Professional dancer shares passion with lunch group

NYC dancer and choreographer sheds light on her professional career and her enthusiasm for the art.

by Sarah Miller ’03

Dianne Harvey, a new addition to the dance program at Princeton, remarks immediately, “I am a product of my environment.” This statement encompasses her experiences as a talented dancer and actress making sometimes difficult career choices, her experiences derived from being a minority often confronting ignorant views, and her experiences as a woman and a mother trying to balance everything. 

After watching a televised performance of The Nutcracker at age 3, Dianne Harvey knew she wanted dance to be part of her life.   She was enrolled in a ballet and tap class soon afterwards, but the classes were not stimulating, and she decided to find other outlets for her athleticism. Towards the end of high school, Harvey became interested in modern dance. Harvey went to a school with a wide variety of dancers who introduced her to different perspectives.  She found Elio Pamare, a man she describes as her “dance father,” a partnership that has lasted 30 years. After touring with Pamare and his group, Harvey performed in “The Wiz” and later was part of the movie. 

After “The Wiz,” Harvey was invited to join the Alvin Ailey Company.  Right after agreeing to join, however, she was presented with the opportunity to be an understudy in Timbuktu, in the role as Eartha Kitt’s handmaiden, and chose this over the Ailey company.  The experience of being around “such an incredible woman,” combined with frequent performances in the production, Harvey described as amazing.  Following her role “Your Arms Are Too Short to Box With God” in Paris, Harvey began a dance company with her new husband.  She has continued to work choreographing, dancing, and teaching.

One challenge for Harvey has been balancing her role as a mother with a demanding and incredibly successful career. She states, “I have no idea now how I did what I did,” as the pressures of each role were intense and very time-intensive. Harvey admits that her career was sometimes pursued at the expense of spending time with her daughter, and that the nature of her career sacrificed a “normal, everyday existence,” but that this choice also would hopefully inspire her daughter to pursue her goals.

Ultimately, Dianne Harvey is a significant contribution to the Princeton campus because she serves as an example of a strong woman able to balance challenging and often conflicting roles in a very rich life.  Her talents are irrefutably valuable to the Princeton dance program, but her experiences are beneficial to the entire community.

Wilson spearheads search for first female president

By Nancy Ippolito ’03

You could be the first female president. Or could you? Marie Wilson, founder of the White House Project, a branch of the Ms. Foundation aimed at electing a female president has conducted extensive research on the country’s receptivity to women in power, particularly to women in this position. Wilson, who visited Princeton on November 16, gave a speech in Prospect House, and then held a dinner with a small group of students to further discuss these issues. Wilson explained that with only a 76% current receptivity level to voting for a female, a substantial increase from an original 20% before the White House Project, there is an “enormous ambivalence about women’s authority in power.” Elizabeth Cady-Stanton, one founder of the suffragist movement, exclaimed, “it’s amazing that the Republic has done as well as it has when it’s only using half of its resources.”

Wilson claims that the “best way to change the state of women in politics is to change the climate.” And the best way to change the climate overall is to change the climate among women – “it’s important to put each other out there, and sometimes women don’t put each other out there.”  Essentially, it is crucial that women support each other in all aspects – through mentoring each other, campaigning for each other, and ultimately recognizing each other. Wilson clarifies that the “first part of authority is having people recognize you – women must recognize each other.”  Wilson’s research reveals that “young men are very clear that young women have a harder time,” but the solution to women’s lack of authority will not be reached by complaining to the men that women have it harder.  The only way for women to take control is to demand it by banding together. 

Only through this collaboration will gender differences become obsolete.  Wilson laments that, “ women get power through sex” and believes, “until women have real power, sex will be a vulnerability.”  The solution she suggests: “once you get enough women running, they can’t genderize you, they have to find out why you’re different.”  She encourages people to “look beyond gender to the agenda.”

The bottom line lies in the fact that women are lacking, nationally and universally, in power and authority.  The circumstances will not change as long as women continue to blame their situation on the untouchable rule of the patriarchy and attempt to fight against men instead of for women.  When women decide to join together and demand equality through electing and supporting and promoting each other, the glass ceiling will gradually thin into nonexistence.   Wilson quoted one frustrated 11 yr. old, “women don’t fight hard enough”; the answer from the 12 yr. old next to her, “that’s not true, women who fight, fight hard, not enough women fight.”