Program Overview

Introduction to the Dance Program

The School for the Contemporary Arts offers a Dance program in contemporary dance training, creation, and performance that is uniquely interdisciplinary, intercultural, and caters to today’s imaginative dance artist. The program is open to those who come from various dance backgrounds, including classical, modern, or contemporary studio training, as well as those with movement practices that fall outside these codified forms.

Program Structure

The Dance program is structured to provide students with a comprehensive education in dance, including theoretical approaches to training, composition, improvisation, collaboration, and performance. The program emphasizes interdisciplinary pedagogy, encouraging students to work across other disciplines in the School for the Contemporary Arts, such as Film, Music & Sound, Theatre Performance, Theatre Production & Design, Visual Art, and Art, Performance & Cinema Studies.

Curriculum

The curriculum includes a range of courses, such as:

• Contemporary Dance Training & Movement Systems
• Approaches to Composition
• Choreography as Research Practice
• Interdisciplinary Exploration & Collaborative Experimentation
• Repertory & Performance
• Improvisation Frameworks & Scores
• Making/Documentation/Archiving
• Choreographic Labs
• Experimental Anatomy & Body Conditioning for Dancers
• Movement Aesthetics/Context
• Dance History: 20th Century to the Present
• Dance as a Unique Cultural Practice
• Performing Black Identities in Diasporic Spaces
• Senior Projects
• Choreographic Intervention by Technology within the Field of Contemporary Art
• Spatial Perception, Body, & the Technological Body
• Dance & Nomadic Anthropology

Program Options

The Dance program offers several options, including:

• Major in Dance (BFA): To graduate with a BFA, major in Dance, a student must complete 80 credit hours for the major itself, plus the 30 credit Faculty of Arts Breadth requirements within the total of 120 credits required for the degree.
• Extended minor in Dance: An extended minor in Dance requires a minimum of 45 credit hours in dance and related areas in contemporary arts.
• Joint Degree/Diploma program with the National Ballet School: This is a joint degree/diploma program with the National Ballet School Teacher Training Program. The five-year program allows students to initiate their studies at SFU or the National Ballet School (NBS).

Goals

The program has several goals, including:

1. To promote a deeper understanding of the numerous expressive possibilities inherent in the human body.
2. To contextualize these possibilities through an understanding of dance as a research practice that also involves the history of art, aesthetics, and critical theory.
3. To explore these possibilities through collaborative projects with other disciplines, including an engagement with new technology.
4. To present the results of these explorations as complete creative works that foreground the expertise of the artist as researcher, i.e., performer, choreographer, thinker, and scholar.

Collaboration and Composition

The School for the Contemporary Arts emphasizes interdisciplinary pedagogy within and across the practice-based disciplines represented in the school. Collaboration is a key aspect of the program, and students are encouraged to work across other disciplines to produce new, exciting cross-disciplinary projects.

Our Graduates

SCA BFA dance graduates have performed with various dance companies and have gone on to pursue careers in dance, arts administration, education, and other related fields. Many have also started their own dance companies, collectives, or institutions, while others have gone on to graduate programs, becoming both artists and scholars in dance.

Dance Area Frequently Asked Questions

The program has a list of frequently asked questions, including:

• What's distinctive about the program?
• How is the program structured?
• What kind of students are you looking for?
• How many people apply?
• What are auditions like?

Auditions

Auditions consist of a technique class and interview. The class is a combination of a ballet barre, contemporary dance technique, and a short improvisation. Dance faculty co-teach the class and conduct the interviews in small groups.

Conclusion

The Dance program at the School for the Contemporary Arts offers a unique and comprehensive education in contemporary dance, emphasizing interdisciplinary pedagogy, collaboration, and creative expression. The program provides students with a range of opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge in dance, preparing them for careers in the field and beyond.