“I can’t be scared,” Fallon Brackley ’25 said to herself before she embarked on a three-month journey of dance and discernment across Europe.
Thanks to the Osborne Endowed Scholarship, the dance and biology double major started her travel in Belgium last summer to put on her dancing shoes for a dance workshop recommended by her mentor, assistant professor Marion Ramirez. At the Tictac Art Centre in Brussels, Brackley took five different classes and danced with people from around the world.
“It is my perception that dancers in the U.S. seem to have a different connection with their bodies due to the normalized training methods here,” she said. This observation was a throughline in all her summer dance experiences.
After finishing the three-week workshop, during which she danced six hours a day, Brackley needed to give her body a break. With time to spare until her next session, she and a friend she met while in Belgium set out for Portugal. She slowed down to explore a new culture while backpacking through the countryside and sharing meals with locals.
Two weeks later, Brackley met up with some Denison friends and traveled through Spain and France on her way to Greece for the Kalamata Dance Festival. Training under two different teachers, Brackley experienced new methods of dancing.
“It was just finally coming into dynamics of movement,” she said. “I hadn’t really explored movement like that before.”
Her time in Kalamata concluded with her first-ever dance battle. In 100-degree heat, facing off against 32 opponents, she was one of the elite eight invited to perform in front of a large crowd in the center of town.
“It was a crazy cool experience!” she said.
Brackley then made her way to Vienna for the final dance workshop of the summer. There, she participated in the ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival, meeting more people from around the world and immersing herself in yet another new way of thinking about dance.
“In Europe, art in general is more accepted,” she said. “Learning from this dance culture has made me significantly better.”
What began as an audition featuring Brackley’s first dance improv performance turned into a summer experience that changed her post-graduation trajectory.
“I was going to go straight into veterinary school,” she said. “But after this summer, I realized I have the ability to be a dancer. To be a good dancer.”
“I am so incredibly grateful for the ability to learn so much about so many different people and things in dance,” she said. “Thank you to the Osbournes for the opportunity to learn and share with others what I have learned.”
The prestigious Mary G. and G. Harold Osborne Endowed Scholarship is awarded annually each spring to a small number of outstanding students majoring in studio art, cinema, dance, music, and/or theatre. Candidates must be nominated to apply by their major department and must have a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA. Following a presentation/audition in the spring, recipients are selected by a faculty committee based on artistic merit, academic acumen, and leadership qualities. Application guidelines can be obtained from the music department chair.
This endowment has been made possible through the generosity of Dr. William N. Osborne, honoring the memory of his parents, who spent many of their last years in Granville. William Osborne came to Denison in 1961 as a faculty member in the Department of Music. Later, he was named Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts, the position he held when he retired in 2003.
