Academic Learning Compact - Dance

The degree program in dance offers two separate tracks, one leading to a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and one leading to a Bachelor of Arts (BA).

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance provides extensive training and skills in contemporary dance and choreography with four interlocking areas of 21st century dance study: choreography and performance, intercultural dance studies, dance and medicine, and dance theatre. Dance is studied as a major performing art that impacts artistic, cultural, intellectual and social spheres.

The Bachelor of Arts in dance educates the student as a generalist in dance studies. Students follow a course of study essential to the field of dance, including performance, history, theory, literature, design, technology and related disciplines, all while enjoying sufficient flexibility to pursue other areas of study, including a minor or a major in a field other than dance. Successful degree candidates develop independent, interdisciplinary critical thought, and can articulate the power and agency of the arts over time and across cultures and perspectives.

Additional information is available from your major's website.

Before Graduating You Must

• Develop and complete a senior project approved and evaluated by faculty. The BA project would be research oriented. BFA would be choreographically related.
• Complete requirements for the baccalaureate degree, as determined by faculty.

Skills You Will Acquire in the Major (SLOs)

1. Proficiency in modern dance, ballet, jazz and world dance with mastery in modern dance.
2. Knowledge of appropriate traditional and innovative techniques.
3. Competency through public performance.
4. Ability to develop and realize a composition for public performance.
5. Abilities to develop creative processes and innovative contributions to dance; to develop visual and aural perceptions as related to performance quality, movement composition and production design.
6. Ability to understand and evaluate contemporary thinking about dance and related arts.
7. A critical sense of what defines 'serious' work in dance and the ability to recognize ideas and goals embodied in the work.
8. An informed view of the interaction of art and society in the 21st century.
9. Ability to make informed assessments about quality in dance.

BA in Dance

BFA in Dance