When Pittsburgh native Daniel Roberts was an undergraduate student working toward a BFA degree in dance at Ohio State in the 1990s, he decided to recreate a solo work — Totem Ancestor by Merce Cunningham — using Labanotation, a system of documenting dance much like a score documents a piece of music. “This was Merce’s only solo work, and no one had ever performed it since he did in the 1940s and early '50s,” Roberts said. “Merce himself wanted to see me, and coach me, in performing the work. That performance really got a lot of attention — it was like a little treasure that had been unearthed.”

Now coming full circle, Roberts, who danced with Merce Cunningham’s company for five years and now is an assistant professor of dance at Ohio State, will coach undergraduate student Tommy Batchelor in performing Cunningham’s Totem Ancestor to a soundtrack by John Cage on Sept. 16 at the Wexner Center for the Arts. The event is part of the opening celebration for the exhibition Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957. Batchelor will perform the 3-minute piece in the Wexner Center Galleries at 6:30 and 7 p.m. that day.

“It’s exciting to coach this piece, and it feels like it’s just the right situation,” Roberts said. “Tommy is very talented and can perform the technical components and dynamics of the piece. He’s a very thoughtful and engaged student and dancer, and has the reverence to do this piece. It’s rewarding all around.”

In addition to Batchelor’s performance of Totem Ancestor, Roberts and fellow dance professor Karen Eliot will direct Ohio State dance students in three key Black Mountain-era Cunningham works on Oct. 6 and 27 in the galleries.

Susan Hadley, chair of the Department of Dance, applauds the unique experience the events offer to her students. “Merce Cunningham was an iconoclastic choreographer ahead of his time, a pioneer of dance, especially dance that happened in less traditional spaces,” she said. “This gives our students the opportunity to dance in a gallery setting, taking dance to different venues and training as ‘total artists.’ It also connects them with this particular time in history when Black Mountain College was truly an inspiration for artists — a cauldron of new ideas about art-making in America.” 

Batchelor, who danced the lead role of Billy Elliot on Broadway as a teenager, did not expect to become a Buckeye. “Originally I was just going to audition (for dance) at NYU – I wanted to go to New York City as soon as possible. That was my plan,” he said. “But then I auditioned at Ohio State… and I figured I could learn more here.”