When you grow up surrounded by creative, highly educated female relatives, you can’t help but follow in their footsteps. At least, that’s how it went for Jody Gottfried Arnhold. Her mother and aunts were “Hunter girls” — strong women who were proud of their careers and who often reminded young Jody that their Hunter educations had made their success possible.
“They talked about it all the time,” said Arnhold, who grew up as the oldest of four in Washington, D.C.
The children all knew that their mother, Lenora Marcus Gottfried ’35, had gone to Hunter in The Bronx, studied biology, and graduated at age 19 during the Great Depression. Aunts Ruth and Frieda Gottfried also attended Hunter in the 1930s and were lifetime educators in New York City public schools.
In fact, a phone conversation with her Aunt Ruth — a nursery schoolteacher at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan (now the 92NY) — likely ignited Arnhold’s career. As young Jody told Ruth all that she had learned in her dance classes, her aunt voiced the idea that Jody might someday teach dance at the Y.
She got that job and many others.
Often called the “doyenne of dance,” Arnhold is an international luminary of dance advocacy and education. Not only did she teach dance for 25 years in New York City public schools, she would go on to create the Dance Education Laboratory at 92NY in 1995. She’s also a noted philanthropist, and former chair and a driving force in building the famed Ballet Hispanico. She also executive- produced an Emmy-nominated documentary about dance in public schools, PS Dance!, which features several Hunter alumni at work.
She’s not a former dance educator, either; she teaches a weekly class at the Dance Education Laboratory today. (Her own degrees come from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Laban Institute of Movement Studies, and Columbia University Teachers College.)
At Hunter — where she donates each year to the Mother’s Day Scholarship Campaign, in honor of her mother — she helped catapult the college into New York’s leading public school for the arts.
In 2010, she established the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at Hunter, which offers graduate degrees in dance education as well as New York State pre-k-12 dance-teacher certifications. In 2018, a generous gift from Jody and her husband John enabled Hunter to refurbish “The Jody,” a beautiful performance and laboratory space for the Department of Dance — which became a full-fledged department in part through her largess. In 2023, Hunter honored Arnhold with a doctorate of humane letters.
“This studio is the cornerstone of the dance program at Hunter College,” Arnhold said of the suite of spaces that functions as a graduate “dance laboratory” for the rehearsal, performance, instruction, and study of modern dance. “It’s the space that the program needed from the very beginning, and it’s glorious. It’s certainly exceeded any expectation.”
The office suites and study space are wallpapered with symbols of movement. “This part is the Laban notation of a dance, of a duet,” Arnhold clarified, pointing to the abstract figures. “And it’s the greeting dance, which is kind of a classic.”
Over the past 15 years, the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program has certified more than 160 teachers — most of whom teach at New York City public schools.
“We haven’t even begun to make a dent. We’ve done so much, and there's so much more to do,” she said. “We’ve got to keep going to reach at least a million kids and a thousand schools.”
Arnhold’s program continues to develop organically, now offering a fast track for professional dancers, who often hold MFA degrees, to become certified teachers, and the Dance Education CLASS Leadership program, which enables certified dance teachers to step into leadership roles.
“They are going to be prepared and certified to be leaders in the field,” said Arnhold, a staunch advocate of public education. She listed a few such positions: director of dance at the Department of Education, borough arts coordinator, principal, assistant principal, adding, “We’re going to flood the system with [Hunter-educated] folks because we’re meeting them where they are.”
At a time when the federal government is cutting funds for the arts, does Arnhold ever worry about a retrenchment of dance education?
“There are too many people that are going to make sure that we don’t go back,” she said. “I believe in public education. I believe in dance education for every child, and I think it should be the best. And I think [Hunter’s program] is the best.”
Dance education is “lifelong learning, and that’s instilled in them” in Hunter’s dance education programs, continued Arnhold, sitting in The Jody with alumni from the program who joined her for a photoshoot for this publication. “Our graduates keep learning and growing, and many of them develop a very strong voice. Sitting here is the next leader.”
The program doesn’t limit itself to the classroom. Students this year went on a study trip to Cuba to learn Afro-Cuban dance and strengthen their Spanish, both of which will enhance their teaching in New York City schools.
Arnhold also reflected on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the use of new technologies in the dance classroom. Even though it disrupted much schooling, it taught the dance education world how to reach students online.
“Our reach is enormous because of the technology, the online presence — there’s really no going back from it,” Arnhold said. “Of course, in-person [instruction] is what we want; however, we want to reach everybody. Technology is helping us with that. It really creates access.”
At the heart of Arnhold’s long dance education career is her north star, providing dance for every child.
As she declared: “We need dance education in every state to create citizens for democracy!”
