the Dancer &
Choreographer
“Everything feeds making dances, because you’re making dances about the human experience.” —Ann Dunn
22
UNC ASHEVILLE MAGAZINE
Humanities Lecturer Ann Dunn is teaching four classes this semester, to a total of about 100 students. On “the side,” she directs the Asheville Ballet and owns the Asheville Academy of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. And then there are her family obligations, which include helping to care for her five children and 10 grandchildren. “I live in two different worlds, actually, more than that,” Dunn says. “The main two worlds are dance and academia, and I’m very committed to and involved in both. It’s not like one is a hobby and the other one isn’t.” How does she do it all? To begin with, “I get up early in the morning,” Dunn says. The first half of her day is immersed in the university. Then, she heads home for lunch—and a Sudoku puzzle and quick nap to clear her head. Then she shifts to her dance duties, which include teaching classes and choreographing and producing old and new works. Dunn is quick to say she gets lots of help on that dance side. “I have a huge support system at the ballet,” she says. “There are many days when I do not even go to the studio.” The real secret, she says, is noticing how her two worlds intersect and complement each other. “I would almost not divide the areas of experience in my life,” Dunn explains. “I have to divide them in the scheduling of my days, but it’s not a matter of being spread too thin, it’s a question of how can I cram in another thing that’s so exciting to me. And these things feed each other: Everything feeds making dances, because you’re making dances about the human experience.” Dunn’s students, she says, are usually surprised to find that she has a specialty outside of teaching the humanities. “But they’re surprised in a nice way,” she notes. “They realize, ‘Oh, she’s not just trying to open my head up and stuff information into it. She’s doing something with her own life, too.’”