The Dance Program: Dance Performance

learn to dance / dance to learn

 
photo by Matthew Wright

From the studio to the stage, performance and choreography students dance and create in an environment that is intense but collaborative, with an emphasis on both technique and intellectual breadth.

“We at Muhlenberg College want to provide an education where you can succeed at anything — not just dance, not just theatre, but life.”

—Director of Dance
Karen Dearborn

1The Dance Performance & Choreography concentrations provide students interested in a career in dance with both intensive, daily studio training in a wide range of dance techniques and a solid historical and theoretical background in dance. Students in these concentrations go on to successful careers in performance, choreography, teaching, arts management, and musical theatre, among many others.

Small class sizes ensure that students work closely with the Dance Program's internationally acclaimed faculty and guest artists every day, in the studio and on the stage.

A busy performance schedule gives our students frequent opportunities to dance and choreograph for an audience:

1

        • Two student-choreographed Mainstage Concerts each year.
        • An annual Master Choreographers concert, in which students have the chance to work closely with accomplished faculty and guest artists.
        • An Informal Concert series each semester, featuring the work of student choreographers and dancers.
        • Frequent dance-theatre Mainstage collaborations, creating original works and innovative interdisciplinary adaptations, such as last season's The Tempest.
        • Grand-scale musical theatre productions that showcase the talents of student dancers.
        • Three touring ensembles that perform on and off campus throughout the school year: Six Meters dance improv, the Jazz Tap Ensemble, and the new DanceMax ensemble.

Coursework for Performance and Choreography concentrators includes:1

  • Foundation courses in dance history, technique, composition, and dance and society
  • Training offered at four levels of advancement, in ballet, jazz, tap, and modern dance
  • Advanced dance composition
  • Courses in anatomy, kinesiology, biology of movement, and somatic practice for dancers
  • Stagecraft and design
  • Optional courses in African dance and cultures; dance teaching theory and methods; dance on camera; and other areas of study.

 

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If you encounter problems submitting this form, please contact Scott Snyder at scottsnyder@muhlenberg.edu

Dance performance photo by Matthew Wright.