Dance

Department Chair: Betsy Cooper

Department Office: Dance Center S-131

Telephone / FAX: (562) 985‑4747 / (562) 985-7896

Faculty: Rebecca Bryant, Betsy Cooper, Colleen Dunagan, Keith Johnson, Rebecca Lemme, Lorin Johnson, Andrew Vaca, Brooke Winder

Administrative Coordinators: Jeniffer Mishica, Sylvia Rodriguez-Scholz

Career Possibilities

Dancer • Choreographer • Dance Educator • Dance Company Director • Dance/Movement Therapist • Dance Studio Director • Performing Arts Administrator • Physical Therapist • Pilates Instructor • Athletic Trainer

(Some of these, and other careers, require additional education or experience. For more information, see www.careers.csulb.edu.)

Introduction

The Department of Dance offers a variety of movement practices that include technique, improvisation, choreography and Pilates. Dance majors study modern, ballet, jazz, and hip-hop; tap and dances of Africa and the African diaspora may be taken as electives. Dance majors learn the elements of dance concert production, and music as it relates to dance, and draw connections between theory and practice by investigating dance through historical, pedagogical, scientific, and cultural lenses. The  department also offers numerous GE and activity courses for non-majors, including introduction to dance courses, and beginning through intermediate levels of ballet, modern, jazz and hip hop. Performances, master classes and guest artist residencies enhance the creative vibrancy of campus and community.

All new undergraduate students (BA, pre-BFA, pre-BA with option in Dance Science) enroll in a series of foundation courses taken in the first year of study.  Entrance into the BFA degree is by audition only when students have completed specific coursework and have achieved required levels of competency. Entrance to the BA with option in Dance Science is contingent on the successful completion of major specific declaration requirements.

Entrance to the major or minor in dance is by audition. Applicants may download audition information from the web or may contact the Department of Dance Office. Non-major classes are open to all students and do not require any audition.

The Department of Dance is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Dance. Due to accreditation standards, new transfer students are expected to have trained in at least two of the following dance practices-modern dance, ballet, jazz and hip hop-each semester of their community college preparatory years in order to achieve the technical proficiency required for graduation.

Programs

• Dance, M.A.
• Dance, M.F.A.

• Dance, B.A.
• Dance, B.F.A.
• Dance, Dance Science Option, B.A.

• Dance Minor