IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

David K. C. Wood

Professor of Dance, Emeritus

Berkeley

1925—2002

David K. C. Wood, founder of the University of California, Berkeley dance program, passed away on Sunday, April 21, 2002, at his home of complications from Parkinson's disease and muscular dystrophy. He was 77.

 

Born in 1925, raised in Fresno, California, he was an early admit to UC Berkeley, where he acted in the nascent drama program. Under the direction of Professor Fred Harris, he starred in numerous plays. Reviews consistently point out the depth, sensitivity and complexity of his interpretations. Among his favorite roles were: The Lord in Green Pastures by Marc Connelly and Gloucester in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Lear.

 

David graduated on his twentieth birthday with a degree in psychology and was commissioned into the Navy on the same day, serving out the end of World War II aboard the USS Philadelphia. Upon his discharge, David moved to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse on the G.I. Bill. As part of that program, he studied modern dance with Martha Graham and composition with the formidable Louis Horst, fabled musician and composer, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship.

 

David always said he knew that "modern dance was what [he] wanted to see and wanted to do" when he saw José Limón dance Lament for Sancho Ignacio Mejias. He found the combined physicality and theatricality of modern dance to be completely absorbing. The ability to communicate through movement became a compelling lifelong pursuit. David devoted himself to the field with an energy and determination typical of all his endeavors; he achieved impressive results. Within a year, he was teaching for Hanya Holm and through the next five years performed with José Limón, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Helen Tamiris, the Dudley-Maslow-Bales Trio, and Alwin Nikolais. He also performed for television, the Metropolitan and New York City Opera Companies, and in Broadway musicals.

 

In 1953, Martha Graham invited him to perform in the premiere of Letter to the World, her tribute to Emily Dickinson at the American Dance Festival. At the close of the Festival, Ms. Graham asked him to perform in Diversion of Angels and Dark Meadow. This began his 15-year association with Martha Graham. He quickly moved through the ranks, becoming a soloist for whom she created a number of roles. Two of his signature roles, the Messenger of Death in her Greek epic Clytemnestra and the whip master in her delightful Acrobats of God, utilized his phenomenal ability to suspend himself in midair and his charismatic dramatic projection. These were vital, vigorous, and tumultuous years. While a soloist, David also served as the rehearsal director for the Graham Company, with primary responsibility for reconstructing her works composed for her company.

 

During this period, David was on the faculty of the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, and a guest teacher at Sarah Lawrence College. He taught each summer at the American Dance Festival in New London, Connecticut.

 

David was recruited to the UC Berkeley campus in 1968 to what was then called the Department of Dramatic Art. This opportunity and challenge to create something entirely his own drew David to this new career. Thanks to him and the help of his wife, Marni Thomas Wood (also a soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company) dance at UC Berkeley flourished and the current baccalaureate degree is the result of their efforts.

 

They envisioned a three-pronged program in which the study of history would produce a foundation of knowledge, the study of theory would develop creativity, and the study of dance technique would result in the creation of a three-dimensional physical language. David based much of his teaching methodology on the early lessons which he discovered in working with Hanya Holm, though he utilized Graham's technique and style.

 

David was a demanding teacher, but he demanded no more of his colleagues or students than he demanded of himself. Discipline, dedication, and passion for the art of dance topped his list of priorities. His enthusiasm and energy were infectious and many students found themselves spending more time in the dance studio than in their other classrooms. David helped them discover the compelling physicality and communicative powers of modern dance. The UC Berkeley students, graduates and undergraduates, arts majors and science majors, found his vision of the daily practice of dance to be consuming, intriguing, and challenging.

 

Always thinking about ways to develop students, David founded the Bay Area Repertory Dance Company (BARD) as an outreach branch of the department and to give the dance students a "professional" experience. Under his direction, this touring group performed throughout the West Coast. They also toured Europe, appearing at the Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, the Tuileries, Paris, and the Aberdeen International Summer Festival among other invited engagements. There, they performed a full repertory during the summer months after touring colleges and theaters in the U.S. during the winter.

 

David's own research led him to choreograph and teach extensively in the States and abroad with extended engagements in Sweden, Mexico, Belgium, Israel and Japan. His choreography was featured on the Emmy Award-winning television production of "Race for the Superconductor," presented by NOVA.

 

Diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy in 1983, he continued to direct the dance program, choreograph, and teach for 10 more years before retiring in 1993. He continued to set dances on BARD and the University Dance Theater (UDT) despite the difficulty he was experiencing in moving. Over the years, in recognition of the contributions he made to the field and to people's lives, the University of California awarded him the Berkeley Citation and the Distinguished Teaching Award. Nationally his achievements have been acknowledged with an Emmy Award for his choreography "Superconductivity" (as mentioned above) and two National Endowment for the Arts grants. Most fittingly, the Bay Area community awarded an Isadora Duncan Lifetime Achievement Award jointly to him and his wife Marni Thomas Wood.

 

Upon his retirement, he completed his book On Angels and Devils and Stages Between, which was published in 1999.

 

His legacy continues through the contributions of the many students, colleagues, and collaborators with whom he worked over the 52 active years he spent in the field. The program he and Marni envisioned in 1968 continues today under her direction in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.

 

Carol Murota

Marni Wood