Meet the Professor
She teaches and dances and therefore she is
Tiffany Lovell
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: News
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Although the chair of NDNU's Department of Modern Languages and Culture will not admit her age, she does say she is too old to dance on stage. That really doesn't seem to be true. With her vibrant skin and youthful glow, she doesn't appear a day over 40! She epitomizes, passion, grace and femininity.
The native of France started her teaching career at Notre Dame in 1965 when the school was still the College of Notre Dame. She has the longest tenure of any current faculty member. She applied to be a dance instructor in classical ballet and jazz and she was more than qualified for the position.
Growing up in Lyon, France, La Roche-Davis said she knew very early that she wanted to be on the stage. At age 13, she enrolled in classical ballet. In the world of ballet, 13 is very late to start and she said she knew she would have to work very hard even to keep up with the other students.
She dedicated endless hours to practicing (while also working to graduate early from high school) and was blessed with extremely supportive parents who let her travel and perform throughout Europe.
La Roche-Davis was just 15 and a new high school graduate when she began dancing professionally.
Money was tight in the post-World War II period in France, and dancing provided not only an artistic outlet for her but also a source of income. Even though her paychecks hardly covered the cost of shoes, leotards and costumes, she nonetheless was getting paid.
She also had to face the challenge of defeating the stereotype of the typical dancer's physique.
"It was a challenge because I was not the typical ballerina," she said. "I didn't have the typical ballerina body. I was short, very bosomy and more theatrical. I was put in character roles like the Spanish dancer instead of the lead in Swan Lake. But I worked so hard to be the best, and I was very good at what I did."
While she kept dancing, she said she began to miss the intellectual stimulation of school. She entered the university to study her native French, English and, of course, dance.
In 1965, she said she decided to stop dancing professionally and move to California to teach. She got offers from top-notch schools like Stanford and Santa Clara who wanted her to teach French and dance and offered her scholarships to work on her master's degree.
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