Dance

Your classes will be led by passionate instructors who love dance as much as you do. From ballet to hip-hop, jazz to modern, you'll have the opportunity to learn from instructors with a variety of dance backgrounds and expertise. Click on the images below to meet faculty of the Dance program.

See More Faculty

Click on the images below to meet visiting artists of the Dance program.

Knowing Dance More Series
Wednesdays 11:30-12:50pm
Gershman YGym Dance Theater | 401 S. Broad St.

Presented by the School of Dance, "Knowing Dance More" is a series of lectures, conversations and informal showings led by visiting artists and scholars in the international field of dance. Curated by Lauren Bakst, this series seeks to bring into focus current issues within the production, performance and practice of dance works and will hopefully foster ongoing conversations about knowing dance (more).

Visit our vimeo page to view a select archive of video documentation from previous Knowing Dance More events.

Knowing Dance More: Isabel Lewis from Knowing Dance More on Vimeo.

Spring 2019

The spring 2019 session of Knowing Dance More pairs choreographers and writers to highlight the emergent knowledges that take shape in the dialogue between dancing and discursive practices.

• February 20 | Orientation with Lauren Bakst
• March 6 | Marguerite Hemmings & Simone White
• March 27 | Maria Hassabi & Jenn Joy
• April 17 | Study Hall

All events take place on Wednesdays from 11:30-12:50pm.
Y Gym Dance Theater | 401 S. Broad St. Philadelphia, PA

Sample Courses in the Dance Major

About the Curriculum

The School of Dance’s major course of study takes the depth and rigor of a discipline-based dance conservatory while engaging students in open discussions within their own practice, valuing their voices as capable of developing new and critical perspectives in dance. These strategies give way to student driven pathways and expand the ways students can access and think about the practices and techniques of making and performing dance. 

It is divided into two parts: Foundation Series (freshman and sophomore years) and Portfolio & Research Series (junior and senior).

The faculty of the School of Dance have developed five essential learning goals that help to shape the school’s curriculum and the young dance artist and professional.

• Mutuality: Students will activate relationships in dance on personal, collective, regional and global levels.
• Relationality: Students will engage with the world through multiple lenses of collaboration, exchange and difference.
• Expressivity: Students will develop tools and ideas of expression to speak, write, and dance about/with/of/alongside.
• Sustainability: Students will be immersed in anatomically sound technical training that consistently weaves and references both historical and emerging techniques, forms and styles through informed somatic practices.
• Resourcefulness: Students will develop and sharpen skills of reciprocity, relationship and network building through consistent contact with professional artists in the expanded field both within their communities and in the world.

These learning goals are mapped across courses in six different categories: Studio Practice; Body Pathways;  Thinking, Making, Doing; History, Theory and Criticism; Capstone Experiences; and Performance Pedagogies of Dance.

To explore the full curriculum, click here.

Explore profiles of some of our recent graduates. Click each image below to learn more.

Dance (MFA)

With the goal of educating thinking artists as world citizens, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia sets in motion a new Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in Dance that extends the context of learning from the studio, theater and classroom to the international festival environment as a space for learning.

Explore Dance MFA Program