Mission Statement and Learning Objectives

Music and dance are essential expressions of human experience.

The purpose of the School of Music and Dance is to:

• Prepare, inspire, and motivate students for excellence in professional careers in teaching, performance, choreography, composition, research, and related fields;
• Engage a diverse university population in experiences that foster life-long learning and a greater understanding of music and dance;
• Provide and sustain a unique performing arts culture for the university, Silicon Valley, and the greater Bay Area;
• Generate creative activities and scholarship in music and dance that have local, national, and international significance.

Bachelor of Arts in Dance

• Dance Studies

  • Students holding undergraduate liberal arts degrees must have:

    1. The ability to identify and work conceptually with the elements of dance
    2. An understanding of the choreographic processes, aesthetic properties of style, and the ways these shape and are shaped by artistic and cultural ideas and contexts.
    3. An acquaintance with a wide selection of dance repertory, the principal eras, genres, and cultural sources.
    4. The ability to develop and defend critical evaluations.
    5. Fundamental knowledge of the body and of kinesiology as applicable to work in dance.
• Performance

  • Students holding undergraduate liberal arts degrees must develop:

    1. Ability in performing consistent with the goals and objectives of the specific liberal arts degree program being followed, and appropriate to the individuals' needs and interests.
    2. An understanding of procedures for realizing a variety of dance styles.
    3. Knowledge and/or skills in one or more areas of dance beyond basic course work and performance appropriate to the individuals' needs and interests, and consistent with the goals and objectives of the specific liberal arts degree program being followed.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance

• A. Technical Mastery
  • 1. Perform highest level of technical skill in at least one area.
    2. Perform highest possible level of dance expression, demonstrating conceptual understanding of the medium.
    3. Execute technical proficiency standards.
    4. Articulate a fundamental knowledge of the body and kinesiology.
    5. Develop and execute a dance class, showing basic knowledge and skills in dance pedagogy.
• B. The ability to produce work.
  • 1. Develop choreographic studies that include traditional and/or experimental approaches.
    2. Create a body of work for evaluation showing high level of skill in choreography.
• C. The ability to solve professional problems independently.
  • 1. Place dance in historical, cultural, and stylistic contexts.
    2. Analyze dance, using and intersecting the common elements and vocabulary.
• D. A coherent set of artistic/intellectual goals which are evident in their work.
  • 1. Form and defend analysis and critiques of dance and communicate dance ideas, concepts, and requirements to professionals and laypersons related to practice of the major field.
    2. Analyze and evaluate dance perceptively.
    3. Form and defend individual critiques.