Dance (BFA)

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree focuses on an in-depth curriculum of professional dance technique, choreography and performance in preparation for a professional performing career in dance.

Please see the UNLV College of Fine Arts, Department of Dance web page for information about department programs, faculty, and facilities.  Degree worksheets and 4/5 year plan for the major are available on the UNLV Degrees Directory.

Available Options

• Dance for the Professional Dancer
• Dance Production/Management
• Performance and Choreography

Learning Objectives

1. BFA dance majors will be able to apply competent dance technique standards within professional practice and performance.
   • Objectives – After completing the BFA dance program the students will be able to: 
     • Perform a variety of choreography in a dance concert performance.
     • Attend a dance audition prepared with performance resume, professional headshot, and solo dance material.
     • Have a knowledge of correct dance terminology and its proper usage.
     • Have a knowledge of body mechanics through correctly applied kinetic principles.
2. BFA dance majors will be able to organize and apply principles of research and critical thinking through choreographic and pedagogic environments.
   • Objectives - After completing the BFA dance program will be able to:               
     • Conceptualize choreographic form and be able to work with a group as a member or soloist.
     • Generate movement kinetically, respond to the movement of others, observe and analyze movement with regards to quality, shape, form, and structure.
     • Create dance based on structural limitations, music, props, scenic and/or costume production elements.
     • Recognize compositional forms from theme and variation to motif, abstraction, rondos, cannons, AB, ABA, and natural forms.
     • Create and produce a five-minute original work with all elements of dance included for performance. Analyze and understand this work.
     • Organize design and execute a lesson plan for a 50-90 minute dance class demonstrating various teaching methods or techniques.
     • Develop a curriculum of dance study complete with focus group, workshop or department objectives, course outline, schedule of classes, list of faculty and performance culmination.
3. BFA dance majors will be able to understand the application and use of music, voice, and video within the dancers’ performance and choreographic needs.
   • Objectives – After completing the BFA dance program the students will be able to:
     • Recognize and distinguish between simple and compound meters as well as constant and changing meters.
     • Analyze rhythm, meter, tempo, musical phrasing, and to communicate with musicians and other dancers about musical components.
     • Demonstrate rhythms and meters on the body also known as eurhythmics to other dancers and musicians.
     • Create different types of accompaniments for their choreographies.
     • Recognize the various musical periods from primitive, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary musical examples.
     • Understand the musical framework of rhythm and dynamics as it pertains to the phrasing of movement to music.
     • Integrate the voice and body in various technical exercises.
     • Explore the breath and resonating spaces of the voice, expressive actions and the expressive cycle within acting scene work, and dance performances.
4. BFA dance majors will have knowledge of dance arts in a liberal arts framework/environment.
   • Objectives – After completing the BFA dance program the students will be able to:
     • Compare and contrast aesthetics in dance and related arts through period, style, and theme.
     • Communicate knowledge of art, music, literature, and theater in a general use or application to culture and society.
5. BFA dance majors will understand dance from the practical, production, and historical point of view.
   • Objectives – After completing the BFA dance program students will be able to:
     • Evaluate and judge a positive production experience from a negative one and how to solve these problems for future concerts.
     • Communicate and specify their needs to the various production designers such as lighting designers, sound designers, costume designers, and set designers.
     • Know how to locate the necessary elements to produce a dance concert.
     • Apply the knowledge of how to run a dance concert from the audition process all the way through to the final performance.
     • Identify and analyze the joints of the body. Students will be able to label the bones ad major muscles of the body and communicate an understanding of the correct use of the anatomical structures of the human kinetic instrument.
     • Communicate knowledge of historical, philosophical and sociological developments in dance from pre-historic times to the late 1800’s along with the events, personalities, choreographic works, and current trends in dance specific to America since 1900.
     • Apply and assimilate knowledge of the trends in dance and music that occur after the avant-garde period (1945-2005) into the practical application of dance.
     • Understand the impact of and purposes of dances from around the world and throughout time and cultures in order to gain an appreciation and working knowledge of these cultural dances; along with their music and costume use and significance.

Career Possibilities

Here are a few job titles in which dance majors have applied their degrees, skills, and abilities. In general, an advanced degree is required for those occupations marked with a * on the following list.

Performance & Production

Ballet Mistress/Master Company dancer Choreographer Technician

Dance designer: costume, lights Sound person Consultant

Arts Administrator

General Manager/Administrator* Business Manager* Personal Manager Personnel Manager: Dance Company Booking Agent

Public Relations Manager Press Agent Grants Specialist* Arts Council Director*

Education

College Professor* Public School Teacher* Dance Therapist* Artist-in-Residence Private teacher

Leisure and recreation instructor Dance Company Rehearsal Director Pilates/Body Conditioning Instructor

Beyond the traditional avenues and careers, a dance degree opens the door to many of the skills that numerous Fortune 500 companies look for in their executive recruits.  A degree in dance trains:

Organization, problem solving, and memory Being calm under pressure Communication and expression Leadership and teamwork Individuality Balance of mind, body, and spirit Decision-making skills Confidence, positive self-image, and self-esteem Commitment to a practice, diligence, and commitment to a team Productivity and risk taking

Honesty/Integrity Motivation/Initiative Ability to build relationships Flexibility and adaptability An understanding of standards for success Self-awareness Understanding of space, time, and energy Numeracy, accounting, and structure How market to an audience Innovation and passion

Individuals have obtained their degrees in dance and proceeded into careers in law, medicine, business, and numerous other professional areas.