Goals and Objectives

Bachelor of Arts in Dance

Goal: Liberal Arts-Based Programs of Study

To prepare dance artists, educators and researchers who possess an in-depth and integrated knowledge of dance making and who can critically engage in the aesthetic, cultural and historical contexts of dance as an art form and cultural phenomenon.

Objectives:

• Offer graduate and undergraduate programs of study that are grounded in the values and assumptions of liberal education and are fundamentally process-oriented.
• Create a teaching/learning community that values and fosters diversity and difference as well as encouraging social responsibility.
• Enhance programmatic opportunities by incorporating experiential/real-life academic and artistic content throughout the curriculum.
• Emphasize the creation, development, implementation and assessment of personal pedagogies that have their origins in scholarly practice (art making and research).

Goal: Collaboration, Integration, Interdisciplinarity

To provide a creative and collaborative learning environment that challenges students to develop unified physical, intuitive, and intellectual endeavors.

Objectives:

• Facilitate integrated learning through the development of "networks of content" between and among courses.
• Provide scholarly art making and research opportunities for students to engage in collaborative projects.
• Establish mediums/forums/venues through which interdisciplinary discussions and exchanges can occur.
• Participate in campus opportunities to promote interdisciplinary thinking/doing as related to scholarship, teaching, and service.
• Partner with academic components that encourage interdisciplinary work and provide models of interdisciplinary scholarship and pedagogy.

Goal: Student and Faculty Scholarship

To foster opportunities for faculty and students to engage in scholarly endeavors—art making and research—that will advance the knowledge of dance as a discipline and art form.

Objectives:

• Emphasize praxis¹ throughout the curriculum as the foundation for scholarship (art making, research, art making/research, research/art making).
• Create a culture of intellectual possibility that values diversity in qualitative scholarly pursuits and provides opportunities for students to be scholars throughout their programs of study as they experience the processes of choreographing, performing, presenting, writing, designing, and composing their work.
• Mentor students in submitting scholarly work to conferences, festivals, publications, and other art making and research venues.
• Encourage and support faculty scholarship that will enhance the national and international profile and stature of the division of dance and the university.

Goal: Future-Oriented Teaching/Learning

To prepare dance professionals (artists, researchers, educators, leaders) to meet the demands of an ever-changing dance world.

Objectives:

• Weave process-oriented experiences throughout the curriculum, which is designed to educate students for the future by engaging them in such activities as questioning, recontextualizing, discovering problems, solving problems, thinking about their own thinking, and considering ideas from multiple perspectives.
• Create a teaching/learning community that emphasizes personal agency and social responsibility.
• Integrate appropriate uses of technology in teaching, art making and research.
• Utilize online technology to enhance teaching/learning and the exchange of ideas in face-to-face classes while also making courses and programs more accessible to working professionals.

Goal: Leadership, Ethics and Integrity

To provide role models for leadership and the advancement of the significance of dance in society and to emphasize the importance of participating in the profession with the highest regard for ethical practice and integrity.

Objectives:

• Engage students in discussions about artistic integrity and ethics related to and in the context of diverse practical settings and experiences.
• Emphasize the importance of maintaining personal health and wellness through demonstrating a value for diverse body types, attending to health/wellness issues in courses, offering and integrating bodywork in the technique program and communicating current information on issues, programs, and workshops.
• Provide students with opportunities to serve in the role of artistic citizens in practical/experiential settings.
• Maintain active professional roles as faculty in order to share experiences with students and to integrate current knowledge/information in coursework appropriate to the content.
• Provide opportunities for students to have contact with working professionals in the field.
• Ensure ethical practice in research and teaching through careful mentoring/supervision of students and monitoring compliance with the federal laws and institutional policies protecting the rights and welfare of human participants in research.

Goal: Dance in General Education

To provide dance experiences as part of a basic arts education that aim to provide all university students with the knowledge and skills to understand and appreciate the arts.

Objectives:

• Offer both studio and theory courses in a variety of dance forms and formats, including 100% online courses, to fulfill University Core Curriculum requirements.
• Offer dance coursework in support of other university programs such as the BGS and MAT programs.
• Maintain a presence in university-wide courses through serving as guests lecturers and performers.
• Provide formal and informal concerts/performances/lecture demonstrations by students, faculty, and guest artists in a variety of venues and schedules to reach diverse audiences.
• Maintain an active role in governance and policy development through university committee service and leadership.

Goal: Dance Advocacy in Regional, National and International Communities

To provide dance and performance arts programs for festivals and organizations by facilitating student experience in the development and realization of community-based dance programs at the regional, national, and international level.

Objectives:

• Offer a variety of dance experiences and programs to the regional community and provide opportunities for TWU students to teach and organize these programs. Such programs include but are not limited to the: TWU Community Dance Center, Career Day for Dancers, KidsDance: Rhythms for Life, Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, DanceLab, Weekly Improvisational Jam, Dance for the Planet, DanceWorks and International Dance Company lecture-demonstrations and workshops, formal and informal concerts and annual dance guest artist residencies.
• Engage students in organizing and implementing community-based performances in K- 12 schools and various social, residential, and community centers.
• Provide opportunities for students to present their scholarly endeavors (performance and research/writing) at national conferences, festivals, workshops and other venues.
• Provide opportunities for students to share their scholarly work in face-to-face and online formats with international dance communities (Taiwan, Germany, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Egypt, Poland, etc.)

¹: Praxis is defined by Paulo Freire as a teaching/learning process that goes from action to reflection and from reflection upon action to new action. It is used here to emphasize the integration of theory/practice and reflects our search for more inclusive, less oppositional, language to describe our philosophy and pedagogical vision.