By Laura Clark

A program revitalized more than 20 years ago is dancing its way out of UK.

The Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion made the decision to cut the Dance Certification program and the dance minor Nov. 4, according to an e-mail from the department’s chair to students in the program.

The College of Education minor was suspended because of “limited resources and low student enrollment,” said KHP chair Melody Noland in the e-mail.  Noland said students will be given the opportunity to complete the program and were directed to meet with an adviser to discuss the timeline and coursework of their remaining dance curriculum.

The suspension of the dance program is occurring the same year the professor responsible for rebuilding it retired.

Rayma Beal, former program head and UK Dance Ensemble director, retired in June 2009.  Beal is credited for establishing the UKDE and rebuilding the dance minor since her appointment in 1986.

Before she arrived at UK, Beal said the dance program had attempted to move from the College of Education to the College of Fine Arts in 1979, but because of differing opinions on where the program should have gone, most of the dance faculty left, leaving her to pick up the pieces.

The decision to cut the university’s dance program now is a step back to 1979, Beal said.

Beal said approximately 20 students currently have a dance minor and that number has been consistent for the past 12 to 15 years.

Audra Flanagan, business management major and dance minor junior, said dance was the reason she came to UK.

“It makes me sad because Kentucky itself isn’t supportive of dance at all,” Flanagan said. “I’m from a small hometown, so there weren’t many dance opportunities.”

Flanagan said many dance classes offered as part of the minor will be discontinued.  However, she said any dance classes kept would be considered a service course with KHP not to learn about dance, but just for the physical activity.

For fifth year kinesiology major and dance minor Courtney Guidry, classes will be available for her to complete the dance program, but others are not so lucky.

“It’s really a shame,” Guidry said.  “… Dance is always one of the first things to go, across the board. The arts, in general, get cut first in economic situations like this.”

Kentucky has a lot of talented dancers, Guidry said, and losing a program like this will hurt the state because those wanting to study dance will leave.

“All this talk about wanting to be a top-20 institution, but yet there’s no emphasis in the arts?  That’s a real problem,” she said.