In 1968 the University of California at Berkeley invited me to join the Department of Dramatic Art faculty for the specific task of setting up a program in dance. It was foreseen that this program would incorporate professional-level technical training while stimulating students intellectually as well as creatively.

The exploration of the human potential, both physical and mental, is a never-ceasing wonder. Any movement in itself is beautiful, but the human being by his or her intelligence has the ability to pierce the abstract and to convey to others a myriad of contexts. As I teach, I never cease to be amazed at how much I learn in this regard. In dance there is no finite. The possibility for growth seems to be limited only by one's own desires and energies.

The learning process is a continuum, and I feel my effectiveness as a teacher, beyond the actual conveyance of knowledge, is determined by my ability to provide to the student stimulation for further investigative efforts. This is greatly helped by teaching, in this discipline, to the individual rather than the group, giving each person confidence in his or her feeling of uniqueness in ability and challenging the student to stride out beyond personal parameters.

The more open contact that I can make between myself and the student, the more readily I can assist the student in this achievement. For this reason, shortly after beginning to teach, I instituted mid-semester and end-of-semester conferences and evaluations. These conferences, because of the one-on-one contact, allow for edification, not only on the part of the student, but also on my part. The more I understand the individual difficulties of each student, the more I can work easily within his or her needs. Just as there is no best way to teach, there is not one way to reach all students. The more I can individualize my instruction to each student, the more immediate and comprehensive are the results.

There is also a need to help students develop their capability to evaluate the principles of one discipline in relation to another. Berkeley is a unique complex of learning wherein vast interrelated areas may be explored, each enriching the core area. Rather than creating isolation in one subject, I find that I can direct the student to probe new directions, to discover new questions, and to arrive at new answers. The process becomes circular. The mind feeds the body as the body feeds the mind. This heightens the process of gathering a totality of related knowledge, rather than limiting learning to the collection of isolated bits of information.

My actual philosophy of teaching is simple: a never-ending fascination with the process of learning, a love of my field of endeavor, a love of the people I teach.