OU fine arts dean inducted into higher ed hall of fame

Nov. 13—It's an early end to Mary Margaret Holt's day if she gets home from work by 9 p.m.

But Holt, dean of the University of Oklahoma's Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts, still finds the work fulfilling after four decades, and hasn't lost her passion for dance or education.

"I love teaching as much as I love performing, definitely," she told The Transcript. "Because you see student progress, and you see what you've been trying, concepts that you've been trying to present to them coming to life."

Holt has worked in the college of fine arts for 40 years — the last seven as dean — and she was recently inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.

During her time at OU, Holt established initiatives that raised more than $1.3 million for dance students, oversaw planning for the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Center dance wing, and taken the university's ballet around the world.

She's also choreographed more than 40 ballets, and helped elevate the college's dance school, which was recently listed in Dance Magazine as one of the top three programs of its kind in the country.

"We always say, 'Lead by example,' but she is definitely a leader who leads that way," said OU assistant dance professor Boyko Dossev.

To be considered for induction, nominees must have worked full-time in higher education institutions in the state for at least 10 years, demonstrated excellence in teaching, scholarship, administration, research, outreach or public service, and brought honor and distinction to state higher education in the process, according to the Hall of Fame.

"We always say, 'Lead by example,' but she is definitely a leader who leads that way," said OU assistant dance professor Boyko Dossev.

Michael Bearden, head of the university's school of dance, said Holt's induction is "really well-warranted."

"We have so many resources, whether it's facilities or scholarship support," Bearden said. "We have so many avenues of support for our students or our faculty because of the groundwork she laid as the director of the school of dance."

'I just loved it'

Dance wasn't something Holt ever had to learn to enjoy.

She first started dancing in 1950s Austin, Texas, when she was five. It's where she informally learned how to dance with her friends.

"One by one, they decided it wasn't going to be their thing, so they left," she said. "But I kept going — I just loved it."

Holt didn't receive formal training until she was 12 — there wasn't a teacher in Austin with strong professional experience, she said. That changed when a dance instructor who performed with the New York City Ballet started teaching in the city.

"I saw her photograph in the newspaper. I was 12, and I just thought, 'OK, this is where I need to go, because she looks like the dancers in the books and in the films that I've seen,'" she said.

From there, Holt got a scholarship to study with the San Francisco Ballet for a summer when she was 15. She returned to Austin, finished school at 16, and got a scholarship to study with the New York City Ballet.

It was in New York that Holt realized she wanted to pursue school.

"I was a nerdy little kid, and thought it would be a really good idea to go to college because I thought I would be a richer dancer if I learned about art history, and if I could take more French, and if I could learn more literature," she said.

She earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts from OU, and in 1972, Holt performed as a solo dancer for the Houston Ballet, according to the university.

A decade later, she returned to OU as an adjunct professor. She said one of the reasons she wanted to go into higher education was because she wanted to be around other people who are as passionate about their disciplines as she is about dance.

In 1990, Holt was appointed chair of OU's school of dance. She held that position until 2015, when she became dean of fine arts.

No one ever told her "no" when she proposed something, she said.

"A couple of times, the implication was, 'I think you're a little crazy, but you can try that if you want to,'" she said.

Bearden said he appreciates how he can go to Holt when difficult situations arise for perspective. He said she's given him "valuable historical context" for his role.

Dossev, who came to OU in 2017 from the Boston Ballet and a teaching role at Harvard, said he's experienced the same level of professionalism from Holt as he did in Boston.

"She is probably the first one who comes to work and the last one who leaves," Dossev said. "She's always being able to support each professor and each student."

While she's helped elevate the dance program to what it is today, Holt always made sure the college of fine arts' student numbers stay consistent. She said "bigger isn't always better," especially since the arts require individual attention from instructors.

The school currently has more than 1,100 students paired with just over 100 faculty members.

"In our dance classes, we hope for no more than 20 students in a class, because they will not get the individual attention they need. Same thing in musical theater and theater; same thing in visual arts," she said. "You can't teach an arts class of 200 effectively."

Innovation a nd openness

Whether it's through the arts themselves or equipping her students for the real world, Holt continues to find ways to push the college into the future.

The college of fine arts is currently gearing up to launch an online master's degree in arts management in January. It'll be added to the college's arts management minor and undergraduate certificate program.

Holt said fine arts students "are probably twice as likely or three times as likely" as other university students to be self-employed.

"They need skills — they need management skills, they need fundamentals of business, they need to know if they want to go into arts administration in the future," she said. "And so they need some skills to get there. So that's something really important that I think we can offer them."

The arts management program will also equip potential administrators to know about the arts in addition to business, Holt said.

Holt has also been "very supportive" of the school of dance moving in a more improvisational direction, Bearden said.

"It would be very easy for someone who had been in this position for so long to be kind of stuck in their ways — you know, 'This is the way things go, this is the way it should be,'" he said.

And through my conversations with her as the dean about things that we can try in the school of dance that can be a new way of working, she's always very gracious and open to those ideas and thoughts."

Bearden said Holt is articulate with people on campus about the value of the arts. Dossev said all of Oklahoma knows what the college of fine arts does.

For Holt, the arts are important in higher education because "they are an expression of the human spirit."

"The minute the human spirit does not continue to be expressed, we have problems, because they speak across cultures. They speak across generations," she said.