Department of Dance + Choreography

The VCUarts Dance community seeks to shape the future of the field. We are a vital, energetic department with an established reputation, diverse guest artist program and professionally active faculty dedicated to student success. Graduates of our program thrive as performers, makers, teachers, administrators, and in many other facets of the field of dance.

VCUarts Dance’s teaching and learning environment offers a high level of student/faculty interaction. Our facilities include eight dance studios with floor-to-ceiling windows and a fully-staffed theater designed for dance.

Dance is a pre-professional program that provides students with numerous opportunities for individual artistic growth in a community that values communication, collaboration, and self-motivation. The department, an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Dance, provides an invigorating educational environment designed to prepare students for the demands and challenges of a career as an informed and engaged artist in the field of dance.

Your gift to the VCUarts Department of Dance + Choreography helps provide scholarships for our talented students, promote faculty research and host world-class artists.

Department Faculty

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Programs

Dance + Choreography offers two options for undergraduate students at VCUarts and the department also includes a minor.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Choreography

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Choreography requires a total of 120 credits, with 90 of those credits as the major core curriculum. Students can choose to focus on either program’s tracks: technique and performance, or creative. In the technique and performance track, students commit to disciplined training and concentration in the medium of modern and contemporary dance, while in the creative track, students develop their choreographic potential.

Minor in Dance and Choreography

Students can begin accruing credit hours toward a dance minor at any time. Requests for the minor can be made only after the student has earned a minimum of eight credits in dance at VCU, with a minimum overall GPA of 2.0. (Transfer credits are not accepted toward the minor.) Minor requests are to be submitted to the dance minor adviser and approved by the department chair.

Facilities

VCU Dance majors take dance classes and rehearse in the studios of the Dance Center, at the Depot Annex Studio, and in the Grace Street Theater.

VCU Grace Street Theater

The Grace Street Theater at 934 W. Grace St. is the primary performance venue for the Department of Dance + Choreography. The Department of Art History and the Cinema program also use the renovated historic theater for classes and film screenings. In addition to its university uses, the 225-seat theater is available to the Richmond community to rent for dance performances, film festivals, guest artist lectures and other events.

VCU Dance Center

The VCU Dance Center at 10 N. Brunswick St. houses seven Department of Dance + Choreography studios for dance and movement classes and features free performances for students several times a year. Next door, the Dance Office at 1315 Floyd Ave. houses the department’s administrative and faculty offices, as well as instructional space.

Depot Annex

The Depot Annex at 801 W. Marshall St. is located behind the main Depot building. It houses administrative, advisor and faculty offices for the Department of Kinetic Imaging, along with a dance studio. The Annex is outfitted with a media equipment checkout room, a computer lab, a soundproof recording studio with instruments, and an infinity wall.

Dance Life

Student Resources

Students in VCUarts Dance enjoy support and instruction from passionate faculty and staff whose professional expertise help students better understand their practice.

Photo graciously provided by and of Norbert De La Cruz. Photo taken by Rebecca Marcela Oviatt.

Guest Artists

Our guest artists bring valuable advice from years of work in their field, and our student resources are built to promote your health and your future career.

Photo graciously provided by and of Norbert De La Cruz. Photo taken by Rebecca Marcela Oviatt.

Events

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March 29, 7:30 pm9:30 pm Grace Street Theater $5 – $10
March 30, 7:30 pm9:30 pm Grace Street Theater $5 – $10
April 26, 7:30 pm9:30 pm Grace Street Theater $5 – $10

Contact Us

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Header, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Student Resources images all by Anthony Johnson (@narratography)