Lonny Joseph Gordon

 

Career Narrative:  Professor Lonny Joseph Gordon


I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater Arts from the University of Texas, Austin in 1965.  My Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Choreography, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was granted in August 1967.  In October 1967, I first went to Japan as a Fulbright-Hays scholar to study the graphic and performing arts as represented in the Grand Kabuki Theater under the direction of Kanzaburo Nakamura XVII.  A 1968 full renewal of my Fulbright-Hays grant allowed me to continue my studies until 1969 and to be accepted into the Nishikawa School of Classical Japanese Dance - Cultural Studies and Umewaka Noh Theater.


My world debut as a theater design artist and concert soloist was on May 1, 1968 at Toronomon Hall in Tokyo.  After a concert and lecture tour of Japan in 1968, I was invited by the United States Information Agency to tour during summer through winter 1969, in Russia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Italy, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.  In 1970, I returned to the United States at the invitation of Ted Shawn to direct the Professional Artist Program at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Massachusetts.  My association with the Chicago icon and world dance innovator Ruth Page, Founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago Opera Ballet, started at Jacob’s Pillow in 1970.

From 1968 to the present, I developed an international career as a theater design innovator, development spokesman for the arts, and solo performer in major concert halls and museums.  I accepted invitations to teach art and choreography at India’s National School of Drama, the University of Stockholm, the National College of Chinese Culture, the Chautauqua Institution, Smith College, Seoul Institute of the Arts, and numerous other centers for learning.  I created a body of over 150 art-dance-theater works for commissioning sponsors as diverse as the World Exposition, Osaka, Japan; Cultural Dancers of Malaysia; Museum of Modern Arts, Stockholm; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Museum of Fine Art, Japan; Star Dancers Ballet of Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Northwestern University; Concert Dance, Inc.; Northeastern Illinois University; Chicago Moving Company; Free Street Theater; Southern Repertory Theater; Five College Moving Company, Kanopy Dance, and the Ruth Page Foundation.


For the 1979 year, I received the Japan Foundation Professional Fellowship.  During this time by 1980, I completed my Master of Classical Japanese Dance – Cultural Studies from the Nishikawa School as the first non-Japanese graduated.  In 1979, I also started my first studies of Bugaku and Gagaku with Kiyohiko Yamada within the Imperial Household School of Music and Dance.  At the Umewaka Noh Theater, I was invited to perform the role of Tamura as staged by Yasuyuki Umewaka.  During the summer of 1982, I held a Graduate School Research Grant from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to investigate Bugaku and Noh in Japan.  This extensive research and studies in Japan were evaluated as equivalent to a Doctorate of Fine Arts by the University of Wisconsin, Madison at the time of my tenure and promotion in 1981.

During the 1983 year, I researched the roots of Bugaku and Korean Culture as a Fulbright Grant-Senior Lecturer-Researcher to Korea.  For the summer of 1985, I held a Graduate School Research Grant from the University of Wisconsin to investigate the Rituals in Aztec and Mayan Cultures and the Surviving Indian Folk Arts of Mexico.  The Korean Performing Arts Institute awarded me an intensive study fellowship to the Korean Traditional Performing Arts Center for the summers of 1994 and 1995.  This study had a specific focus in traditional dance, music, and drumming. 


I received a 1971-72 Mobil Foundation Grant and a 1982-83 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. The Nevada Arts Council awarded me Jackpot, Project, and Presenters grants from 1992-2001 for the World Dance and Music Series and Family Affairs Series I launched at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).  I received the 1995 Nevada Arts Council Professional Development Grant and the 1996-1997 Nevada Design Arts Grant in Architecture and the Environment.  In autumn 1999, I received a full semester Faculty Development Grant from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in support of my research for the Ruth Page Centennial Celebration for the Ruth Page Foundation.  This included the writing of “A Life of Firsts,” the creation of new choreography based on the work of Ruth Page, and extensive recorded interviews with Andre Delfau, her 2nd husband, the costume and scenic artist for the Paris Opera.


In 2001, I received the UNLV Planning Initiative Grant, created by President Harter, for the development of two new WebCT distance education courses in Art in Context and Dance Appreciation.  This involved developing 28 one-hour filmed lectures with all attending visuals and interviews of leading art personalities.  The classes were taught through the World-wide Web and expanded into five three-credit sections.  By the second semester the two new distance education courses had enrollment from around the world and waiting lists to be enrolled in excess of over 300 potential students.  This was a clear path for the general education requirement of Fine Arts credits to be fulfilled.  The courses pioneered by me expanded into other Internet course offerings. 


I have received numerous other grants to support my research.   I am listed in several editions of the International Biographical Center’s Who’s Who and Marquis Who’s Who, as well as having received the 1992 - 1993 Men and Women of the Year, State of Nevada for the American Biographical Institute. 

