Dance

BFA

The bachelor of fine arts (BFA) program in dance is for students seeking careers as professional dance artists who wish to pursue their goals within the artistic and intellectual climate of a major research university. The faculty’s diverse interests and accomplishments as artists, scholars, and educators ensure expert direction in all three areas of the curriculum: technique and performance, choreography, and theoretical studies. Students applying to the BFA in dance must submit an application to the Mason Gross School of the Arts and participate in an audition.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Dance

The Dance Department enrolls a cohort of approximately 40 students each year in the BFA degree program. BFA dance majors pursue their studies in a dedicated community that prioritizes their development as future artists, educators, and scholars. Students are guided to extend and refine their artistic potential through work in state-of-the-art studio and performance facilities just 45 minutes from New York City.

Learning Goals of the BFA in Dance

What students will know:
Upon completion of the BFA degree, our students will possess the knowledge and skills to constructively engage with diverse embodied practices and perspectives in the dance field, including historically marginalized practices; articulate how their intersectional identities connect to and impact their artistic/pedagogic/scholarly practices; utilize creative research methodologies; and engage with dance as a political, social, cultural, historical, and economic act.

What students will do:
Upon completion of the BFA degree, our students will be able to employ critical thinking and creative and scholarly research to become self-directed and self-managing leaders in the field. They will investigate, integrate, and synthesize embodied experiences (including creative and performance practices), writing, and teaching through artistic and scholarly methodologies.

What students will value:
Upon completion of the BFA degree, our students will have learned to value rigor in their artistic practices; self-knowledge and understanding of their positionality as an artist/educator/scholar; the potential of cross-curricular, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary engagements as resources within dance and related fields; the distinctive physical and cultural values of diverse movement practices; a social and environmental justice mindset; community service engagement; and wellness and self-care.

Career Outcomes

This degree program could lead to careers in:

  • Performance
  • Choreography
  • Interdisciplinary arts
  • Dance education (K–12, higher education, studio, community)
  • Arts administration
  • Dance filmmaking
  • Lighting design
  • Stage management
  • Teaching Pilates and Yoga
  • Dance history/scholarship
  • Physical therapy
Curriculum and Course Offerings
  • Movement Practice
    • African Diasporic Movement Practices: Dance forms derived from or informed by the Black African Diaspora. Sample forms include West-African, Afro-Fusion, Afro-Latinx Fusion, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Street Dance.
    • Classical/Traditional Movement Practices: Dance forms centered in codified movement vocabularies, emerging from global temporal and cultural contexts. Sample forms include Ballet, Modern (based in Cunningham, Graham, Horton, Limon, Taylor, etc.), Hula, Bharatanatyam, Flamenco, Chinese classical dance.
    • Contemporary Fusion Movement Practices: Dance forms drawing from and synthesizing multiple styles, sources, and aesthetics. Sample forms include release techniques, Yorchha, contemporary ballet, commercial forms, any form that draws from 2 or more practices.
    • Somatic Movement Practices: Movement practices that emphasize wellness, functional efficiency and injury prevention through embodied experience and integration of body/mind/spirit. Sample practices include Alexander Technique, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Feldenkrais Method, Franklin Method, Functional Movement Training, Klein Technique, Pilates, and Yoga.
  • Creative Practice
    • Choreography: Laboratory studio courses in which students explore processes and opportunities that exist for creating dances. Students pursue individual creative interests and develop individual artistry through the practice of exploration, experimentation, and observation.
    • Improvisation: Studio courses in which students explore a variety of improvisational strategies and purposes. Students explore improvisation as personal and performance practices and as social, political and cultural practice.
    • Dance Film: Students explore communication through dance as a filmic art with emphasis on video shooting and editing techniques, environmental controls, and improvisational dance movement structures.
    • Sound Design and Rhythm for Dance: Sound and movement courses focus on analysis of the relationships of music and dance in content, form, and structure. Study includes analysis of rhythmic structure relative to movement, sight-reading note values, movement dictation, and composition.
    • Capstone: A two-semester sequence for seniors in which students develop and implement a Capstone project in a specific area: Choreography, Performance, Somatic Studies, Dance Education, or Learner-Designed Research. Students immerse themselves in a concentration of interest and begin to develop a unique professional profile.
    • Dance Production: Courses explore the technical and design applications of lighting, video, audio and practical theater skills necessary to produce, promote and direct a dance event. Students develop skills in two fully-equipped theatrical spaces and through various software programs.
  • Professional Practice: Coursework provides students with skills and resources for careers in the field of dance and related fields. Sample topics include grant-writing, community advocacy, company management, studio ownership and management, financial literacy, etc.
  • Dance Repertory: Students perform original works and repertory by internationally renowned guest artists such as Baye + Asa, Shakia “The Key” Barron, Doug Varone, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, José Limón, Martha Graham, etc.
  • Kinesiology + Wellness: Science and wellness coursework that explores functional human anatomy and the study of the scientific basis of human movement as they relate to dance training. Courses include somatic studies of diverse movement disciplines with programs for Pilates and yoga for dancers.
  • Dance Education: Coursework addresses effective pedagogical approaches necessary to effectively teach dance to different ages and levels, in differing environments (i.e. PreK-12, studio, professional company, community settings, etc.).
  • History, Theory, and Dance Studies: Coursework explores the study of dance in diverse cultures and times through film, video, reading, lectures, discussion, and directed research. Instruction includes the study of the influences on contemporary concert dance of diverse cultural, artistic, and social movements.

