UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #180
KLOEPPER, LOUISE O.

KLOEPPER, Louise O.  (1910-1996)
Professor of Physical Education and Dance
At UW: 1943-1975

First Interview
Interviewed: 1976		
Interviewers: Mary Alice Brennan and Hermine Davidson
Length: 1.25 hours

Beginning of dance career; Study with Mary Wigman in Germany; Hanya Holm School in New York; Arrival at UW; Teaching; Dance therapy program; Composition and emotions classes; Opinions on changes in dance.

Second Interview	
Interviewed: 1978		
Interviewer: Ruth Grauert
Length: 26 pages

Early dance experiences; Study at Mary Wigman School in Germany; Teaching at Hanya Holm School in New York; Discussion of the philosophy of dance and motion.

* No audio files exist in the OHP collections for this interview. The index included below follows page numbers of the transcript rather than time codes.

Third Interview	
Interviewed: 1979	
Series: School of Education
Interviewer: Mark Van Pelt
Length: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Reasons for coming to UW; Teaching; Recruiting students; Research; Dance division; Directors of women's physical education; Sex discrimination; Dance program; Peer evaluation; Teaching loads; Undergraduate teaching; Impact of guerrilla theater; Orchesis; M.F.A. vs. Ph.D.; Work in community and public schools; Dance program personalities; Evaluation of program.

FIRST INTERVIEW 
Interview Session (November 30, 1976): Digital File (1 Tape)

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:33	[begin Tape 3/Side 1] Louise Kloepper explains how she began dancing.  Because her sister was thin, LK’s parents enrolled her in a ballet class, hoping it would improve her strength.  LK went to watch her sister’s class one day and begged her parents for dance lessons.

00:01:39	By the end of high school, LK knew she wanted to become a dancer.  She decided to study with Mary Wigman in Germany, first in Berlin and then in Dresden.  She was the first American to graduate from Wigman’s school.

00:02:36	LK then moved to New York to teach for the Hanya Holm School.  She explains that Holm wanted to hire her because of her Wigman background.  LK also took classes with Holm when she had free time.

00:05:37	LK lists the other colleges, universities and camps at which she taught dance.  At this time she was combining a concert career with a teaching career.

00:06:47	She explains why she decided to pursue a teaching career and chose to study at UW.

00:09:08	LK discusses the similarities between Wigman’s and Margaret H’Doubler’s approaches to teaching.

00:12:08	Although LK was a student, during her second semester she was asked to teach the technique class, and in her second year she was a TA.  She was supposed to take several of the courses she taught.

00:13:01	LK talks about the curriculum when she arrived.  Because there were only about three instructors, including LK, classes at different levels had to meet together.  There were few composition courses, and practically no production work at all.  Students put on few performances every year.

00:15:36	One interviewer talks about a late-afternoon technique class that LK taught.  It was expected that students in Orchesis would take a technique course, since their training in Orchesis was mostly creative.  Occasionally students from other departments joined Orchesis.

00:17:12	LK developed additional technique and composition courses, as well as a course on percussion.  When she arrived, the program was focused on dance education.  Since then it has broadened to include a major in performing choreography.  Students now put on many more performances than in earlier years.

00:19:15	Dance therapy was introduced in 1948 or 49.  It was initially a special topics course offered by Maja Schade, among others.  LK talks about the structure of this course.

00:22:28	The dance therapy course was offered for two or three years.  Maja Schade restarted dance therapy in the late 1960s.

00:24:06	LK describes her philosophy and approach to teaching technique.

00:26:06	She recalls an experience she had while dancing in New York.  When she became bored with a dance she had performed many times, she began to search for a way of keeping herself interested and focused.  She describes the technique she developed, and how she later incorporated it into her teaching at UW.

00:30:07	LK talks about the percussion class she taught at UW.

00:31:45	A composition class already existed at the time LK arrived.  She talks about how she developed this class.  LK’s seminar in emotions was always popular with students.  She gives examples of what students were taught in this class.

00:38:50	LK compares dance education for professional students and for general students.

00:41:18	She talks about the value of dance to children’s education.  Technique is less important for young people who are not intending to become professional dancers.

00:44:44	[end side 1/begin side 2] LK states that it does not matter where dance is housed in a university, provided that the home department supports its dance program.  She explains that dance suffered from a lack of identity at UW when it was housed in the Physical Education Department.  Dance has gained visibility since the department was renamed Physical Education and Dance.

00:48:32	She talks about changes she has seen in dance since the beginning of her career, such as the shift from content to more movement.  Students are more outspoken than they used to be, and they arrive with broader dance experience.  LK attributes their wider horizons in part to the increasing number of performances by dance companies.

00:54:36	LK wishes she had studied other dance forms such as jazz.  She believes the dance department ought to have developed faster than it did.

00:56:15	LK comments on the future of dance.  More scholarly research on dance is needed.

01:01:21	End of Interview Session

End FIRST INTERVIEW

SECOND INTERVIEW 
Interview Session (November 29, 1978): Digital File
* No audio files exist in the OHP collections for this interview. The index included below follows page numbers of the transcript rather than time codes.

