Modern Dance

In 1946, Margaret L. (Peg) Bryan initiates a modern dance program in Women’s Physical Education.  She has studied with Martha Graham and Hanya Holm before her appointment at Bucknell.  She hires dance graduates from New London to teach dance and support the Bucknell Dance Club.  In the 1950s, Nora Elze, Instructor in Physical Education, studies with Martha Graham, Jose Limòn, and Merce Cunningham in New London in preparation to teach modern dance classes.  She advances the Bucknell Dance Club and introduces a new class, “Mind, Body, Spirit.”  Beginning in the mid-1950’s, Joan Moyer Clark teaches dance courses in the Women’s Physical Education Department, choreographs Cap and Dagger musicals, and presents public dance concerts. Bucknell Dance Program History is available under Celebration Spring Gala 2009.