Cochran, Jerry Bywaters, 1936-

Jerry Bywaters Cochran grew up in a Dallas family that was actively involved in the arts. Her father, a nationally recognized painter, was for many years the director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, the predecessor of today's Dallas Museum of Art. He was also a longtime member of the art faculty of Southern Methodist University. Her mother, a musician by training, had a lifelong interest in dance and was one of the founders of both the Dallas Civic Ballet and the Dallas Dance Council.

Among Jerry's early teachers were Alexandra Danilova and Hanya Holm. After high school she attended the Juilliard School in New York, where her teachers included Martha Graham and Jose' Limon for modern dance, Anthony Tudor and Margaret Craske for ballet, and Louis Horst and Doris Humphrey for choreography. While at Juilliard she also took classes at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School. She received a Juilliard degree with majors in both modern dance and ballet, and on graduation received an award from the American Guild of Musical Artists as the outstanding graduate in her field. Thereafter, she received a Fulbright fellowship for study in Paris under Marcel Marceau and 'Etienne Decroux, the noted mimes.

As a performer, Jerry has appeared in New York, Paris, Washington, and most of the cities in Texas. As a teenage she toured with the Alexandra Danilova Concert Company, and later she danced for two years with the performing company of the Dallas Summer Musicals, where she worked under Franz Allers and George Schaefer.

Jerry has taught in many settings over the years, including the Juilliard preparatory division, the Kurt Jooss Folkwangschule, in Essen, Germany, and Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She was the first instructor in stage movement for the Dallas Theater Center and for ten years directed a school devoted exclusively to modern dance in Dallas. In 1968 she inaugurated the modern dance program at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth and remained in charge of that program for seventeen years. She has taught master classes for the American Ballet Theatre School in New York, Texas Woman's University, the Southwest and Pacific Regional Ballet Festivals, and other dance organizations from coast to coast. Her students have joined the dance companies of Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais, and Bella Lewitzky, as well as Pilobolus and Momix.

She founded and directed two modern dance companies -- the Dallas Ensemble of Dallas, which gave performing opportunities to the advanced students in her private studio, and the TCU Modern Dance Lab Company, which utilized the advanced modern dance students at TCU.

Her choreography has been performed on the Juilliard Concert Series in New York; by the Dallas Civic Ballet, the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and the Dance Ensemble of Dallas; in numerous performances at Texas Christian University; and by companies and soloists in Washington, New Orleans, Kansas City, many Texas cities, and Raleigh, North Carolina. For Dallas Theater Center she choreographed Burgess Meredith's production of the Dylan Thomas play, "Under Milkwood." She also performed, under the sponsorship of the Theater Center, a solo concert of her own choreography. In 1982 the Fort Worth Art Museum received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to present two of her works, along with two works of New York choreographer Lucinda Childs, in a concert entitled, "Contemporary Choreography: Two Views."

Jerry has served on the dance panels of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts. She served on the board and as a national officer of the National Association for the Regional Ballet. In 1974 she was asked by the Texas Commission on the Arts to prepare a study on "Objectives for Dance in Texas," and her articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications. Currently she serves on the artistic advisory boards of Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth, the Dallas Dance Council, and The International Theatrical Arts Society (TITAS), also of Dallas.

She has assisted in coordinating dance residencies which, under the sponsorship of the National Endowment for the Arts and other institutions, have brought such companies as those of Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Trisha Brown, Kei Takei, David Gordon, and Alwin Nikolais, to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In 1985 she was adjudicator for the Craft of Choreography Conference at the Southwestern Regional Ballet Festival. In 1992, her achievements were recognized on two occasions -- first, by the Dallas Dance Council, which honored her with their annual "Mary" award for her lifetime contribution to dance, then by the TCU dance alumni group, which presented her a lifetime achievement award for her contributions to the development of the Department of Ballet and Modern Dance at Texas Christian University.

