Why Study BFA Dance?
If you are a dancer with professional aspirations looking to enhance your technical and artistic skills in the context of a liberal arts education, then this performance-centered degree track is for you. You can choose to specialize in Ballet, Modern, Jazz, or Choreography. Courses in music, anatomy, production, and dance history round out the dance curriculum. You’ll further your performance experience every semester while rehearsing and studying all aspects of dance production.
Why Study BFA Dance at MMC?
Studying dance at MMC gives you the foundation to combine discipline with artistry and creativity — just what you’ll need for a seamless transition to the professional dance world.
You can audition for the MMC Dance Company, study abroad or apply for one of countless internships. When you’re a senior, you’ll be assisted in resume preparation, cover letters and photos to land interviews and auditions. Our priority is to prepare you for life after graduation.
Our faculty consists of some of the finest professors and dance professionals in New York City. Under their guidance, you’ll develop the discipline, self-confidence, and self-motivation valuable in any field, but essential to dance.
From dancing in concert dance companies to Broadway shows and more, from arts administration to writers, teachers, designers, choreographers or physical therapists, MMC dance grads can be found everywhere. If it’s been thought about, our dancers are out there doing it.
What You Will Learn
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Demonstrate substantive engagements with diverse dance practices and their intrinsic skill sets
From diverse technical and experiential practices, you will engage with and develop substantial kinesthetic and performance skills. Through kinesthetic, written, and/or verbal work, you will demonstrate a critical engagement with the histories, theoretical frameworks and cultural contexts of dance. -
Integrate conceptual and kinesthetic skills across dance practices, performances, theories, and/or histories
Through dancing, reading and writing across the curriculum you will develop a thorough understanding of selected theoretical debates and issues that are pertinent to the study of dance. This knowledge will provide you with creative, compositional, and performance strategies for the production, analysis, and documentation of dance -
Propose and/or employ strategies for arts advocacy through dance
You are encouraged to develop aesthetic awareness that illuminates multicultural, intersectional, and artistic innovations, and also examines stylistic traditions, historical and cultural perspectives within a global context. Consider a minor or a double major in other areas of the College’s curriculum, which will provide you with additional skills to use after graduating, expand your opportunities for personal growth, and prepare you to become citizens of the world and true advocates for the arts. Our interest is in you—the dancer—as a whole person, an artist who balances a trained body with an active, capable mind.
Ballet
Classical ballet training is the primary focus of this concentration, with emphasis placed on proper use of turnout, alignment, and development of strength. All levels of ballet emphasize reflective practices and progressive approaches to the understanding of the technique in its technical rigor, form and qualitative aspects of movement.
Choreography
Students in the Choreography concentration study the art and craft of choreography through theory and practice. Employing various methodologies, techniques, sources, styles, and points of view, you will gain valuable experience in composing dances in both solo and group forms with mentorship support.
Modern
The Modern Dance concentration offers a dynamic program of study in movement principles and skills particular to this dance form. Course offerings in the techniques of modern dance pioneers Martha Graham, Lester Horton, José Limón, Alwin Nikolais, May O’Donnell, Merce Cunningham, and Paul Taylor, as well as classes in non-western dance forms, such as Butoh/Baharatanatyan, among others.
Jazz
Regardless of concentration, all B.F.A. students are required to take Embodied Africanist Aesthetics, as these influences are a part of many contemporary concert and commercial dance forms today. The Jazz concentration is structured with theories and practices that widen the scope and understanding of its histories, imperative knowledge that allows dancers to fully embrace the art form.
Dancing at a Distance
With the reopening of MMC’s Main Campus during the Fall 2020 semester, Dance was challenged with continuing instruction in a discipline characterized by live performance. Following the Virtual/Open Campus model of education, dance instruction persevered via the addition of new equipment, implementation of health and safety protocols, and the determination of MMC students and faculty.