route to Japan to get his master's in Asian studies when he arrived in Hawaii.
"Of course, in the Orient you don't push anyone, you let them take their time. And he would pull his hair when he was in Hong Kong, but he knew they had their own style. He was not only patient, he understood cultures, and he is just one of those jewels we have lost."
Click for online
calendars and events.
