Professor to celebrate new book, healing from stroke

May 10, 2002, started out as a typical day for Sally Banes, Marian Hannah Winter Professor of Theater History and Dance Studies.

That morning she heard a doctoral defense. Afterward, she stopped to make a telephone call from a nearby office.

She was discovered nearly unconscious on the floor, still clutching the receiver.

Banes had suffered a brain aneurysm, a massive stroke. She lapsed into a coma in the ambulance en route to the hospital.

In the months that followed, she had surgery and battled infection.

Now, 17 months later, Banes is back.

She has a lot to celebrate: In addition to improved health, she received a New York Dance and Performance Award for lifetime achievement, and UW Press has published a book she edited. A special event, Friday, Oct. 3. will recognize these accomplishments.

Banes will talk briefly about her book, “Reinventing Dance in the 1960s: Everything Was Possible,” and sign copies. The volume, which boasts a foreword by Mikhail Baryshnikov, is a collection of essays on the work of groundbreaking choreographers and performers such as Meredith Monk, Anna Halprin and Kenneth King, and companies including the Judson Dance Theater in Los Angeles.

“People should pay attention to this work. No one is making dances like this anymore,” she says. “Today, the emphasis is on heroics, big works. In the ’60s you saw dances about ordinary, everyday occurrences. I find that type of choreography enormously energizing.”

Banes has some advice for others confronted with obstacles and setbacks. “I sat down one day and made a list of things I wanted to accomplish by this fall. Then I took them one step at a time. Each individual step might not have seemed like much — standing up straight, being able to walk on my own without a walker. But taken together, they add up,” she says.

Banes says she is grateful to colleague Li Chiao-Ping, professor of dance. In January 1999, Li suffered a car accident that severely damaged her leg and foot. She has recovered and is performing again.

“She’s been an inspiration, and also a great source of practical help,” Banes says.

With the help of graduate student Andrea Harris, Banes is at work on an anthology of her writing, covering 1974-2002. It is due out next year.

Meanwhile, the Oct. 3 welcome-back event, sponsored by the Dance Program and the UW Press, will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the H’Doubler Performance Space in Lathrop Hall. A reception will follow.

Information: 262-1691, uwdance@wisc.edu.