Program description
The UW Dance Program offers a dance minor, a dance major that culminates in a Bachelor of Arts degree and dance endorsement. The program also offers a Master of Fine Arts degree program. The program serves approximately 40 undergraduate dance majors, 80 minors, 6 graduate students, and over 900 non-major students who enroll in dance courses each quarter. The Program is staffed by six full-time and one emeritus faculty, in addition to a part-time Music Director and Technical Director. The facilities include three large dance studios, an intimate 238-seat studio theatre and the 1,200 seat Meany Theatre.

Frequently asked questions
A list of questions often asked can be found here.

Mission statement
The mission of the UW Dance Program is to educate performers, educators, arts advocates and cultural leaders. At the Program’s core lies the recognition of art as the confluence of theory, practice and creativity. With a commitment to respect the individual, the Dance Program fosters inquiry and engages the community in open-minded exchange.

Vision

• To provide undergraduate students with an excellent liberal arts education that includes the acquisition of skills, rich artistic experiences and scholastic rigor.
• To provide graduate students with the necessary experience, understanding and proficiencies to excel as dance faculty in institutions of higher learning.
• To provide faculty with the opportunity and support to pursue their scholarly and/or creative research.
• To provide a creative and inclusive learning environment in which individual voices may be heard in a spirit of thriving cooperation.

• Tradition and Innovation: The Dance Program is committed to studying long standing art works and theories, while remaining committed to innovation and new ways of understanding.
• Learning: The Dance Program is committed to nurturing an instructional environment that stretches the limits of excellence in teaching, art making and scholarship.
• Diversity and Integrity: The Dance Program is committed to promoting a responsible educational ethic that respects individual responsibility and personal growth.
• Creativity: The Dance Program is committed to fostering a fertile environment for artistic and intellectual exploration.

Dance Program News

Administrative Offices have moved!
The Dance Program administrative offices have moved to Meany 164A.

Dance Major Alice Gosti University Week

Assistant Professor McMains University Week

3D: Dancing in the Digital Domain

Graduate School application is online! Application and instructions for MFA candidates

Awards & Honors

Congratulations to 2007 scholarship winners in the Dance Program: Callie Arnold, Sarah Rose Bernhardt and Alice Gosti.

Dance majors Leah Schrager and Alice Gosti were each awarded a 2007 College of Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Research Award.

Leah Schrager, Dance and Biology major, is one of four 2007 College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Medalists.

Dance majors Shannon Narasimhan and Leah Schrager received a 2007 Venture Scholarship from the Mary Gates Endowment. Read more in UWeek

Assistant Professor Jennifer Salk is a recipient of the 2006 UW Distinguished Teaching Award.

To see more Dance Program awards and honors, go to our Awards & Honors page

We're growing!
Learn about the Meany 267 Studio/Theatre Conversion project

News and events
What's happening