Graduating world arts and cultures students will have lived a
very different life at UCLA from that of those ready to follow in
their footsteps.
Seniors in the department took most of their courses in the
Kinross Building, located in Westwood Village. But starting next
year, WAC will move back into the dance building ““ renamed
Glorya Kaufman Hall ““ across from the Student Activities
Center.
For students with the major, this means a different environment
and relationship with the rest of the university.
Emily Vartanian, a fifth-year WAC dance student who is
graduating, said the commute between Kinross and UCLA’s main
campus made for a hectic daily schedule these past few years. It
took her at least 20 minutes to get from Westwood to other
classes.
“I had to count on a lot of really understanding teaching
assistants on campus,” she said. “At the time, I
actually had a double major, which a commute and other things made
me change my mind about.”
WAC moved to Kinross in 2001, when the university began a $35
million renovation to the old dance building that had been damaged
in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Philanthropist Glorya Kaufman gave $18 million in November 1999
to expand the building’s performance-oriented features,
including theaters, studios and the like.
Scheduled to open for class this fall, Kaufman Hall will offer a
different student experience than Kinross did.
While the new facilities will be far more advanced in terms of
technology than Kinross, there are qualities the Westwood dance
venue had that students will miss.
Kinross housed students from fields including those in the
visual arts. That element will be lost a bit when Kaufman is opened
for class ““ WAC is the only academic department it will
furnish.
“Students really enjoyed the Kinross building ““
enjoyed the experience of working and studying in an environment
where there are other disciplines,” said Carolyn Campbell, a
School of Arts & Architecture spokeswoman.
In the end, something that began as an inconvenience actually
“added dimensions” to students’ educations, she
said.
Among other perks of being in the Village was the large
selection of places to eat, Vartanian said.
And being in Westwood, students were aware of what was happening
in the community ““ protests at the Federal Building were
especially easy to note.
“It was a nice kind of connection with the outside world.
UCLA is a wonderful place to be, but like any university,
you’re enclosed,” Vartanian said. “There’s
definite borders to the campus.”
Christopher Waterman, dean of the School of Arts &
Architecture and former WAC chair, said Kaufman’s
state-of-the-art facilities will give students new avenues through
which to explore performance art.
In a video lab connected to a theater, students will be able to
learn how to use multiple cameras at once to capture different
angles during a performance. This capability is vital for
choreographers and others creating portfolios to show their
work.
“For an art form like dance ““ which often is at the
poor end of the food chain in terms of the arts ““ to have
such spectacular facilities … we’re just delighted,”
Waterman said.
Kaufman will have an open-air pavilion that spans 3,600 square
feet, where students will perform and take classes outdoors.
Counting theaters, there will be seven dance studios. There will
also be a student lounge, lockers and showers.
But perhaps most exciting for dancers will be the new theater.
The performance area in Kinross is a “black box”
without wings ““ a six-sided room painted black with seats
lining one side. The old dance building’s theater was a
converted gym.
“They literally had to cut a hole in the wall to run the
wires through and get the lights (on). … It was clear that it
wasn’t made for you,” Vartanian said.
The Kaufman theater will have proper lighting and other
technology, winged seating and floors made for bare-footed dancers
““Â not basketball players in shoes.
The building will also accommodate the department’s
non-dance courses in subjects like anthropology and folklore. New
classroom technology will make it easier to incorporate digital
visuals and sound in teaching ““ a big change past lecturing
venues.
“You had to plug in a lot of extension cords to get the
slide projector running. This is going to be a great
improvement,” Waterman said.
Kaufman was supposed to open during the current school year, and
for graduates who won’t be here in the fall, feelings are
mixed.
Vartanian did the “five-year plan” thinking she
might get the chance to dance her last year in the new theater
before leaving to Florida and maybe New York to start her
career.
Though Kaufman won’t open until after she’ll be
gone, Vartanian said she’s ecstatic for the students who will
have the opportunity to take classes and perform in the theaters
and studios for which they’ve waited for so long.
“I thought I would get to spend the end of my time in the
new building, and I’m not going to,” she said.
“But it’s nice to know that it’s actually getting
there.”