Doris, Hering, writing in Dance Magazine, called her "a truly gifted and inspiring teacher." Other cities have referred to her choreography as "artistic creativity of the highest order" and called her "Texas' leading exponent of modern dance." A German critic once wrote of her, "Ein Wirblewind Kam Aus Texas," ("A whirlwind out of Texas").

CHRONOLOGY

Many of the activities covered in these files overlap in time. Also, the organizational setting for dance in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in those years is no longer well understood. For those reasons the list below is the chronology completed by JBC.

To 1954 -- studied ballet at Edith James Studio in Dallas. At one point JBC studied with Alexandra Danilova, the internationally famous ballerina, who taught there for a time and formed a small company with which I danced.

1954-1955 -- attend SMU.

1954 -- summer course under Hanya Holm at Colorado College.

1955-56 -- danced in Dallas Summer Musicals.

1955-58 -- attended Juilliard in New York, studied with Martha Graham, Jose' Limon, Anthony Tudor, Louis Horst, and Doris Humphrey.

1958-59 -- Fulbright to Paris, studied with Marcel Marceau, Etienne Decroux, others.

1959 -- summer, taught in Essen, Germany at Folkwangschule directed by Kurt Jooss.

1959-60 -- joined Dallas Theather Center's first faculty, teaching stage movement and acting in several plays. Choreographed and acted in Dylan Thomas's "Under Milkwood" directed by Burgess Meredith.

1961 -- solo dance concert at Dallas Theater Center.

1959-68 -- worked with Dallas Civic Ballet (DCB) as teacher of modern dance, choreographer and performer. Except of occasional guest soloists and choreographers, the DCB in those years was run cooperatively by local dance professionals who taught the company (made up mostly of advanced students), choreographed, and performed most of the solos. With other nearby civic companies, the DCB participated in the Southwest Regional Ballet Festival annually. It eventually became the Dallas Ballet, now defunct.

In 1961 JBC choreographed a DCB production of Menotti's "Unicorn, Gorgon and Manticore" at the Theater Center, a production which was enlarged for the Southwest Festival in 1965. JBC choreographed several other works for the DCB during this period, including a portion of the first annual "Nutcracker" in 1963.

1960 - 65 -- private teaching at several studios in Dallas.

1965 - 70 -- taught at Preston Forest studio and developed enught advanced students to form a small performing group which came to be known as the Dance Ensemble. Its first performance was in 1969 when it performed portions of Lloyd Pfautsch's "A Day for Dancing" at Highland Park United Methodist Church.

1968 - 75 -- joined TCU on part-time basis to establish modern program under Fernando Schaffenburg, head of ballet at TCU, the first U. S. college to offer a ballet major. Choreographed new works for TCU concerts almost annually thereafter. Began productions of "A Day for Dancing" in 1972, and these also continued almost annually.

1969 -- performed firsts liturgical dance solo at St. Stephen United Methodist. Continued religious solos frequently in subsequent years as well as religious group works using the Dance Ensemble or TCU dancers.

1970 - 80 -- established a studio where all age levels, including young children, could study modern dance exclusively, one of few such studios nationwide. The Dance Ensemble was expanded, became more active, and performed frequently in churches, synagogues, schools, colleges, on TV, in numerous other venues (e.g., the State Fair, art museums, Thanksgiving Square), and always at the studio's end-of-the-year (EOY) performance. Some performances, such as the operas and staged oratorios at St. Michael and All Angels church, were quite elaborate. JBC disbanded the studio and the Dance Ensemble in 1980 to concentrate on TCU.

1975 - 85 -- became full-time faculty member at TCU in 1975 when a modern dance major was established. An MFA program came later. Established the TCU Modern Dance Lab Company, which performed in numerous venues (e.g., Fort Worth's Scott Theater under an NEA grant, Kilgore Junior College). Left TCB faculty in 1985 and continued dance activity on a free-lance basis.

From the guide to the Jerry Bywaters Cochran Dance Collection MA96-1., (Texas/Dallas History & Archives, Dallas Public Library)