Decades of Dance: Stephen Rooks '77

Dance at Dartmouth has been a story of resilience, resourcefulness and the verve of students inspired to move and create community any way they could. Like a succulent that grows miraculously in the cracks to full flowering, Dartmouth dancers have rehearsed in makeshift spaces, linked arms with the local community, lunged into the opportunities presented by visiting companies, and latched onto programs that could offer the art form support. Now dance springs forth from the sprung floors of the new Hop, which supports more student work and interdisciplinary opportunities for learning through dance. Looking beyond the heralded founding of Pilobolus at Dartmouth— again at the beauty that has grown in the cracks—we find powerful stories of alumni who have made rich lives in dance.

One of these unexpected pathways was forged by Stephen Rooks '77, who now chairs the Department of Dance and creates as the Resident Choreographer at Vassar College. For Rooks, the journey to becoming a consummate dance artist and educator began not in a studio, but in the Music Department. He was a voracious musician, pursuing everything from classical music in Vienna to free-form improvisation with the pioneering Bill Cole. However, his path changed forever when friends invited him to attend a sold-out performance by the Dance Theatre of Harlem at the Hop. He didn't even want to go. Then, glued to his seat, Rooks was enthralled by the beauty and athleticism of the choreography and moved by the predominantly African American company. He left the theater feeling transformed—it was a world he never knew existed.

Despite the lack of a formal dance program, Rooks got moving. He found a vibrant, creative home within the Black Underground Theater and Arts Association (BUTAA), which then rehearsed in the auditorium of Webster Hall. His dedication earned him the very first BUTAA award in dance. He soaked up masterclasses with dancers like Marguerite de Anguera, and "bled his heart out" during a psychiatrylike session with legendary dance critic Selma Jeanne Cohen, who was visiting campus. Faced with his hemming and hawing over the career he envisioned in music versus his newfound excitement for dance, Cohen raised her hand to stop him. "Once the dance bug bites," she warned, "it never goes away."

Rooks worked at it. Following graduation, he moved to New York City and began taking night classes, which led to him earning a full scholarship to the Alvin Ailey School. There his training accelerated from 5 to 18 classes a week. Nearly 50 years later, Rooks remains a fierce advocate for a rigorous dance technique and training programs. Eventually, he secured a spot touring with the iconic Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble. He went on to perform for nearly a decade as a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Company and to set choreographic works on troupes from Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago to Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts in Mumbai.

The initial springboard for this ebullient and impressive career in dance was not a fulsome dance program or cohort of fellow dancers. It was the gritty and adventurous vibe of the Black Underground Theater. It was a chance encounter with a dance company that spoke to his identity as a rigorous student and a Black man. It was a liberal arts environment that allowed a wide-eyed student to pivot—as he then went on to do on stages across the world—from music to a form that moved him more than he could ever ignore.