1970s overview:

My dance education began in my hometown of Ithaca, New York, where I took classes at the Ithaca Ballet Guild. In 10th grade, I attended the American Dance Festival in New London, CT, and this ignited my desire to pursue dance as a profession. For the remainder of high school, I studied and performed with the Cornell Dance Group. I began college at Sarah Lawrence College, and transferred first to Juilliard in 1973 and then to Barnard College in 1974. At Barnard, I began to show my work in New York City while performing with a range of professional choreographers and dance companies at the height of the 1970s dance boom. Immediately upon graduating from Barnard, I formed my own non-profit dance company, serving as artistic director of Jessica Fogel and Dancers in New York from 1977-1983. From 1978-1980, I was supported by the CETA Cultural Council Foundation Artists Project. I presented my works in shared concerts, and in 1978 and 1979, I presented evening-length programs. Under the auspices of CETA, I also presented several lecture demonstrations in school settings and taught in many locations throughout New York City and upstate New York. The more significant dances from this foundational decade are: Departures; In Black and White; Twofold; Paperworks; Catches from a Strand; Broadloom; Music Minus One.

Legacy Lecture 2008, University of Michigan The Legacy Lecture is a talk I gave at University of Michigan in 2008, in which I describe my experiences coming of age as a dancer in New York in the 1970s-80s.

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