Student Speak

Spring 2006

Name: Ben Hankinson

Major: Mathematics and Dance

Year: Freshman (Honors College)

Hometown: Quinby, S.C.

You're going to appear in upcoming USC dance performances at the Koger Center and in New York. What are you going to perform? I'll be in three pieces of an all-student performance March 30 at the Koger Center. The first is a tribute to Mozart in honor of his birthday where we'll perform classical and contemporary dance to his music. The second is The Tarentella, a duet choreographed by George Balanchine that I'll perform with another student, Sarah Coats. The third is Catharsis, choreographed by Miriam Barbosa of the dance department. It's a modern dance piece. Coats, along with other members of the USC dance program, also will appear with members of the New York City Ballet at the Koger Center March 31, and I'll appear with her in The Tarentella at Hunter College in New York later this spring. Several schools from around the country will be performing works there by 20th-century choreographers in front of a national audience and taking master classes.

How do you feel about the opportunity to appear in these productions in your freshman year? Very lucky. Coming into this I didn't realize USC had such a diverse dance program with modern, contemporary, and classical ballet. Just to learn the pieces, whether or not I get to perform them, is a great opportunity. Performing them is just above and beyond what I could have expected for a freshman year. And working with Stacey Calvert in preparation for the March 31 performance is great since she is from Columbia and she performed with the New York City Ballet for several years.

Do you want to perform professionally after college or do you think of dance more as an avocation? I haven't decided. It would be nice to be able to dance professionally, but at the same time I realize the dance world is very competitive. That's part of the reason I've decided to double major in math so that in the event that I either become injured or just find out dance is not the way for me to go, I'll have other options.

What first drew you to ballet? I started right after I turned 8. My sister started dance classes and I was forced to go every week with her. After I saw the teacher demonstrate a jump I got this wild look on my face and said I wanted to do that. That's when I took my first class, and from there things just kept growing. I've taken more and more classes each year and have studied for two summers each at the Long Beach Ballet Arts Center in California and the Pacific Northwest Ballet Summer Program in Seattle. It's just become a passion. I don't know the origin of my attraction to it. It's just some something I've grown to love.

Has being involved in dance turned out to be what you expected? I've gotten a lot more out of it than I expected. At the age of 8 I thought it was cool, but didn't know that it would provide me with so many different opportunities. I'm also dancing this spring in the Carmina Burana with Ballet Spartanburg. I never would have been able to expect that I would be able to do this much with dance. I guess at the age of 8 you don't have a grasp of it, but every year there are more things that continue to amaze me, opportunities like going to Hunter College to perform, or even just learning pieces that people my age would love to do with a professional company.

Does being involved in ballet help you in other areas of your life? Yes, on one level it helps me stay in good shape physically, which is important, not only because I need to be in shape to dance, but also to maintain general health. It also requires you to stay on top of things mentally and artistically. Everything sort of comes together and it's really amazing to be able to incorporate so many different aspects into what we do, not only the physical and mental, but the artistic as well.

Is there anything about ballet that the public doesn't know about or have an appreciation for? I don't know if there's just one thing. I like to advocate that dance is definitely an art form, but I think a lot of people don't recognize how much effort and how much time is spent in it. A lot of people come and look at something and think we could have thrown it together five minutes ago. There is a lot of effort and a lot of artistic creativity within each individual dancer to develop his or her own style, as well.

What else do you want people to know about you or the dance program at USC? I'm glad to be here. We've got a great program and I hope that for those who don't know dance, they can come out and get a glimpse of what we do. It's something that a lot of people aren't exposed to on a regular basis, especially ballet. A lot of people have an idea of what it is but they've never really experienced it first-hand. If you haven't had a chance to see something we've done or some other company has done, I encourage you to take a look. You never know what's going to pique your fancy.

2/06