YOUR COMMUNITY.
The Department of Dance is a diverse community where students access many different dance styles. Modern and contemporary dance, classical and contemporary ballet, and dance forms of the African diaspora are our focuses.
The Department of Dance is part of the College of Arts +Architecture. Unique in North Carolina, the College includes the School of Architecture and departments of Art and Art History, Music, Theatre, and Dance. This provides our students with interdisciplinary opportunities in an exciting environment. CoA+A students may attend concerts and events across the College and visit uptown art galleries for free.
Charlotte is home to resident professional dance companies and to major theaters offering performances by touring companies. Dance students benefit through masterclasses, like with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and by seeing multiple concerts per year.
Deepening our commitment to an equitable community and curriculum, faculty and students in the Department of Dance will engage in a number of social justice projects this year. In September, we welcomed Tamara Williams’s Moving Spirits to campus for workshops and performances. Faculty will participate in workshops developed by the College of Arts+Architecture Diversity Council and several faculty members are current students in the Graduate Certificate in Anti-Racism in Urban Education (ARUE).
YOUR ARTISTRY.
All students in the Department of Dance may audition to perform in two fully produced concerts a year choreographed by faculty and guest artists. Our students have been lucky to work as part of National Endowment for the Arts-funded faculty research projects and with guest artists, including Lauren Anderson, Nejla Yatkin, Ananya Chatterjea, Claudia Lavista, Netta Yerushalmy, and Janet Schroeder. Students also choreograph and perform their own works in the department-produced Under Construction concert and as part of student groups, Range of Motion Dance Ensemble and MOVE Dance Alliance.
YOUR DEGREE.
The Department of Dance provides exemplary liberal arts educations for students who desire professional and personal engagement with dance. We offer BA degree plans for majors interested in Dance Performance, Choreography, and Theory, Applied Dance, or Dance Education, and an Advanced Dance Studies Certificate for students who want to create a senior project. In partnership with professional dance companies, the Department offers a Professional Training Certificate in Dance with the Charlotte Ballet and an internship program with Baran Dance. Our Musical Theatre Certificate offers interdisciplinary training for students intersted in that field.
