Watch the Dance Program in action!
In both BFA and BA offerings, UMass dance students are thinking critically, engaged in the community, and fueled by an entrepreneurial spirit. These sentiments are supported and enhanced in the Five College Dance Department, where students quadruple their course choices, performance opportunities, and abilities to network during matriculation and beyond (with no additional costs).
Watch the Dance Program video to learn more!
Bachelor of Arts
The Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree offers a liberal arts education and allows students to combine studies in dance with other fields of interest. Students are required to take eight courses in technique, and fourteen courses in dance theory. A Senior Project is required. Courses may be selected from the technique idioms of ballet, modern dance, and jazz. Academic courses include dance history, composition, rhythmic analysis, scientific foundations of dance, and dance production.
Bachelor of Fine Arts
The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree requires intensive study in dance techniques and theory. Students are required to take sixteen courses in technique and fourteen courses in dance theory. A Senior Project is required. Courses may be selected from the technique idioms of ballet, modern dance, and jazz. Academic courses include dance history, composition, rhythmic analysis, scientific foundations of dance, and dance production.
The UMass Dance Program embraces rigor and risk in a program rich in artistic integrity and disciplined dance training. We believe that a robust and relevant curriculum should empower and open new pathways for our students to prepare for successful careers in the professional and academic fields of dance. The program’s core offerings consist of curricula that, through the highest quality of training and instruction, strengthen and refine dance techniques and multidisciplinary artistry, as well as provide scholarly inquiry into history, heritage, science, and somatic and creative practices.
The Dance Program offers experiences that are accessible to students who seek serious dance studies and benefit from a resident faculty actively engaged in art making and scholarship both nationally and internationally. Faculty in the Dance Program strive to not only teach but mentor and provide a strong theoretical base from which each dancer can grow and work as an individual artist.