BFA Dance Curriculum Requirements

Five-year BFA/EdM in Dance Education

This joint-degree track is an exceptional opportunity to earn an undergraduate degree in dance in a conservatory setting and a master’s degree in education in five years at a cost savings.

Students on the five-year​ BFA/EdM  track overlap degree requirements at two different schools: Mason Gross School of the  Arts and  Rutgers Graduate School of Education. The BFA degree is conferred by Mason Gross School of the Arts at the end of the senior year. The EdM degree is conferred by the Graduate School of Education after an additional year of graduate studies. The five-year teacher education program in dance education leads to a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and initial teacher certification.

The diverse interests of the Mason Gross and Graduate School of Education faculty ensure expert direction in four core areas of study: technique and performance, creative process and choreography, theoretical dance study, and dance education. Students on this track have many career options, including: ​

  • Certified dance educators in PK–12 schools​
  • Educational leadership  in  community arts settings
  • PK-12  dance teacher preparation on the university level
  • Doctoral study
Dance Science Concentration

The BFA in Dance, with a Dance Science Concentration, open only to BFA Dance majors entering their second year of study, offers a course of study that combines the rigors of dance training with specific courses in the dance science fields of anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, kinesiology, motor learning, nutrition, and psychology. Students interested in careers such as dance, dance medicine, dance fitness, or graduate education in the areas of dance science or related dance studies participate in the BFA curriculum and take classes in collaboration across Rutgers University schools such as the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS), which will host anatomy and physiology and sports nutrition courses. Students will also be exposed to leadership training within diverse community settings.

Curriculum Requirements

Related Minors and Certifications

Arts Management and Leadership Minor: The minor in Arts Management & Leadership supports students seeking to gain skills or build careers in arts administration in either the nonprofit or commercial sectors. The minor equips students with the basics of business skills such as economic and financial literacy, data analysis software, management skills, and teamwork skills, and their application in a variety of subfields within arts administration, including education and outreach, arts marketing, development and grant-seeking, and production. Through three required courses—two in Business Studies and one in Arts Administration Studies—and three electives, students gain a foundation for work or graduate study in the field of arts administration. Learn more here.

Creative Expression and the Environment Minor: The minor in Creative Expression and the Environment is a multidisciplinary program in which students gain familiarity with fundamentals of environmental issues and learn to respond to them through creative expression in a variety of disciplines and media in the arts and humanities. Students gain the flexibility to develop their skills as readers, writers, musical performers and composers, visual artists, designers, theater artists, filmmakers, dancers, choreographers, and more, even as they see how those skills can contribute to the communication and creation of knowledge in environmental science and social science. Learn more here.

