The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance in the Performing Arts Department at Washington University offers an innovative approach to dance technique, composition, improvisation and production. It involves an energetic interplay of studio work with professionally distinguished dance instructors, seminars with faculty who are experts in their fields, and independent studies in choreography. This two-year program will expand students' dance skills while engaging them with current concepts of dance as an art form, as an expression of culture and identity, and as a mode of critical thinking. The overarching goal of this program is to develop each dancer's personal artistic practice while encouraging a global perspective on dance studies, performance, pedagogy and choreography.

The department offers performance experience through its repertory company, the Washington University Dance Collective, for which students may audition.

Members of our dance faculty have performed with such companies as American Ballet Theatre; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Dance Theatre of Harlem; National Ballet of Washington, D.C.; Dayton Contemporary Dance Company; and Utah Repertory Dance Theatre. In addition, a distinctive feature of our MFA program is that it is run in collaboration with St. Louis' Center of Creative Arts (COCA), so it involves a sharing of facilities and faculty borne out of a common vision of the importance of the performing arts. As the leading dance school in the region, COCA is also the largest multidisciplinary arts organization in St. Louis, and it has a world-renowned faculty. We have a long history of engaging the talents of contemporary guest choreographers and répétiteurs from ballet and from modern and performance art who bring a broad range of challenging new processes, concepts and choreography to our students.

Contact Info

Contact:	Joanna Dee Das
Phone:	314-935-3323
Email:	joanna.d.das@wustl.edu
Website:	https://pad.wustl.edu/mfa-program

Chair

Professors

Associate Professors

Assistant Professor

Teaching Professors

Professors of Practice

Artist-in-Residence

Distinguished Performing Artist

Lecturers

Professors Emeriti

MFA in Dance

Degree Requirements: 60 units (15 units per semester) during two years to degree

At the end of their first year, students will propose a culminating project — typically a dance concert or another public presentation of creative work largely expressed in dance — and submit a paper about its production, including analysis and critique, that they will defend orally.

I. Technical Development: 13 units

Students must take 13 units of credit in studio-based movement praxis that have the 5000-level course designation. The courses can be in any genres that best support the student's development.

II. Choreography and Performance: 20 units

Course List

Code	Title	Units
Dance 508	Dance Composition Laboratory I: Exploring Process and Format	3
Dance 509	Dance Composition Laboratory II: Exploring Alternative Venues and Audience Connections	3
Dance 510	Approaches to Improvisation and Spontaneous Composition	3
Dance 5100	Stage Lighting (or equivalent 5000-level course in production)	3
Dance 511	Independent Choreography Project I	3
Dance 5112	Independent Choreography Project II	3
Dance 512	Performance Artistry (must be taken twice)	1

III. Research and Integrated Learning: 12 units

Required:

Course List

Code	Title	Units
Dance 520	Research Methods Colloquium	3

Plus 9 units chosen from the following:

Course List

Code	Title	Units
Dance 506	Topics in Contemporary Arts Practice Research	3
Dance 5102	Modern Dance and the African American Legacy II	2
Dance 5120	Performing the Political in American Dance	3
Dance 5130	Dance Pedagogy	3
Dance 514	Methodologies of Global Dance Studies	3
Dance 5140	Performing Gender and Sexuality in America	3
Dance 519	Guest Artist Residency Workshop	1
Dance 530	Theories of the Body in Performance	3

IV. Electives: 9 units

Students must complete 9 additional units at the 5000 level or above. These units may be from any areas of the performing arts or relevant areas in other departments or programs. MFA students are encouraged to pursue courses that support or help to define their individual trajectories as artists.

V. Mentored Teaching Experience

• LGS 600

Each Mentored Teaching Experience will be fashioned around the student's interests, when possible, and guided by a full-time member of the dance faculty. For more information, visit the Mentored Teaching Experiences webpage.

VI. Final Project: 6 units

Course List

Code	Title	Units
Dance 550	Final Project I (to be taken during the fall semester of the student's second year)	3
Dance 551	Final Project II (to be taken during the spring semester of the student's second year)	3

At the end of the first year, the MFA student will propose a plan for the final project and form a final project committee that will evaluate the final project. A concert is the typical format of the MFA final project. This concert or public presentation of the student's creative work must be largely expressed in dance. The concert or public presentation will be followed by the submission of a written Production Book that includes analysis and critique. In some cases, the written documents may include research related to the production, or a complementary research paper may accompany the Production Book. The student will present an oral defense of the work in front of an invited audience and submit a final version of the written component as well as a video record of the concert or public presentation for archival purposes within the department.