A journey in dance
Courtesy of artsBHAM
Teri Weksler’s journey in dance has taken her from Maryland to New York City to the Magic City. Along the way, she became a founding member of the famed NYC-based Mark Morris Dance Group, artistic director of Southern Danceworks and a teacher at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
Her roots in dance go back to her childhood in Baltimore. “My parents loved music and I remember dancing around endlessly to Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake,’” she said. “That was the beginning.”
Growing up, Weksler couldn’t get enough of dance. “Ballet class was the highlight of my day,” she said. Lessons, enthusiasm and hard work paid off. When it came time for college, she was accepted into Juilliard.
There, she delved into ballet and modern dance as well as New York City’s cultural scene. “Down the hall to the right was the theater — you could open a door and find Robin Williams improvising. To the left was New York City Ballet. Honestly, every day was thrilling,” she said.
After graduation, Weksler performed in the repertory companies of Daniel Lewis and 5 By 2, as well as with Hannah Kahn Dancers — where she met modern dance legend Mark Morris.
“We had an immediate connection and became very close friends,” she said. “He basically started his company from all his friends. Pretty quickly we all realized something very big was afoot and things snowballed into the major company it is today. It was a dream to be part of that trajectory, and now, part of the history of the Mark Morris Dance Group.”
Weksler is still connected to the company today. She has taught company classes, summer intensives and performed as Lady Montague in Morris’s version of “Romeo and Juliet.”
“I also recently staged a 70-minute opera at BAM,” she said. “I had been Mark's assistant when he staged it at Tanglewood. That was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, and an incomparable opportunity.”
Over the years, Weksler has also performed in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project and as principal dancer with Rome Opera Ballet in the Philip Glass-Robert Wilson work, “the CIVIL warS.”
Weksler first came to Birmingham when her husband, a former dancer who went on to attend Columbia, became CFO of Cobb Theatres. In the Magic City, she became artistic director of the modern dance group Southern Danceworks, which gave performances in the city throughout the years.
“With the amazing executive direction of Rosemary Johnson, we presented and commissioned a lot of great dances,” she said.
As artistic director, part of Weksler’s job was to create dances. “Music typically drives my work,” she said. “I’m a formalist, so I love structure, design, rhythmic complexities.”
Southern Danceworks now teaches Dance for Parkinson’s at the Lakeshore Foundation. The program is based on upon classes that Mark Morris Dance Group created with the Brooklyn Parkinson Group.
In 2009, Weksler’s career took a different turn when she substituted for an injured teacher at ASFA. “I got hooked,” she recalled. “I realized at this age, students are fresh and malleable, a great time to train and nurture talent.”
She also credits the support of fellow faculty members Wes Chapman and Martha Faesi. “I’m surrounded by fabulous artists in all disciplines, and the dance department is stellar,” she said. “To be an influence on these students’ lives, especially to watch them develop into young artists, is a gift. Dance is such a rigorous discipline both physically and mentally, it holds wonderful lessons, even if one doesn’t pursue a dance career.”
Some of her favorite advice to give young dancers is to “work hard, work harder, be expressive and, most of all, dance together and find the joy in it.”
What’s up next for Weksler? Not surprisingly, it’s a project related to Mark Morris. She will be staging an early Morris in Miami at the New World School of the Arts in January.