Anne F. Hogan is passionate about interdisciplinary approaches to the arts and their benefits for students.
Anne F. Hogan, the new dean of the College of Performing Arts (COPA) at Chapman University, has followed her interests to a surprising variety of geographic and disciplinary destinations. Hogan, who started at Chapman on July 15, is a widely respected dance and theater scholar whose background as a ballet dancer adds a unique perspective to her research.
After dancing with the Boston Ballet, not far from her hometown of Quincy, Massachusetts, Hogan started university at the relatively late age of 27, earning an undergraduate degree from Harvard and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University, all in English Literature. She found success as a performer, choreographer and teacher of classical ballet and contributed to publications on the choreographer George Balanchine and theater director and artist Robert Wilson.
Hogan also developed a reputation for academic leadership in the arts. She was founding dean of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Ithaca College (New York), dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts at the University of Memphis, director of education at the Royal Academy of Dance (London) and associate dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Languages, and Education at London Metropolitan University.
“Anne Hogan is a tremendous addition to the College of Performing Arts at Chapman,” said Chapman University President Daniele Struppa. “Her track record as a scholar, artist and administrator will continue to propel COPA’s momentum, with its nationally ranked programs and best-in-class facilities and performances. Building on the remarkable legacy of Guilio Ongaro, who served as dean of COPA for 10 years, Chapman students and the entire Orange County arts community will benefit from having a leader of such distinction at the helm of COPA.”
Culture OC recently talked to Hogan about her career and her plans for the arts at Chapman University.
Culture OC: You have an impressive resume on two continents. You’ve spent much of your career in Europe.
Anne F. Hogan: I spent more than 22 years living in France and the U.K., and it was absolutely wonderful. London just has an amazing cultural scene. My last position in London I was essentially a dean, but I was called the Director of Education for the Royal Academy of Dance. And I loved it. My career has been quite international. I have friends in lots of different time zones.
Culture OC: You started your career as a ballet dancer. Tell us about your background as a performer.
Hogan: I trained with the Boston Ballet Company, and when I graduated high school, I … joined the Boston Ballet Company. In those days it was sort of like, “If you're not in a major company by the time you're 19, you know, it's not gonna happen.” I left and I went to Pacific Northwest Ballet for a year, which was wonderful, because the Balanchine repertoire there was fantastic.
Culture OC: You did a lot of international touring as a young dancer. How did that influence your career?
Hogan: (Boston Ballet) went on a world tour, and I was part of the group that went to China. I had never been on a plane before. And then we went to Hong Kong and Israel. Those years of touring also took me to Italy and France and London. And I think that's where I caught the travel bug and really started to develop that international perspective. Although I couldn't have imagined at the time that I was going to be coming back to work in France or in London in higher education.
Culture OC: How did you make the transition to academia?
Hogan: I wanted to be a professor. I loved reading, and at first I thought I was done with dancing. I was really fortunate to get a scholarship to Harvard University at 27. My degrees are actually in English Literature. I went on to Brown University for my graduate studies. And I studied with one of my mentors there, Coppélia Huber Kahn, who is an amazing, really great Shakespeare scholar.
Culture OC: When and why did you go to Europe?
Hogan: In 1994 I decided to move to Paris. It was crazy because I had no working papers and didn't speak French, but it kind of started an amazing ride. I was teaching as an adjunct professor at the American University. I just got up one day and (said), “I’ve got to get back to ballet class.” I studied a lot of floor barre technique, and then I just got immersed in the whole world of the performing arts. I had a small dance company that I formed in Paris with two other women.
Culture OC: What was the focus of your scholarship at that time?
Hogan: I was very interested in Shakespeare in performance. I was moving more towards a theater focus in my work. And I loved the work of (theater and film director) Peter Brook and his journey. So I ended up writing on Peter Brook's Shakespeare in French translation. That kind of shifted my focus to interdisciplinarity in the performing arts. My career path is kind of a non-linear journey. It's not necessarily planned. I mean, opportunities appeared, and I always just want to stretch myself and learn more.
Culture OC: You returned to the U.S. in 2016 and accepted a dean’s position the following year.
Hogan: I took on the role at the University of Memphis as Dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts. Wow. My responsibilities there included a large school of music and dance and theater, but I also had visual arts, film and communication. Journalism and architecture were a part of my (purview).
Culture OC: Describe your last position at Ithaca College.
Hogan: Ithaca College actually started out as a conservatory of music. Then they (decided to put) theater and dance and music together. So they wanted a new dean, kind of an inaugural dean for those three areas. It was an exciting position in a beautiful area in New York.
Culture OC: So what was it that excited you about the position at Chapman and drew you here?
Hogan: I had been aware of Chapman and the quality of the programs, the quality of the faculty, also I was just really impressed with Chapman's growth and enhanced visibility. And the facilities are just beautiful here. The recently opened Sandi Simon Center for Dance – that would be the envy of any professional company. The other thing that was really intriguing to me is the Musco Center. (We want to) look (for ways) that we can really maximize the cross-development of COPA and Musco. At the end of the day, it is also about people, and there's just such amazing faculty and staff here. And I'm chomping at the bit to get to know the students. We’ll be forming a student advisory committee this fall, which I think is vitally important. There’s a culturally rich landscape in Orange County, and the broader L.A. area. (I see) possibilities for increasing the visibility and the impact of COPA and what that brings to the student experience. And there's this one other little factor, which is that I like the sunshine.
Culture OC: How will your interdisciplinary approach influence your leadership of COPA?
Hogan: I'm just really so excited about that. It’s been interesting to meet the other deans, who like that collaborative spirit, and looking at what we can do. When I was here during the interview (process) I saw that the students want to know other students (from other disciplines) and work with them. There are so many things that we could explore: for example, developing (courses) for artists in the business and entrepreneurship aspect of the arts. A passion of mine is the arts and health. When I was at the Royal Academy of Dance, we launched a big project on dance for lifelong well-being. It’s really interesting when people are working on projects or developing courses or programs that expand their tool set and change the way that they're looking at their own discipline as well.
