With optimism, enthusiasm and a fresh-faced attitude, new Keene State College Dance Professor Meredith Bove is ready to see what her first year teaching at the college brings.
A Vermont native, Bove said she grew up studying ballet throughout her childhood years, moving on to study at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. It was during her studies there that she started moving away from just ballet and becoming more interested in modern and postmodern dance forms.
Following her undergraduate studies, Bove lived in Berlin, Germany, for two years, where she found herself continuing along the lineage of postmodern release dance techniques, but also became very interested in performance studies.
“I [also] saw a lot of performance that was very experimental and sort of really eye-opening in a lot of ways”, Bove said. “I was still very interested in somatic practices and release technique and I became really interested in just sort of performance studies and just all this watching of performance was just really fascinating to me.”
Following her time in Berlin, Bove returned to the United States to get her Master’s of Fine Arts from Hollins University in Virginia.
“I was making a lot of solo work while I was at Hollins [University], and I am still sort of doing that now,” Bove says. “I’ve continued where I am very much interested in solo performance and a little bit of interdisciplinary practices with that solo performance”.
In fact, many of the classes Bove will be teaching at Keene State College are interdisciplinary themselves.
“I’m teaching a ballet course which combines with experiential anatomy,” Bove says. “It’s very cool, I think it’s a great way to learn the techniques of ballet while also thinking about our anatomical structures and things.”
When asked about her thoughts on joining the KSC community, Bove responded with a certain eagerness.
Bove says “It’s my third day, but I just feel like the community here just seems really great and supportive. Throughout my orientation, there were just so many people who were really supportive and wanted to help which I feel is not always the case at other institutions and I really think that’s special.”
Bove is not daunted by her first full time teaching position.
“The students, you know, I am just getting to know them but so far, everyone I’ve come into contact with seems ready to learn,” Bove said. “It doesn’t seem like people are taking their education for granted. I feel people are present and that they want to be here and they want to learn. It’s great.”
In April, Bove will have works featured in The Evening of Dance event featured at the Redfern Arts Center, but that does not curb her interest in this semester, highlighting how the theatre and dance programs foster collaboration.
“I am not leading anything this fall, just the spring, but I am very excited about the program that is coming [this semester],” Bove said. “I’ve already encountered several of my students who are in everything, like I have students in my modern dance class who are directing the play”
The biggest challenge in sight for Bove currently is just overcoming her newness, on the campus and as a first-time, full-time faculty member.
“I’m just excited right now. Each day just feels like a new sort of adventure and there is some trepidation that comes with that, but mostly it’s just really exciting.” Bove said, “I’m excited to see how the semester unfolds.”
Meridith King can be contacted at mking@kscequinox.com