Performance caps dancer’s quest for 3 arts degrees

If getting a bachelor’s degree of fine arts and a
master’s of arts doesn’t satisfy one’s appetite
for artistic credentials, there is the option Kim Vetter, a
39-year-old teacher, student and lifelong dancer, took: continuing
for a master’s of fine arts.

Vetter, one of the ambitious few who recently finished the
M.F.A. program through the world arts and culture department,
performed her final project, “Gypsies, Zealots and Pieces of
Me,” this past weekend.

This eclectic dance work is a collection of pieces inspired by
aspects of Vetter’s life, focusing especially on issues of
identity and cultural bias.

“I went through this process of exploring using my breath
and voice. That’s where it started,” said Vetter.
“The piece itself has subtle differences every night because
it comes out of me differently.”

The M.F.A. program has a 72-unit requirement with required
courses in everything from production experience and creative
practice to critical studies seminars like African Popular Culture.
These requirements are typically fulfilled by students within seven
to nine quarters.

“I did it in ten quarters because I hurt my back my first
year and it slowed me down a little,” said Vetter. “So
it took me longer to fulfill the requirements.”

This painful back injury, along with other back injuries and a
life-long battle with scoliosis, were the inspiration for the
opening part of the show. This piece, titled
“Unwinding,” features Vetter sitting on a stool, nude
except for a sheet partially covering the lower half of her body.
With her back to the audience she makes peculiar noises while
moving her back in a circular motion slowly until the symbolic
“unwinding” process is complete.

“After being injured I realized that I couldn’t work
the same way that I used to. I couldn’t go in the studio and
throw myself around and think of a dance anymore,” said
Vetter. “Unwinding of the spine then is (about) this physical
and emotional pain that is finding its way out, and by the end of
the piece it’s been released and the rest of the dancing can
happen.”

After being accepted into the program, students are assigned a
faculty adviser from their specialization with whom they work
closely to develop their curriculum and from whom they receive
mentorship.

Once the curriculum is complete, students are required to put on
a final project, such as Vetter’s, which took about a year of
preparation before it was finally performed. Much deliberation goes
into a final product meant to be representative of the
student’s life and work.

“We do so much choreography and a lot of it just gets
tossed,” said Vetter. “We do these weekly studies where
we go throw that, throw that, toss that. But you come up with
something that you like and you want to keep going with
it.”