                                                                                                                                 

As a journalist I held the position of cultural reviewer for the Asahi Evening News of Japan in 1968 and for the Korea Times in 1983.  The Japan Quarterly, the Japan Culture Institute, the Okura Lantern, Dance Scope, Choom of Korea, and Performing Arts Journal have published my articles.  I was a cultural writer for the Capital Times in Wisconsin, an editor for Japanese cultural and fine arts translations for Encyclopedia Britannica, and a reader for William C. Brown Company.  For 1999, I was invited and wrote the Ruth Page centennial celebration monograph, “1899 - 1999, A Life of Firsts.”


In 1976, I was invited to return to my Alma Mater.  In 1981, I was granted tenure as an Associate Professor and Resident Artist.  In June of 1985, I was promoted to the rank of Full Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where I served on the graduate faculty and as the Graduate Coordinator for Dance MA, MS, MFA and PhD degrees. I focused on internationalized enrollment in graduate programs through my world network during this time.


In July 1991, I joined the faculty of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as a Full Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dance Arts. I was the 1993-1999 Southwest Region Representative for the American College Dance Festival Association and the National Vice President for Membership for 1999-2004.


In 1994, I became the founding Director of Development for the Performing Arts Center at UNLV.  I served on Nevada Arts Advocates, the National Society of Fund Raising Executives, and the Ruth Page Foundation.  In 1997 and 1999, I was an invited art collector contributing works from my world collection to the Las Vegas Art Museum exhibition of "Las Vegas Collects."  For 1994-1996 and 1997, I was the elected President of the UNLV Nevada Faculty Alliance.  For 1997-1998, I became the Associate for Special Projects and Development for the College of Fine Arts.


As a Professor of Fine Arts, my teaching includes Art in Context, Survey of Art - Renaissance to 20th Century, Beginning Drawing, Advanced Choreography and Improvisation, all levels of Dance Technique, Rhythmic Studies, Music and Dance Relationships, Dance In Film, Acting and Directing, Fine Arts Business Management, Theory and Philosophy, Aesthetics and Criticism, Dance Appreciation, and Cultural Studies of Japan and Korea.


Since July 2004, from an academic base at Illinois State University (ISU) in Normal, Illinois, I continue my cultural work in education as a professor, an author, an artist, and a spokesman for the fine arts.  In my position from 2004 - 2007 as Dean of the College of Fine Arts, I initiated and guided the development of the following projects:


1. A plan for new fine arts facilities has become the number one priority for the University and the project has been listed on the Illinois Board of Higher Education priority facilities list with an initial funding of $44,400,000.

2. With the assistance of a new Development Director for the fine arts, an endowment for the arts has been developed to achieve $3,700,000.

3. Faculty lines have been searched and recruited for 21 positions. The Dance Program in the School of Theatre has established two new degree options in Dance Performance and Dance Education. A new Dance faculty tenure line has been added in the College of Fine Arts and a new performance studio for dance will open in January 2009.

4.    The focus for global leadership in fine arts education has expanded to England, Mexico, Thailand, and Japan, where ISU established faculty and student exchange programs, signed learning partnerships, and for fine arts I hosted five guest artists in practicing exchange with other countries.

5. The School of Theatre has mounted a Kabuki Theatre production, a Thornton Wilder presentation, and hired a new artistic director for the renowned Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

6. The School of Music has taken the Madrigal Singers to perform twice in the Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center; commissioned five new original compositions from living American composers; and taken the Wind Symphony to perform premier works at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in New York.

7. The nationally known glass program in the School of Art has twice taken its students to exhibit work at the Marx-Saunders Gallery in Chicago, supported by the Midwest Art Glass Collectors. The works of all students were sold.

8. All Academic degree programs have received national accreditation from the authorizing bodies and in 2007 major curriculum revisions were focused across the college in all arts areas of study for a University program review.

9. For the International Council of Fine Arts Deans (ICFAD) I was one of six national deans who created the ICFAD 2006 Leadership Conference held at the University of Utah.  I am one of five national deans on the ICFAD Global Connections Task Force engaged to plan the 2008 international conference in Dubrovnik.  This is an outgrowth of my positioning the ISU College of Fine Arts as a “Global Leader in Fine Arts Education.”

10. On February 18, 2007, for the President’s Concert celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Illinois State University, the School of Music Wind Symphony performed two world premieres.  These two new symphonies (Procession of the Academics and A Carl Sandburg Reader by composer David Maslanka) were commissioned in 2005.


As Artist In Residence starting in January 2008 for Illinois State University I am creating new works of art working with fine arts majors and non-majors across the university by incorporating an interdisciplinary relationship of the arts and letters.  This work is uplifting the cultural/social awareness of the work of the artist in society and the academy. I am performing as a collaborative creative artist role model and educator for the students.  As a renaissance artist with internationally evolved talents in Art, Dance, Film, Music, and Theatre, I contribute to the ecology of the human spirit as an author, a choreographer, an artist, an educator, a fundraiser, and an advocate for the fine arts.


In 2008 and 2009, my original solo concerts have been presented by the Rubicon International Theatre Festival, Revolutions International Theatre Festival, Theatre of Changes - Athens, Greece, and the California International Theatre Festival.  Invitations for collaborations in 2010 are from Kanopy Dance, Inc in Wisconsin, Winifred Haun and Dancers in Chicago, and the California International Theatre Festival.