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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Light on His Feet: Willow Glen resident Gary Masters, the new associate dance professor at San Jose State University, heads the University Dance Theatre. A couple of his students can be seen rehearsing part of his dance piece called 'Falling into Fertility.'
Masters is a master of dance and instruction
By Amy Jenkins
Gary Masters has danced almost his whole life. While growing up in St. Paul, Minn., he watched Fred Astaire and variety shows and "wore the carpets out dancing around the house," he said.
At the age of 4 he knew he wanted to be a dancer, singer or actor, and so when he was 8 he started taking tap dance at a local school of music and dance.
"Fortunately my grandmother was a pushy lady," said Masters, who was recently appointed associate professor of dance at San Jose State University. He has lived in Willow Glen for 12 years after moving to California from New York. "She watched what children were good at doing and told my parents I should find dance classes."
After two years of tap dance lessons, developing a sense of rhythm, Masters moved to Colorado Springs, Colo., with his family and started studying modern dance and ballet with his teacher Norman Cornick at Colorado College. He also took classes in concert dance such as modern jazz and Spanish dance.
At 15 years old he received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to study with the San Francisco Ballet during the summer. He joined the group, but his mother, concerned about her son's future and education, wrote a letter to the Juilliard School in New York to inquire about their curriculum. When Masters turned 17, he was accepted into the school and his "real dance training began," he said.
At Juilliard, Masters and the other dance students trained during rigorous 12-hour days with half-hour lunch breaks. They rehearsed from 8:30 a.m. until 11 p.m. with back-to-back dance and academic classes all day long, he said.
In addition to weekday classes, the students in the Juilliard Dance Ensemble would often rehearse on Saturdays and Sundays in preparation for a spring concert.
While with the group, Masters toured through New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He also took a dance composition class where he learned how to choreograph and create his own dances, which he would show in informal performances at the school.
"Now the school has larger concerts the seniors put on," he said. "But I don't feel slighted; we were really busy then, and at 17,18,19 years old is the time you can be that busy."
Out of 41 incoming freshman, Masters was one of four graduating students in his class. He said some left of their own will and some could not handle the competition, but he loved it.
In 1969, while at Juilliard, Masters met Jose Limón, someone with whom he would spend many years working. The Limón Dance Company was in residence at Juilliard, and Limón was a master choreographer and teacher while Masters was attending school there. Limón asked Masters to be in the men's piece he created along with five other men, called The Unsung.
"The piece was inspired by Native American culture and the Southwest," Masters said. "It was entirely in silence, except the only sounds were of our feet making rhythms."
From 1970 to 1972 Masters danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet because Limón was not touring. Masters still managed to take classes from Limón during this time by taking classes at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. And in 1972, Masters performed in the last two pieces Limón choreographed before he died: Carlota and Orfeo.
"Limón worked with the individual," Masters said. "He wanted to see his ideas brought to life, but the dancer could interpret and always be part of the creation."
Masters now serves as the artistic director for the Limón Dance Company's San Jose operations in addition to teaching courses at San Jose State University. In 1994, Masters created the company's West Coast training center and ensemble, called Limón West Dance Project of San Jose because he wants to keep the Limón name alive in the Bay Area as well as in New York, he said. There are 15 members at the company's New York location and five in San Jose.
As artistic director, Masters is working on a number of projects including a summer mentoring program where gradeschool children from the inner city can receive free dance classes, provided through corporate sponsorship. Another project he anticipates to start in January 2003 is a youth ensemble where high school and college-age youth can take dance classes and possibly become a part of the main Limón company.
"There is a lot of energy in these project ideas, and one project feeds into the other," he said. "University students and those retiring from the company will hopefully come out to teach kids with less opportunities."
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