Disability Studies Minor: The Disability Studies minor examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability, as a social, cultural, and political construct. It provides students the opportunity to challenge normative ableist paradigms that reinforce rigid ideas about the body and personhood for people with disabilities. This minor is well-matched to majors in public health, public policy, urban planning and design, planning and public policy, kinesiology and health, labor and employment relations, visual and performing arts, health administration, sociology, psychology, and more. Learn more here.

Wellness Minor

Polestar Pilates Teacher Training Certification

Lila Flow Yoga Teacher Training Certification

Study Abroad

In the third year of study, BFA dance students are eligible to participate in study abroad programs through Rutgers Global.

France: Camping (Summer)

TheCamping: Dance, Choreography and Performance program centers around the Camping Festival, hosted by the Centre National de la Danse (The National Dance Center) of France, an international festival and platform of workshops, talks, film screenings, professional encounters, public presentations, and performances. A unique experience bringing together artists from around the world, Camping offers a unique artistic experience that immerses students into the international contemporary dance scene.

Israel: DanceJerusalem

The DanceJerusalem program in Israel, facilitated jointly by the Rothberg International School and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, combines artistic training in dance skills and technique with academic exposure to Israel’s social, historical, and cultural environment. Mason Gross BFA dance majors eligible for study abroad pursue artistic and technical training in classical ballet, contemporary dance (including Ohad Naharin’s GaGa technique), choreography, repertoire, and improvisation. Master classes with Batsheva dance company members and guest artist residencies provide students with unparalleled opportunities to create, rehearse, and perform works with outstanding Israeli composers and choreographers.

Italy: Accademia dell’Arte (Summer)

The Accademia dell’Arte program in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy, is rooted in the European tradition of modern dance, German Ausdruckstanz and German dance theater. Mason Gross BFA dance majors eligible for study abroad can expect a program that features classical ballet, modern and post-modern performance techniques as well as somatic approaches with specific cultural movement traditions such as butoh or the traditional Italian tarantismo. Study abroad students in the Accademia’s dance program will enjoy an enriching and challenging encounter with European dance culture in a truly inspiring environment. Accademia dell’Arte aims to create an atmosphere that encourages authentic and individual expression thereby cultivating artistic development and personal growth.

United Kingdom: Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

As a BFA dance major, students can study  at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, United Kingdom, known internationally in the field of dance. The undergraduate program aims to prepare students for a successful career or further study in the competitive world of contemporary dance. Students can opt for this official study abroad program in their junior year.

CONCENTRATION HIGHLIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES:

Guest Artists, Scholars, and Dance Scientists

Mason Gross Dance invites guest artists and scholars to campus each year, including dance scientists. Guests engage students through repertory residencies, master classes, workshops and lectures. 

The Soma Center and Somatic Teacher Training

Dance faculty within the BFA dance curriculum instruct in areas of Kinesiology, Anatomy, Yoga, Laban Movement Analysis, and Bartenieff Fundamentals and often utilize the Soma Center in their coursework. Dance science concentration students can work closely within the Somatic Movement Practices during their time at Rutgers.

Study Abroad and International Summer Training Programs

As a BFA dance major, Dance Science Concentration students can study and network with expert Dance Science faculty at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, United Kingdom, known internationally in the field of Dance Science and founding partner of the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science. Students can opt for this official Study Abroad program in their junior year.  

Movement classes through the Integrated Dance Collaboratory (IDC)

The Mason Gross School of the Arts Integrated Dance Collaboratory (IDC) researches and promotes the role of dance as an effective intervention for public health, wellness, education, and the professionalization of integrated dance arts. Students concentrating in dance science have opportunities to gain experiential learning as assistants, or participants, in 2 distinct movement programs for the community: Dance for Parkinson’s and Neuromuscular Conditions and Movement Class for Neurodivergent People