Dance

Artist-in-Residence Carter Alexander, Division Chair

Associate Professor: Christopher Dolder
Assistant Professors: Christie Bondade, Brandi Coleman
Professor of Practice: Anne Westwick
Assistant Professors of Practice: Michelle N. Gibson, Parisa Khobdeh
Artists-in-Residence: Carter Alexander, Silas Farley, Alvon Reed
Adjunct Lecturers: Julia Buckelew, James Tarbutton
Director of Dance Production: Christopher Ham
Musicians: Kwinton Gray, Jamal Mohamed, Mina Polevoy, Natalia Sawal, Edward Smith

General Information

The Division of Dance offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a minor in dance performance. Students receive professional dance training within the context of a comprehensive liberal arts education. The goal is to develop the disciplined, versatile dance artist through a balanced study of ballet, modern dance and jazz dance techniques, complemented and reinforced by a broad range of theoretical studies and performance opportunities. The program provides an atmosphere in which students are nurtured and stimulated in their quest for artistic achievement, technical mastery and scholarly excellence. Undergraduate majors study dance as a performing art with the intent to become practicing artists. The core of the dance curriculum is designed with this goal in mind. The combination of performance and liberal arts education courses serves to develop the articulate dancer.

The Division of Dance has four dance studios, three of which are located in the Owen Arts Center. Studios are equipped with sprung floors, digital sound and projection systems, grand pianos, ballet barres and mirrors. The Charles S. Sharp Performing Arts Studio doubles as a performing space and is also equipped with a tech booth and a theatrical lighting system. Live accompaniment is provided for all ballet and modern technique classes.

Admission, Audition and Financial Aid

Dance is a dual admit program: in addition to meeting University admission criteria, all first-year and transfer applicants must participate in a performance audition, which is the principal factor in determining eligibility to major or minor in dance. In the performance audition, applicants are observed in a ballet class, modern dance sequences and a jazz dance combination. After this process, selected candidates are asked to perform a prepared solo that is 90 seconds in length. Applicants should bring a brief résumé, a wallet-sized photograph, music for the solo (tablet or smartphone) and appropriate dancewear and footwear (the modern dance portion of audition will be danced barefoot). Campus and regional dance auditions occur between October and March. Auditions are scheduled at www.smu.edu/danceadmission.

Performance

All dance majors are required to perform and choreograph as an integral part of their performance studies. Performance opportunities include concerts featuring masterworks and contemporary works in the genres of ballet, modern and jazz presented on the main stage in the Bob Hope Theatre, concerts featuring student choreography in noontime Danceworks performances in the Gene and Jerry Jones Grand Atrium and mainstage concerts in the Bob Hope Theatre and performances in venues in the Dallas Arts District including the Meadows at the Winspear concerts presented in collaboration with the Meadows Symphony. Other opportunities include special events, outreach programs and interdisciplinary projects within and beyond the Meadows community. All dance students are required to take ballet, modern dance, and jazz dance in their first four terms. In the final four terms, all dance students must take a minimum of one dance technique class per day.

Programs

Major(s)

Dance Performance, B.F.A.

Minor(s)

Dance Performance Minor

Courses

Dance

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