Dance Department Tracks

The Performance/Choreography Track challenges students with professional and academic rigor while supporting artistic inquiry and personal potential. The Dance Department’s curriculum offers high-level technical training from faculty with rich professional backgrounds and features an immersion into compositional practices to support a strong foundation in choreographic language and performance skills. Students in this track focus on artistic development and have the flexibility to devise a schedule that is highly dance intensive while simultaneously taking advantage of Skidmore’s liberal arts environment. Over 70% of students in the department are double majors and many dancers design senior thesis projects that successfully and meaningfully align their double majors, demonstrating a commitment to both artistic excellence and interdisciplinary studies in dance.

The Dance Research Track allows students flexibility in their course choices while maintaining the rigor of the dance major. Students in this track are asked to define their own research concentration and then are given a flexible eight credits of coursework toward their dance major. Students are encouraged to participate in independent studies engaging in their own research process and/or work as a research assistant on a faculty research initiative. Interdisciplinary research is strongly encouraged. This unique curricular path allows Skidmore dancers to engage in areas of study that are tailored to their own personal goals. Embracing the Skidmore mission of “Creative Thought Matters”, the Dance Research Track grants students both the space and the tools to forge their own path within the discipline of dance.