Did you know that during OCC’s first academic year (48/49), the school had regular dances, including a Christmas Formal, post-game dances, and a freshman barn dance? My favorite was the "girl-date-boy" dance. The 1949 Year Book states the girl-date-boy-dance is "when the gals got their big chance to chase the guys legally." Some of the dances were at noon outdoors on the "Pirate patio" next to the Student Union. Check out the bobby socks and cuffed jeans!
As for the academic program of dance… it was considered a physical education activity class for many years. You can find social and folk dance under PE 5 & 6 as early as the 1949 catalog. Dance remained part of the "PE" offerings until 1971 when dance began recognition as a department. Dance remained with the "Health and PE" division until 2014.
Dance as an Art form at OCC formally began in the 1960s… here is an excerpt of a brief history written by Professor Emeritus Linda Sohl-Ellison:
The OCC dance program began in 1961 when Dorothy Duddridge, one of only two female faculty in the OCC physical education division, began teaching some dance classes. She presented the first OCC dance concert on stage in 1961; by 1962, the program was officially on its way. Dottie Duddridge taught four dance classes weekly in modern dance and ballroom, coached tennis and archery, and choreographed dances for the theatre program. She was the first OCC dance director, teacher, and visionary for what evolved into the highly respected OCC Dance Department. Dorothy Duddridge’s initial vision developed into a vital training program in all genres of dance and Pilates, pioneering course offerings and certificate programs and serving as a model for many other California community college dance and Pilates programs.
OCC's earliest Dance classes were taught in the campus's old gymnasium and a large adjoining dance studio (both the gym and the studio had sprung floors). This original gymnasium building was cut into two sections and moved off the OCC campus and onto the Vanguard College campus in the early 1960s. In December 1960, OCC Basil Patterson Gym was built. In this new building, the dance program was reduced to one dance studio, and the gym foyer had a tiled floor laid over concrete; the dance department eventually added a small sprung dance floor in the gym foyer around 1979.
One final attribute; in a letter from then President Bronsard in 1987, he congratulated the dance department on their 25th-anniversary concert and ended the letter this way:
"…led by such gifted dancers/educators as Ms. Duddridge, Lynda Davis, Suzanne Joseph, Alvin Mayes, and now Karne Shanley and Linda Sohl-Donnel, OCC's dance department has nurtured thousands upon thousands of dance students at all levels of training… and further, this dynamic organization, throughout the years, has presented to its college and community several acclaimed … including such stars as the San Francisco Ballet, the Dance Theater of Harlem, Pilobolus, Charles Weidman, and Ruth St. Denis…."
For the current dance curriculum and concerts, visit OCC's Dance Dept.
Send comments and ideas to kballinger.r@retiree.cccd.edu