Onyekwere P. Ozuzu thought she would become a lawyer.
But once she got onto the dance floor, she decided to focus her life on becoming an artist.
“Dance is my home art form,” she said. “What I experienced on the dance floor was the most transformative experience of my young life up to that point.”
Ozuzu became UF’s College of the Arts dean on Aug. 1. Previously, she served as the dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Columbia College in downtown Chicago and also worked as the dance department chair for four years.
“The dean’s portfolio is really broad, which is just the way my brain works,” she said. “My brain likes to travel out across large distances and see things kind of from a big picture.”
When the opportunity to take this new job presented itself, Ozuzu said her move to Florida surprised her—but was a homecoming.
In high school, Ozuzu danced in Florida and found her love for contemporary and cultural styles. She also was part of a community dance troupe at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
“When I came down here and started hearing about what was going on at the University of Florida, I couldn’t help but get interested,” she said. “It’s an amazing time to be a student at a place like this.”
Many other liberal arts colleges across the country are losing enrollment, but UF is seeing the opposite, Ozuzu said. The influx of hundreds of new faculty is one of the things that attracted her to UF.
“As dean, I couldn’t think of a more exciting environment to be in than a place that was getting such an infusion of creativity and experience,” she said.
Ozuzu incorporates what she has studied, including ballet, Japanese martial arts, West African dance, Afro-Caribbean dance, house and club dancing into her teaching.
Jennifer Setlow, the associate dean for academic and student affairs, said Ozuzu doesn’t lecture — she has conversations with students.
“She’s a collaborator, she’s a listener and she’s also someone who both leads but also facilitates other voices being heard,” Setlow said.
The future of the college and the relationship between arts and the economy and technology is going to change radically in coming years, Ozuzu said.
“We’re not here for decoration anymore,” she said. “And we never were.”
Contact Angela DiMichele at adimichele@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @angdimi
Photo courtesy to the Alligator