Professsor Laurie Eisenhower: A Life in Dance

By Gillian Ellis

Asked where she found the confidence to start her own dance company, Professor Laurie Eisenhower says, “I enjoy challenges, so it wasn't that daunting to me. But, of course, part of that was naivety. If I knew what I was getting into, I might have hesitated!”

But she didn’t hesitate and this year Eisenhower Dance Ensemble is celebrating its twentieth season, is widely respected, and frequently acknowledged as the best professional dance company in Michigan.

Professor Eisenhower is retiring from her academic position at Oakland next year but she will continue to maintain a relationship with OU and will remain Artistic Director of EDE. She came to dance rather later than most professionals. Laurie describes herself as always “an athletic person,” but says she didn’t start serious training in dance until she enrolled as an undergraduate at Arizona State University when she was seventeen.

Naturally this left Laurie with lots of catching up to do, but she says it had its advantages too. “I took away numerous lessons for teaching in later years.” Those later years were proceeded by a seven-year long career as a professional dancer in New York and California and a return to Arizona to complete a master’s degree.

Laurie was born in California and grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. When she took up her teaching position at Oakland University she was less than happy at the thought of Midwestern winters and she says, “I didn't really plan to stay very long as I wanted to move to a warmer climate.” But fate intervened. “I met my husband … and it has now been twenty-five years! I can't say I'm used to the cold weather, but I have grown to love Michigan. I also think it has been a very supportive environment for my work.”

For Laurie, a life in dance has, in her own words, proved to be the ideal merging of “the physical, intellectual, emotional, and creative parts of me.” She says she started her own company because, “I love to choreograph and I wanted to work with professional dancers. I also thought it would benefit the Dance Program at OU to have a ‘company in residence,’ so the students would be able to mentor with the professional dancers.”

Professor Eisenhower says the greatest reward of her career has been the creative work she has done with “many wonderful dancers” but she says, “I have also worked with fabulous Board members, arts administrators, and collaborative artists, such as musicians, costume designers, etc. It is a life full of creativity and accomplishment...where every day is different and challenging.”

Kerro Knox 3, head of MTD’s theatre program, has worked with Laurie for years as EDE’s lighting designer. He believes Laurie has extended that challenge to her students. “She doesn’t pussyfoot around. She has very high standards … and that shows in the quality of our students.” Kerro also noted the benefits to the dance program of having an alliance with a professional dance company. “Laurie brings high quality dancers here and then they teach at OU. She has hired our graduates and every year she uses our students in performances with a really strong aesthetic.”

Over the years, hundreds of dance students have benefited from Professor Eisenhower’s vision and commitment, and that work had been important to her. This is what she wants people to know: “Choreographing has always been one of my greatest passions, but so has teaching. It has been wonderful to watch individual students come into the OU dance program as novices and leave as professional-level dancers. I can be a very demanding teacher; however, I think the students appreciate the high standards I set for them. To me, the dance student's education is not just about the dance, but about maturing into adulthood. I enjoy the give and take in the classroom and relish those moments when the light bulbs go off in the students' eyes. Teaching is such an honor and a privilege. It has kept me young, on my toes, and in a perpetual learning mode.”

For more information about Eisenhower Dance Ensemble: http://ede-dance.org/