Metadata
Title
DANCE FACT SHEET
Category
courses
UUID
48496dc24e3e498d90620115be49fae7
Source URL
https://artsci.washington.edu/academics/arts/dance/fact-sheet
Parent URL
https://artsci.washington.edu/academics/arts/art-arthistory-design/fact-sheet
Crawl Time
2026-03-23T10:48:19+00:00
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DANCE FACT SHEET

Source: https://artsci.washington.edu/academics/arts/dance/fact-sheet Parent: https://artsci.washington.edu/academics/arts/art-arthistory-design/fact-sheet

The University of Washington Department of Dance believes dance is for everybody. We expand the meanings and experiences of dance as a field of study and a living art form. We employ pedagogical perspectives, research approaches, dance-making methods, and performance philosophies that are historically and culturally informed to elevate the value of play, creativity, critical thinking, and embodied knowledge for our students and global communities.

VISIT DEPARTMENT WEBSITE

42

Undergraduate majors

EDUCATION

The award-winning UW Department of Dance offers a learning environment that promotes creativity, critical thinking, and excellence. We offer a diverse and stimulating educational experience, rooted in the liberal arts, and dedicated to connecting theoretical inquiry to experiential learning. Students considering careers in performance and choreography, education, medicine, arts administration, physical therapy, or a myriad of graduate programs may choose from a variety of options culminating in a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in dance.

The undergraduate curriculum provides rigor and a breadth of experience in courses combining practice and theory. We offer dance classes such as (in alphabetical order) African dance, Afro-Peruvian dance, anatomy, capoeira, composition/creative process, contemporary ballet, dance history, ethnography, improvisation, modern, music for dance, research methods, salsa, somatic practices, street and club dances, swing, tango, and teaching methods. Many of our students double major. Our BA enables students to use a broad range of electives in order to support particular interests and career goals. Dance majors have the opportunity to graduate with Honors.

Undergraduate alumni are employed at some of Seattle’s most influential local arts organizations such as TeenTix, Pacific Northwest Ballet, On the Boards, and Velocity Dance Center. Graduates also work as private studio, public and independent school, and university-level educators, choreographers, and performers with locally and nationally recognized companies and artists, such as Spectrum Dance Theater, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Dani Tirrell, Miguel Gutierrez, and Svi Gotheiner, and as physical and occupational therapists, videographers, photographers, somatic practitioners, physicians and lawyers.

The Department of Dance offers one of the most respected and innovative Master of Fine Arts degree programs in the country, developed to serve professional dancers seeking to transition into higher education positions. MFA candidates receive full financial support during the two-year course of study. In exchange, they teach an array of studio and theory courses to majors, minors, and general education students at the UW. We boast an outstanding job placement record, with alumni in tenure track teaching and upper administration positions at colleges and universities across the nation. Graduate alumni have also garnered prestigious awards as choreographers, performers, company directors, and filmmakers, including the Bessie Award, Fred Astaire Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and NEA and National Dance Project grants

Students​

Autumn 2024

Degrees Awarded

2024

Student Awards

Since 2016

Department Student Scholarships

FACULTY

Winter 2025

Recent Department of Dance faculty and staff honors and grants include:

OUTREACH

The department produces three concerts annually for the campus community and the greater Puget Sound community:

The bst Residency program provides Seattle artists with free space without the pressure that accompanies commissioned works or performance deadlines.

In collaboration with Velocity Dance Center, the department provides an alum 45 hours of rehearsal space annually for The Bridge Project, which supports emerging artists.

The department hosts numerous guest artists throughout the year and makes this opportunity available to other departments and the Seattle community.

The (Glenn) Kawasaki Guest Artist residency enables selected artists each year to conduct outreach as part of their time in residence.

Faculty are regularly asked to volunteer to curate, moderate for post- performance talks, teach master classes, and sit on boards and committees locally and nationally.

RESEARCH

Faculty choreograph and perform nationally and internationally, and present research at scholarly conferences, including the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, National Dance Education Organization, and the Dance Studies Association. Recent faculty scholarship includes articles and essays in Dance Research Journal, The Journal of Dance Education, Dance Research, TDR: The Drama Review, Theatre Research International, International Dictionary of Modern Dance, Ballet Review, and in The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition, The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity, The Routledge Dance Studies Reader, and Writing About Dance. Publications by faculty also include Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry, Experiential Anatomy in Dance Technique (DVD), Spinning Mambo into Salsa: Caribbean Dance in Global Commerce, and Performance and the Afterlives of Injustice: Dance and Live Art in Contemporary South Africa and Beyond, as well as the Chamber Dance Company Archive Collection (DVD Documentary Series).

Areas of Scholarship

CONTACT

Department of Dance\ Box 351150\ University of Washington\ Seattle, WA 98195\ (206) 543-9843\ Email: uwdance@uw.edu\ Web: dance.washington.edu

last update: January 2025