Every year, Dance Teacher magazine honors four outstanding dance teachers. This year, DIANE FRANK, lecturer in the Drama Department’s Dance Division, is one of them. Frank says it is “deeply touching to be recognized by dancers who have worked with me.”
The award ceremony will be held next month in New York City.
Frank danced with New York City’s Douglas Dunn and Dancers for 11 years. She was invited by Merce Cunningham to join the teaching staff of the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, where she taught for eight years.
Frank calls teaching “an ongoing act of faith” that the work will have meaning, “both in the moment and down the road.” The honor was set in motion by her former students, and supported by other dancers and teachers.
That’s one reason why Frank says the award says as much about the Dance Division as it does about her. Here’s another: “Students thrive because there is an investigative attitude about dancing. I like that arts practice and research live together at Stanford, because when movement appetite and intellectual appetite come together, the outcome goes way beyond the execution of steps. That’s what I love working with my students.”
—Cynthia Haven
