The Conservatory of Music and Dance offers one Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, the BFA in Dance.

The Dance Division of the Conservatory of Music and Dance is committed to performance excellence through specialized training in dance technique, theory, and choreography while providing the student a liberal arts experience. Intellectual and artistic growth is the primary focus of the Dance Division and is perpetuated by the program in a disciplined and nurturing environment. The education of the student is enhanced by a strong foundation in ballet, modern dance, and choreography, diverse performance opportunities, professional liaisons with nationally recognized dance organizations, and release time for professional experience. Utilizing the expertise of the Conservatory faculties and visiting artists, the program fosters learning and creativity while preparing graduates as performers, teachers, and choreographers, as well as providing them with a broad-based background in the humanities in preparation for advanced graduate studies.

To enhance the BFA degree, the Dance Division maintains liaisons with professional dance companies and arts organizations. These professional connections provide our students performance opportunities, foster artistic growth, and expose our students to artists of national and international renown. A few examples of mutually beneficial Conservatory Dance Division partnerships are the Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company, the Albany Berkshire Ballet, Kansas Regional Dance Company, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Kansas City Repertory Theatre.

Teaching excellence is the cornerstone of the Dance Division and faculty remains active professionally as performers and choreographers. The traditional focus remains on performance and choreography for the faculty through their professional activity, and for the students through the curriculum. Faculty expectations are high, and these translate into rigorous degree program requirements both in the studio and academic components of the curriculum. Increasing rigor may be attributed nationally to an ever increasing competitive environment for the best students and faculty and locally to the University having gravitated toward very high expectations regarding faculty professional activity and visibility as criteria for merit salary increases and awarding of tenure and promotion.

BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS IN DANCE

The Dance Division curriculum reflects the career goals and employment opportunities of the undergraduate dance students. Students will be admitted to the dance program on the basis of a successful audition before the dance faculty, and a positive evaluation of their academic credentials and physical fitness. Student progress in the dance program will be evaluated by the dance faculty each semester during training. Students are admitted provisionally until they are approved for their major, based on the evaluation and recommendation of the dance faculty.

Eligibility and Assessment Criteria

1. Students auditioning for acceptance at the freshman level must demonstrate a basic ability in, and theoretical foundation for, dance training.
2. At the completion of the freshman year, students may advance to the next technical level in ballet and/or modern dance on the basis of a juried examination and assessment by the dance faculty.
3. Students not advancing to the next technical level in ballet and/or modern dance will be required to repeat their present level and may only repeat a level three times to continue in a dance major.
4. When a student has met the proficiency standards at the completion of the freshman year,the student will petition for declaration of major emphasis on ballet and/or modern dance.
5. Following acceptance by the dance faculty, a student will be expected to complete the fourth-year levels of technical proficiency in the major area of emphasis and a third-year level in the secondary one.
6. Dance majors must maintain a B average in all dance technique classes and an overall combined 3.0 GPA in all dance courses.
7. Upon completion of all degree requirements, and a satisfactory evaluation by the dance faculty of the senior recital, a student may submit application for graduation.

Program Prerequisites

1. Students applying for the dance program must have previous training in ballet and/or modern dance.
2. Applicants will be admitted, upon approval of the dance faculty, following mandatory auditions by the students.
3. Approval of the major by the dance faculty will be made at the end of either the freshman or Sophomore year

Required DANCE Courses

DANCE 140A-140B
DANCE 141B-442B
DANCE 141M-442M
DANCE 107, 108
DANCE 213C-213D
DANCE 217A, 217B
DANCE 218A, 218B, 319A, 319B
DANCE 250
DANCE 260, 261
DANCE 301
DANCE 302
DANCE 303
DANCE 305, 306
DANCE 309B
DANCE 310A, 310B
DANCE 313A, 313B
DANCE 405A, 405B
DANCE 413A, 413B
DANCE 414A, 414B

DANCE 415A, 415B
DANCE 416A, 416B
DANCE 493, 494
Total Hours101(103)
Required General Studies Courses
HISTORY 101
ART 110
COMM-ST 110
ENGLISH 110
ENGLISH 225
CONSVTY 120 or 120N
CONSVTY 353A or CONSVTY 125
THEATER 101 or 300
CONSVTY 375B
DANCE 106 -or-Computer Science 100
Applied Music
Total Hours30

* A senior recital is required. The recital must consist of two different dance forms studied in the fouryears of coursework, including one solo and one group work choreographed by the student. Further senior recital requirements are contained in the CONSVTY dance student handbook.
** All students are also required to perfrom in at least one main stage concert during their four years of study in the Dance Division. The main stage concerts are the Fall Dance Concert and the Spring Dance Concert.
*** Throughout their program of study, all dancers are expected to maintain general physical fitness and a healthy weight to enable the dancer to fulfill the rigorous demands of the dance program. Health and weight standards, and many other department details, are contained in the CONSVTY dance student handbook that is furnished to all dance students.

Student Learning Outcomes

The Conservatory of Music aims to meet or exceed the educational standards set by the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD) for the training of undergraduate dance students. To that end students must:

1. Demonstrate a basic ability in, and theoretical foundation for, ballet.
2. Demonstrate a basic ability in, and theoretical foundation for, modern dance.
3. Demonstrate basic knowledge of choreography.
4. Meet general studies requirements for the purpose of broadening their outlook on the world.

Students are encouraged to view the combination of dance and general studies as a means of developing a broad foundation for future artistic and intellectual development.