Distance degree

When Nina Haft graduated in 1984 from Swarthmore College with a degree in religion, she thought she might move oil to study psychology. But her true passion was dance. Twenty years later at age 40, she's getting the dance degree that she always wanted.

The choreographer now teaches in the dance department at California State University in Hayward, California, and directs the Nina Haft Dance Company. When she began to search for a graduate program, few suited her. "I didn't want to pick up my whole life to go to school," she said. Then she found the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The UWM MFA, launched in 1997, is designed as a long distance-learning program with students doing most of their work from home. It is geared to the dancer who, like Haft, has reached a point where she wants to hone her skills, advance her career, or both, according to Janet Lilly, program director, associate professor of dance, and former principal with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane.

"I was a great model for this because I'd gone back to school at 35 after dancing for years in New York," Lilly said. She knew what it meant to transition from a dancer's life to the life of a student.

For the past two summers, Haft has traveled to the Milwaukee campus for a mandatory six weeks of course work plus an extra week of intensive dance instruction. Back home in the tall, she resumes her professional life while also writing papers, completing online courses, and staging dance projects in the Bay Area.

Lilly explains the curriculum for fall and spring semesters gets planned by student and teacher during the summer. Students spend twelve to fifteen hours per week (exclusive of the summer campus residency), and the entire program takes a minimum of two years.

Haft, who plans to graduate in May 2004, points out that the work is highly self-directed, and for that reason, candidates should have solid ideas of what they want to study. Lilly is no less emphatic. "The candidate that this program would serve the best is the returning professional with a passion for creative work," she said.

At the same time, said Haft, seeking an advanced degree when you're middle aged has its own set of problems. "I know there are times when I don't want someone to tell me what to do. I'm tired and I know my knee's going to blow out if you ask me to do that again." Luckily, Haft said, she could take it because "it's a summer intensive. It's a little bit like camp. You can go and turn yourself over for the ride and [know] you'll come out the other end," she said.

Ann Murphy is a Berkeley, California-based writer on the arts.