Pg.	Keywords

1	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction.  LK talks about her pre-Wigman days.  While a high school student in Tacoma, Washington, she studied ballet with Mrs. Tayton Thayer.  She then studied with Mary Ann Wells in Seattle.

3	Because LK’s parents did not want her to move to New York at the age of sixteen, they encouraged her to go to Germany instead, where she had relatives.  She talks about performances she saw before going to Germany.

5	LK spent a year studying at the Mary Wigman School in Berlin before moving to the main Mary Wigman School in Dresden.  While in Berlin she took a night course to learn German.  

6	LK gives a detailed description of her classes.  She talks about Dresden.

7	After LK graduated from the Mary Wigman School, the first American to do so, she returned to Tacoma.  When Mary Wigman was on tour and passed through Tacoma, she and Hanya Holm invited LK to teach at the Wigman School in New York.

10	LK compares the Wigman School in New York to those in Germany.  Holm gradually started to imprint her own character on the school, which was renamed the Hanya Holm School during the war.

12	LK talks about Holm’s teaching.

14	She describes how she chose music for her dances.

15	LK discusses “breath rhythms” and what was taught in her technique classes about movement.  She explains what Margaret H’Doubler added to this teaching on motion.  The interviewer and LK continue to talk about dance.

26	End of Interview Session

End of Second Interview

THIRD INTERVIEW 

Interview Session (February 15, 1979): Digital File (2 Tapes)

00:00:00	[begin Tape 1] Introduction.

00:00:23	How Kloepper came to Wisconsin; Mary Wigman; Margaret H'Doubler student recommends Wisconsin.

00:02:15	Kloepper in modern dance; Martha Graham; Charles Weidman; Doris Humphrey.  How Kloepper taught dance course she was enrolled in.

00:03:38	Attendance in dance in 1940s; problem of advertising dance for summer session, beginning 1950s; reluctance of university to advertise.

00:06:06	Predominance of out-of-state students.

00:06:42	Efforts of dance department in local recruiting of students; scholarship availability; children's dance program.

00:09:12	Dance and elementary education; integrated arts course.

00:12:36	Invisibility of dance department; invention of dance division; A.C. Scott.

00:15:37	Impact of H'Doubler's retirement on dance division; Mary Fee; Anna Nassif.

00:18:22	Inbreeding of dance division: artist-in-residence approach as solution; Alvin Nicholai dance company a large source.

00:20:41	How Kloepper became dance division chairman.

00:22:09	Research in dance; H'Doubler defined dance field; Ruth Glassow's influence in motion study, evolution of thesis topics: Mary Fee allowed to sponsor Ph.D. students in dance.

00:29:15 	Growth of Ph.D. program in dance.

00:30:30	Growth of credential importance; slowness of promotion; too many time-consuming meetings a problem.

00:33:31	Comparison of Department of Women's Physical Education Directors; Blanche Trilling, dance people not on executive committee (except H'Doubler).

00:36:20	Marie Carns--selection process; Carns tended to restrict the dance program; Maja Schade.

00:40:37	Problem of filling directorship after Dr. Carns; Lolas Halverson; chairman vs director; Muriel Sloan; dance fared well under Halverson and Sloan.

00:45:21  	President Dykstra; problems of facilities.

00:48:41	Relationship of men's and women's phys ed; merger push came from outside departments; no one anxious to merge.

00:52:47	Problem of tenure; merit/promotion denied outside of department; sex discrimination; John Guy Fowlkes worked to improve women's salary relative to men's phy ed; Fowlkes supportive of dance.

00:57:57	Basis of peer evaluation; teaching underemphasized as a contribution.

01:00:09	Imbalance of teaching loads,

01:01:48	Changes in basis of new faculty selection; critical impact of artist-in-residence concept; ideal person in dance from Utah or Wisconsin plus professional experience.

01:05:21   Quality of undergraduate teaching; loss of problem solving teaching.

01:07:24   Graduate student selection; introduction of placement testing.

01:09:22	Dance student-faculty committee:  origins, mode of operation; led to new course work; separate phys ed student- faculty committee; students aided in artist-in-residence selection.

01:15:03	Vietnam War influence on students very powerful; Guerilla Theatre.

01:18:19	Male dance students in dance; personal attention of Fowlkes to any male admission; race not a factor; Larry Rarick only male faculty member. [end tape 1/begin tape 2]

01:21:30	Orchesis history; lack of choreography experience was primary motivation for changes in Orchesis.

01:25:47 	Anna Nassif adds choreography and composition in 1960s--this eventually eliminated Orchesis; Children's theatre tried as means of preservation, but failed; faculty and student choreography classes replaced Orchesis; artist-in-residence also contributed to rise of  choreography; program began emphasize professional dance over teacher training.

01:31:16   Influence of professional companies on the program.

01:32:08	M.F.A. degree result of professional program emphasis; M.F.A. vs. Ph.D. for college teaching.

01:34:44   Dance Theatre group.

01:35:46   Freedom of outside work of faculty.

01:36:54   Dance workshops for teachers and high school students.

01:39:06   Efforts in getting dance into public schools.

01:42:15	Evaluation of quality of dance program; importance of Mary Fee; Mary Alice Brennan; dynamics of small staff.

01:45:48   End of Interview Session

End of Third Interview

End of Oral History #180