The Master of Fine Arts Program in Dance in the Performing Arts Department at Washington University offers an innovative approach to dance technique, composition, improvisation and production. It involves an energetic interplay of studio work with professionally distinguished dance instructors, seminars with faculty who are experts in their fields and independent studies in choreography. This two-year program will expand your dance skills while engaging you with current concepts of dance as an art form, as an expression of culture and identity, and as a mode of critical thinking.
The overarching goal of this program is to develop each other's personal artistic practice while encountering a global perspective on dance studies, performance, pedagogy, and choreography.
Members of our dance faculty have performed with such companies as American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, National Ballet of Washington D.C., Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and Utah Repertory Dance Theatre. In addition, a distinctive feature of our MFA program is that it is run in collaboration with St. Louis’ Center of Creative Arts (COCA), involving a sharing of facilities and faculty borne out of a common vision of the importance of the performing arts. As the leading dance school in the region, COCA is also the largest multidisciplinary arts organization in St. Louis and has a world-renowned faculty. The department also has a vibrant semi-professional resident dance company, The Slaughter Project, with which students have opportunities to perform. And we have a long history of engaging the talents of contemporary guest choreographers and répétiteurs from ballet, modern and performance art who bring a broad range of challenging new processes, concepts and choreography to our students.
