Dance

Dance Program Mission Statement

The mission of the UT dance program is to foster creativity, connection and collaboration. The program offers a robust liberal arts experience with a distinctive focus in preparing students to become leaders in the field of dance education within a commercial and community dance context.

The curriculum is built around the praxis of brain-compatible dance education, a teaching methodology developed by Anne Green Gilbert. This methodology encourages the development of a student who can utilize creativity, critical-thinking and collaboration to become a masterful dance artist and educator. Students will learn how to apply these skills in various capacities and settings, including private studios, community dance programs and in serving diverse populations. Successful students who graduate from the program have presented creative and pedagogically-sound scholarly research at local and national conferences and dance festivals. They have also gone on to pursue careers in commercial dance performance and competition dance adjudication. There is also strong foundational preparation for further study at the graduate level.

To achieve a level of rigor and technical proficiency within a commercial dance context, students enroll in multiple dance technique courses, a pedagogy series, composition and choreography, dance history, anatomy and kinesiology, and dance production as part of a well-balanced liberal arts curriculum. The required capstone course serves as a springboard for interdisciplinary dance career applications. The resulting culminating project emphasizes the practical application of what each student has gained through their learning experiences within the program and the University.

In addition to the students’ scholarly work in dance education, they are given a creative environment in which to explore choreography and performance. Utilizing their intellectual curiosity and embodied practices, we empower students to make tangible, meaningful experiences through multiple performance opportunities at the University and within the Tampa Bay area. They learn to observe, assess and critique their work as well as the work of others in a meaningful, ethical, and equitable context. Through these processes they work with peers, faculty and community dance artists to more deeply understand what it means to be a diverse and interdisciplinary creator, leader and communicator in the field of dance.