OCU Dance & Arts Management History

In 1981, Oklahoma City University, under the leadership of Professor Jo Rowan, founded an American musical theatre dance program to educate and train performers for careers in the American entertainment industry. The program was also created to recognize the legitimacy of the American dance art forms of tap, jazz, and theater dance.

At that time, university and college dance programs uniformly focused on ballet and modern dance. Few, if any, dance programs required majors to study tap and jazz; none offered specialization in tap and jazz leading to a bachelor's degree. Professor Rowan designed a degree which, with Dean John Bedford, has been refined over the years to give thorough preparation to students wanting dance performance careers in the American entertainment industry. The Bachelor of Performing Arts in Dance program now has 105 majors.

In 1984, Dean Bedford developed an arts management program at Oklahoma City University for both graduate and undergraduate students. The general wisdom of the time in higher education was that arts management should be a field of study reserved for graduate students with the maturity and seriousness that undergraduates interested in the arts could not have. In 1985, the trustees approved a new Bachelor of Science in Dance Management degree which now has over 70 majors.

The Master of Business Administration in Arts Management, established in 1984, provided graduate level education and training in both business and arts management. An undergraduate degree in business is not required since a student can accelerate preparation for graduate business studies by taking preparatory courses. Students of the Master of Business Administration in Arts Management program are required to intern with a professional arts organizations. Former students have worked as interns for Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Assembly of Community Arts Councils of Oklahoma, Pollard Theatre, Allied Arts, Ballet Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Philharmonic and BLAC, Inc. The graduate program is kept to 10 to 15 students.

In 1996, a Bachelor of Science in Entertainment Business degree was created. Originally for students interested in careers in music business, the degree has been modified to a general arts management degree allowing students to tailor a portion of the curriculum to support their career objectives. In just four years, this new major has grown to 45 students and promises to continue growing.

The Oklahoma City University trustees, under the leadership of then President Stephen Jennings, voted in 1998 to elevate the dance and arts management department to the School of American Dance & Arts Management. This decision recognized the importance of validity of American dance art forms and the practice and study of arts management as a professional discipline.

On July 1, 1999, the dance and arts management departments were officially declared the School of American Dance & Arts Management. The new school is a child of American dance styles and the business of show business. For those who have committed their lives to American dance and the entertainment industry, the new school is a source of pride and inspiration; a symbol of the coming of age of our nation's vital arts and those who nurture them.

This new status allows greater visibility of what is being accomplished in dance and arts management at Oklahoma City University -- locally, nationally and internationally. It permits direct pursuit of funding for endowing scholarships, faculty positions and facilities. As a school, programs can now grow and develop with guidance from an outstanding and dedicated faculty.

In 2004, a $3 million grant from the Inasmuch Foundation was combined with Ann Lacy's $3.7 million contribution to make new facilities possible. Revovation and construction of the Edith Kinney Gaylord Center, the new home of the now-named Ann Lacy School of American Dance & Arts Management, was completed in the fall of 2007.

The School now offers an M.F.A. in Dance degree to prepare graduate students for careers in performance, choreography, or teaching in higher education where extensive knowledge of tap, jazz, theater dance, and ballet for musical theater is valued.