Dance, BFA

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The BFA program is intended for students with professional aspirations and offers a curriculum that in its breadth and depth prepares students to enter the field as young artists. At 78 credit hours the demands of the BFA program are significant. The BFA is therefore most appropriate for students who are ready to make a definitive commitment to dance. The program is selective and acceptance into the program requires formal application sometime after the applicant has completed 45 hours of coursework at Columbia College Chicago. Acceptance to the program is based on demonstrated physical and intellectual aptitude for pre-professional studies in dance.

The BFA in Dance features a comprehensive curriculum organized into three broad areas: Core Courses, BFA Electives, and Culmination Sequences. Core Courses (51 credits) include all the requirements for a BA in dance and more: rigorous dance technique requirements, sequenced coursework in body sciences, historical and cultural perspectives, music and rhythm, dance theory and applications, and dance pedagogy, as well as courses in dance making devoted to the development of creative abilities and individual voice. BFA Electives (15 credits) allow BFA students to select any 5 upper division dance courses that best fit their interest and ambitions in Dance. The Culmination Sequence (12 credits) is a series of four upper division course taken across the junior and senior years that provide substantial depth in a particular aspect of the field and that lead to a culmination project where students demonstrate their knowledge and skills at a pre-professional level. Each BFA selects the Culmination Sequence that best fits her or his interests and ambitions.

BFA Core Outcomes: Upon completion of their coursework dance majors graduating with a BFA in Dance will:

be skilled dancers with substantial physical proficiencies in two or more dance forms;
be able to actively engage in dancemaking through choreography, improvisation and performance;
be knowledgeable concerning historical, cultural, scientific and theoretical information and perspectives in dance;
be knowledgeable concerning basic dance pedagogical practices and functional body mechanics; and
be able to describe, analyze, and interpret dance works.

BFA Culmination Sequence Outcomes:

Dancemaking: Graduates will be inventive dancemakers demonstrating an individual artistic voice and the ability to envision, create, and bring to performance their own original works.
Teaching: Graduates will be effective and knowledgeable dance educators, able to plan and present appropriate material and offer constructive feedback utilizing a variety of education methods and to draw upon the breadth of their experience and skills in dance to their teaching.
Dance Studies: Graduates will be pre-professional dance scholars who, through their writing and/or performance work, are prepared to articulate historical, cultural, scientific, and theoretical information and perspectives on dance with other scholars in the field.

Program Requirements

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Transfer Students: View a Transfer Planning Tool for this Major

Performance Standards

The Dance Department expects exemplary effort and accomplishment from our BFA candidates. Failure to meet one or more of the following expectations will result in review of a candidate’s continuation within the BFA program. BFA candidates must:

Pass all required courses with grades of C or better and maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA.
Advance through technical requirements in a timely manner.
(BFA students will demonstrate continuing development as dancers. Typically BFA students will advance one level each year.)
Exhibit full engagement and presence in their artistic and scholarly practices and conduct themselves in a manner beneficial to their own and others’ education.

Transfer Students Seeking a BFA in Dance

Transfer students seeking the BFA degree must be in full-time residence a minimum of four semesters (excluding summers) and complete a minimum of 50 credit hours of required coursework, including all required courses beyond the core, within Columbia’s Dance Department. Any prior dance courses will be evaluated for equivalency with our requirements, and a limited number may be allowed to stand in place of program requirements.