Dance

Courses

Academic requirements and courses are listed in the Vassar College Catalogue.

Courses for academic credit are offered in modern dance, ballet, jazz, hip hop and contemporary technique. In addition, the department offers courses geared around exploring and developing new dance works, and Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT), which presents students with performance and choreography opportunities throughout the year. VRDT annually performs repertoire including modern dance reconstructions, classical and contemporary ballet works, faculty pieces, and original student choreography.

The Dance department offers two correlate sequences, Dance Performance, and Dance Studies, allowing students to focus on their dance studies as they major in another discipline.

Please fill out the Intention to Declare a Correlate in Dance form.

Master Classes and Guest Artists

A person teaching a dance class in a large brick studio filled with other people.

Dance students engage with renowned guest artists who broaden the dancers’ experience in technique, choreography, improvisation, and relevant topics in dance. Recent guest artists include Amy Hall Garner, Kirven Douthit-Boyd, Jodi Melnick, Mike Tyus, Shannon Gillen, Carla Körbes, Jean-Pierre Frohlich, Desmond Richardson, Jennifer Archibald, Hofesh Shechter, and Stella Abrera. Lecturers on a range of topics include Brandon Stirling Baker with William Forsythe (Dance Lighting Design), Virginia Johnson (dancing for Arthur Mitchell and the Dance Theatre of Harlem), Merrill Ashley (dancing for George Balanchine), Emily Coates (Yvonne Rainer and post-modern dance) and Lauri Fitz-Pegado ’87 (dancer/diplomat/arts advisor/author).

Dance Performance correlate

The Dance Performance correlate offers students the opportunity to focus on all aspects of dance as a performing art, from practicing different dance forms and techniques, to initial conception of an artistic vision, through the processes taken to develop a dance work for performance. The correlate requires six units of student work:

  • Two units of coursework in dance technique (units distributed among more than one technique). This may include: DANC 160–166; DANC 174; DANC 194–196; DANC 264–267; DANC 274; DANC 276; DANC 278; DANC 294–295; DANC 380; DANC 394–397
  • Three units of Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT): DANC 364–367
  • One additional unit of work other than dance technique. This may include: Movement Analysis (DANC 170), Dance Composition (DANC 215); Improvisation (DANC 155), Choreography and Production (DANC 381); Independent Work (DANC 298/399), or work in another department or program with dance-themed content, upon approval of the correlate sequence advisor

Dance Studies correlate

The Dance Studies sequence offers students the opportunity to practice diverse dance techniques with greater focus on the multiple ways in which dance engages with society, including and beyond performance. The correlate requires six units of student work:

  • Two units of course work in dance technique (units distributed among more than one technique). This may include: DANC 160–166; DANC 174; DANC 194–196; DANC 264–267; DANC 274; DANC 276; DANC 278; DANC 294–295; DANC 380; DANC 394–397
  • At least three units of coursework other than dance technique. This may include: Movement Analysis (DANC 170), Dance Composition (DANC 215); Improvisation (DANC 155), Choreography and Production (DANC 381), Independent Work (DANC 298/399); up to two units of VRDT (DANC 364–367); up to one unit of course work in another department or program with dance-themed content, upon approval of the correlate sequence advisor
  • Up to one of unit of Independent Work in Dance (DANC 298/399) to be proposed by the student, in consultation with their correlate sequence advisor

Please consult the Vassar College Catalogue for further information or feel free to contact the department or any of our faculty in order to discuss dance at Vassar in more detail.