Dance
MFA Dance
Important
Prerequisites
Applicants for the MFA in dance must have an undergraduate BFA or BA degree in dance, or its equivalent, and five years of post-undergraduate professional experience in the dance field. Applicants with a bachelor’s degree in an area other than dance may be considered for the MFA if they have significant professional dance experience.
Audition Requirements
Live Audition Information
The live audition consists of a ballet barre (approximately one hour) followed by an hour-long modern dance class. Applicants are required to bring a headshot with them to the audition. All applicants are required to wear footless tights and leotards. Sweatpants, legwarmers, skirts or shoes should not be worn, except for ballet slippers for the ballet portion of your audition. After the audition, applicants will complete a short interview (approximately 15 minutes) with the director of the MFA dance program, Jeff Friedman.
Recorded Audition Information
In cases where extreme distance prohibits an in-person audition, permission may be obtained to submit a recorded video audition. To obtain permission, please indicate your preference on the Mason Gross supplemental application and email dance@mgsa.rutgers.edu If approved to submit a recorded audition, you will be sent a link to submit your recorded audition through an online platform called SlideRoom. We will only accept recorded auditions through this platform.
Recorded Audition Requirements
- Brief introduction (name, program you are applying to)
- Ballet
- Barre – plie, tendu, degage, rond de jambe, frappe, grand battement
- Center – tendu, adagio
- Pirouette – in center and moving across the floor
- Petit Allegro – small jumps
- Grand Allegro – any combination of tour jete, pas de chat, etc.
- Modern
- Center combinations – use of spine, curves, plies, footwork, and swing combinations
- Center – full bodied movement combinations, including use of floor
- Across the floor – locomotor movements including triplets, runs, jumps, jetes
Rutgers University Application
All applicants must complete and submit the Rutgers University Application. The university application requires the following:
- $70 Rutgers application fee
- University questionnaire
- English proficiency test scores (international applicants)
- All international applicants to Mason Gross School of the Arts are required to submit an English proficiency exam. Applicants who completed an undergraduate degree in the U.S. or another English-speaking country are exempt from this requirement. Applicants who completed a graduate degree(s) in the U.S. or another English-speaking country are not exempt from this requirement.
- Request for transcripts (completion of a bachelor’s degree at an accredited university is a required prerequisite)
- Official transcripts must be sent from the Registrar’s office of the undergraduate institution where the bachelor’s degree was awarded.
Transcripts can be sent:
Via Mail:
Administrative Services Building
ATTN: Graduate & Professional Admissions
65 Davidson Road
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854Via Email: E-transcripts@gradadm.rutgers.edu
- Official transcripts must be sent from the Registrar’s office of the undergraduate institution where the bachelor’s degree was awarded.
Mason Gross Supplemental Application
Five business days after submitting the Rutgers University application, applicants will be emailed a link to submit the Mason Gross supplemental application.
- $40 dance audition fee
- Dance questionnaire
- Dance audition date selection
- Choreography sample
- Include three samples of creative works, limited to 12 minutes maximum, including solo, small, and large group work, if possible.
- Writing sample
- The writing sample can consist of academic writing (published or unpublished), journalism (substantial critique or essay on creative or other work), or other writing genres.
- Three letters of recommendation
