Dulcy Amter Oral History, 2005

Dulcy Amter, born and raised in Denver, Colorado, talks about her life in dance beginning with her childhood education and early dance classes. She took classes in elocution because she wanted to be an actress, but after a disappointing year in New York she returned to Denver. While enrolled at Barnes Business School she married Gershon Amter and they raised one child, Ann. Dulcy Amter started attending weekly modern dance classes at the University of Denver. Two years later she was Martha Wilcox's assistant. Under Wilcox's mentoring she became a teacher and choreographer at the University of Denver for 35 years. During those years Amter worked with Martha Wilcox, choreographing productions and forming the Martha Wilcox Dance Theatre, the company touring the region. After retirement Amter participated in many projects including the three year Young Audiences project, which was related to design in movement, that is dance in space as it related to design. Next Amter was approached by the Director of the Temple Emanuel Choir of Denver to explore Jewish dance for the Temple Emanuel cultural program. Amter wrote a dance play with the theme of Cinderella as her next project. Dulcy Amter along with Jerry Rumley took over the dance department for Martha Wilcox when Wilcox retired in about 1962. Amter remained on the dance faculty at the University of Denver until her retirement in 1979. Her daughter, Ann Amter joined the dance faculty in 1968 and remained until about 1986. Dulcy Amter, along with Ann Amter created and developed The University of Denver Dance Theatre.