Professor Ralph Buck: Dancing to his own tune

For those who might not have imagined dance professor Ralph Buck as a farmer, horse rider, banana plantation worker, builder of barbed wire fences, PE teacher in outback Australia or cooking for a large family aged six, think again.

In his packed inaugural lecture on 14 May, Buck looked back on the path that's led him to spend 21 years as head of department for Dance Studies in the University of Auckland’s School of Creative Arts.

Under his leadership, the discipline has grown from one to eight full time staff and completely transformed the way students learn dance at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Life on the farm
Buck grew up on a farm in New South Wales where he was one of five brothers (“mum stopped teaching to have five children in five years”).

He describes his parents as “a very loving and adventurous couple” who were both teachers, so he comes from “a long line of educators”.

But the family were always on the move.

“My father was a risk taker and always looking to build new things or projects and consequently we were always moving houses, towns and schools. While I share his desire to create things, I certainly didn’t share his interest in moving houses.”

As a young boy, he says, his interests were surfing, running and going to school.

“Surfing saw me out in the wide ocean, away from everyone, and running was time for me to be lost in my own head. School was away from the farm and was such a joy.”

While he didn’t complete university entrance, he did get into Newcastle Teachers College.

“I had a great time at teachers college, where I completed an honours degree and became a PE teacher. I learnt three things there: how to fail an essay, ask for help and try again; how to drink champagne for breakfast and that I loved dancing, both sober and otherwise.”

European adventures
After college, curiosity to see the wider world took him to Europe where he discovered “art, history, architecture, languages, food, colour and textures” and became a tour guide for two years.

“At 23, I was leading groups of 50 people on eight-week bus tours.”

A relationship with a Kiwi brought him to Auckland in the late 1980s where he discovered City Dance on Queen Street; just the place to explore his love of dance.

“It was the beginning of a new world of physical pain, moving, jumping, and art. It was really a combination of many challenges that I enjoyed.”

However, he knew he didn’t ultimately want to be a performer.

“My heart was in teaching, but in 1987 there were very few options for ongoing postgraduate study in dance, so I enrolled in a Master of Arts in Dance at the University of Surrey, England. While studying, I was asked to perform in everyone’s choreography, so I developed my performance skills there.”

But his interest in dance education, and especially dance for learners with mixed abilities (which refers to disabilities not level of ability), was what “got me out of bed each morning".

So he did his masters thesis on developing a dance programme for adults with Downs Syndrome and joined a dance company in London that included people with mixed abilities.

Then it was back to Sydney with “no money, no job, no contacts and no plan”.
“But at least I had a masters in dance education and I thought that was wonderful!”

Teaching in the outback
His first teaching job was at West Wyalong High School in outback New South Wales.

“On my first morning I arrived in formal tweed trousers, long-sleeved shirt and tie. I met the principal who was dressed in a t-shirt, stubbies and jandals. It was about 38 degrees at 9am.”

After telling him he’d “need to find a way to fit in and get some different clothes,” the principal asked if he had any interests or aspirations as a young teacher.

“I said ‘I’d like to teach the students dance.’ He fell off the chair, then stood up, looked me in the eyes, shook my hand and said, ‘I wish you all the very best of luck’.”

Otago days
Buck spent a year at Wyalong teaching PE, health and dance. Later he took up a lecturing position at the University of Otago’s School of Physical Education, intending to get his PhD and return to Brisbane.

“However my colleague Ali East (notable choreographer and dancer educator) and I developed new curriculum, created a new masters degree, tripled the size of the department and worked tirelessly to defend and cement the reputation of dance.”

He then “powered through his doctorate in two and a half years” and was head-hunted by the-then Dean of the former Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries to lead the dance programme at Auckland.

"Which I found ironic,” he says “as I’d just written a review of the existing dance programme and suggested to the University they close it and let UNITEC and AUT own the dance space! Fortunately, the VC had the vision and the courage to support dance and maintain Auckland as a comprehensive university.”

A vision for dance at Auckland
Buck came to Auckland with a vision to create one of the world’s best dance studies departments, “which took dance beyond technique and conservatoire training”.

“I wanted to create a raft of tertiary degrees and a department that recognised the reality that graduates need diverse skills to build portfolio careers.”

He also planned to create an education “in, about and through dance" that engaged with diverse communities, was research-based, valued cross-disciplinary collaborations and fostered creativity and great teachers.

Taking dance into communities (hospitals, schools, retirement villages, marae) has been a distinctive feature of his teaching and, he believes, increased the relevance of a dance degree.

“Importantly for Māori and Pacific students, connecting with community and whanau is a key motivation for striving for success, which in turn, translates into community mana and respect.”

Buck believe dance offers "vast undiscovered potential for improving the world and humanity".

Dancing to his own tune
On so many occasions, he says, people have asked him about what he’s wearing or told him what is or isn’t appropriate.

“When I was at that outback school, I was often teased by the Year 9 boys for wearing bright shirts, which seemed to offend them.” Although eventually some Year 9 girls stuck up for him and told the boys where to go.

Risky but worth it
Choosing a career in dance is always going to be a risk, says Buck, so you have to be flexible.

“Security of employment is poor, pay is poor and yet we do it. We take a chance to follow our dreams, and to make dance work for us.”

What’s required are “a set of portfolio of skills” that can be adapted to different contexts, as well as “being alert to opportunity and taking risks,” he says.

After running through many valuable ‘lessons learned’ over the years, including some mentioned here, Buck highlighted notable alumni from the dance programme and thanked the many students, colleagues and “dear-to-my-heart administrative assistants” across his 21 years at the University.

And what would a dance lecture be without dancing? A mini ‘hand dancing' lesson was a fun activity to finish things off.