Welcome to the Department of Theatre and Dance • Dance Program
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WHY CHOOSE CSUF’S BACHELOR OF ARTS IN DANCE?
Discover the Power of a Robust Bachelor of Arts in Dance
Are you ready to take the next step in your dance journey? Whether your passion lies in performing, inspiring the next generation of dancers, or exploring creative intersections with dance and other disciplines, the Bachelor of Arts in Dance at California State University Fullerton will provide you with tools to achieve your goals. The BA in Dance is designed with unparalleled flexibility and a commitment to excellence to support dance majors on diverse professional paths.
World-Class Faculty with Real-World Experience
Our faculty are embodied practitioners with extensive professional careers in the very fields they teach; together they bring decades of experience and deep knowledge to the classroom and studio, ensuring that your education is rooted in artistry, theory and practice. With a student community of 50-70 majors, you’ll benefit from individualized attention and personalized advising throughout your academic path.
Holistic and Diverse Training
Our Bachelor of Arts in Dance emphasizes foundational techniques in contemporary, modern, ballet, and hip-hop, providing our developing artists a versatile and comprehensive education. Dancers train in styles that prepare them for the ever-evolving demands of the dance world, while developing their unique artistic voice. To enhance learning, we host up to six guest artists from across the globe. Our guest artist series includes professionals from diverse genres and styles of dance to inspire and challenge our students’ growth. These industry leaders share cutting-edge techniques and perspectives, keeping our program on the pulse of the professional dance world.
Performance Opportunities That Shine
With multiple performance opportunities, our program ensures that your creative voice is seen and heard. Student choreographers have their work produced at the same professional level as our guest artists, offering unparalleled chances to showcase their artistry. Mainstage productions, guest artist residencies, and student-led showcases ensure you leave with a portfolio of performance experiences.
From College to Career: Exceptional Alumni Success
Our alumni are making their mark across the dance industry and beyond. They perform with world-renowned companies like Doug Varone, Limón, Kanopy, Dayton Contemporary Dance, Thodos Chicago, Jacob Jonas, Ballet 314, SALT, Repertory Dance Theatre, and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. Other alumni have danced alongside stars like Lady Gaga, Rosalía, Carrie Underwood, and JoJo Siwa.
Beyond performance, our graduates have pursued diverse paths:
• Choreographers and company artistic directors.
• Teachers and dance programs directors at universities, high schools, and studios across the nation.
• Double majors in Kinesiology have become physical therapists, chiropractors, Pilates and yoga instructors, and personal trainers.
• Dance writers, arts administrators, and social workers
Mindful Rigor™: A Holistic Approach to Dance Education
At the core of our program is Mindful Rigor™, a commitment to fostering artistry through a healthy and sustainable lens. Our state-of-the-art Physical Training and Recovery Zone is available to dancers for unlimited visits, promoting wellness and ensuring you build habits that support a long, vibrant career.
Why Choose CSUF’s Bachelor of Arts in Dance?
• World-Class Faculty: Learn from seasoned professionals who bring their lived expertise into every class.
• Diverse Techniques: Contemporary, modern, ballet, and hip-hop training to ground you in versatility.
• Unmatched Performance Opportunities: Multiple showcases and mainstage productions featuring student and guest work at a professional standard.
• Flexible for Your Goals: A program designed to accommodate double majors and diverse career paths.
• Alumni Impact: A proven track record of success in performance, education, and beyond.
• Holistic Support: A focus on sustainable practices and physical well-being.
Whether you dream of performing on stage, teaching in schools, or carving your unique niche in the dance world, our B.A. in Dance offers the tools, training, and community to help you succeed.
Join our program today and discover where your passion can take you.
Our Mission Statement
- To educate, inspire, empower, and motivate our developing artists to achieve excellence in performance, teaching, choreography, advocacy, research, and other dance related fields.
- Through mindful rigor, provide students with opportunities to transform into holistic dance artists.
- To foster a community of artists with a focus on individual advocacy, cultural competence, and lifelong learning.
- To support and increase student engagement within their local, national, and international communities.
Program Description
The Bachelor of Arts in Dance is for developing artists seeking a broad and rich background in both theory and practice. The degree is designed to foster the skills, understanding, and discipline of our developing dance artists. Our faculty are united in their dedication to teaching each student as an individual. We take pride in keeping our classes small to provide this type of differentiated feedback. Our robust B.A. in Dance curriculum includes intensive training in ballet, modern/contemporary dance, and composition classes through a lens of Cultural Competency and Advocacy; complemented by improvisation, dance history, kinesiology, pedagogy, Hip Hop styles, African American concert dance history, Jazz, conditioning for performing artists, and yoga. Throughout the year our dance majors have up to seven unique performance opportunities. Based in Mindfulness practices, our nurturing, yet rigorous, environment offers our dance majors many transformative experiences to develop their unique artistry. Our graduating students leave prepared technically and creatively to pursue work in dance and related areas.
GOALS - BACHELOR OF ARTS IN DANCE
Graduates of the Department of Theatre and Dance with a B.A. in Dance will:
• Be competent and reflective practitioners of the art of dance.
• Be capable of living a culturally rich life.
• Be passionate and confident about their work.
• Practice successful collaboration.
• Be intellectually curious and decisive in exploring new modes of expression.
• Have fundamental knowledge of dance history, dance composition, dance technique and theory.
• Perform professional standards of oral and written communication.
• Are intellectually, creatively, technically and technologically prepared to be artistic members of their communities.
• Have a well-rounded education acquired through the studies in general education courses and been involved in multiple High Impact Practices through their degree.
DIVERSITY STATEMENT
Our program is committed to fostering a full experience for each of our students. We mindfully respect and value students of every race/ethnicity, age, ability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, body type, political view, and religion. Each of our student’s unique experiences, beliefs and values brings an awareness and consciousness that contributes greatly to our community of learners. We are continuously evolving our program, policies, and practices to ensure that all individuals are supported, nurtured, and thriving.
Faculty Artist Publishes Research on the Power of Mindfulness in Dance
In 2019, Cal State Fullerton Professor of Theatre and Dance Lisa D. Long began teaching four basic principles of mindfulness in her classes: breath awareness, closed-eye body awareness, self-talk tracking and a yoga pose known as Savasana.
CSUF Dancers, Choreographers Present At ACDA Baja Regional Conference
Cal State Fullerton dance works were selected out of more than 40 choreographies submitted.
Fall Dance's
'Momentum'
Showcases Student Dancers,
Choreographers
The O.C Register profiles preparations for 'Fall Dance Theatre: Momentum,' including guest choreographer Yoshita Sakuraba.
Dance Student’s Greatest Lesson Was The Beauty
Of Imperfection
As a new dance student at Cal State Fullerton, Moises Felix was a perfectionist. But a former dancer changed his mindset for the better.
• NASD Website
Land Acknowledgement The Department of Theatre and Dance acknowledges our presence on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation.We pay our respects to the Indigenous land caretakers past, present, and emerging. For more information please visit the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe website
We also recognize our debt to enslaved and exploited workers past and present whose labor was and continues to be stolen through unjust practices.
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