Bachelor of Dance and Performance Studies at University of California, Berkeley

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Within the Dance and Performance Studies curriculum, we understand performance to be a mode of critical inquiry and research, a means of creative expression, and a vehicle for public engagement. We engage with dance on physical, intellectual, and aesthetic levels. It is our hope that dancers not only grow as performers, but also as artists, thinkers, makers, viewers, researchers, and participants. The practical focus of the major is on the performance and choreography of contemporary dance and dance theater. Of equal importance is the study of theater and dance theory, history, culture, and literature.

The dance training and academic courses offered by our department are rigorous and geared toward the student who is interested in learning about dance and performance from multiple perspectives. As either a major or minor in Dance and Performance Studies, you will study with faculty known nationally and internationally for their scholarly research and creative work. Many of our graduates have careers in professional dance companies. Other students have gone on to graduate study in a wide variety of arts-related fields and have developed careers in universities, non-profits, and professional fields in health care, education, and business.

The opportunities in our department are many and varied. They include regular student-led performances, an annual spring concert series where students perform in faculty and guest-artist repertory pieces, the option to participate in an honors thesis/project, and exposure to a myriad of diverse and exciting lectures, speakers, guest artists, and performances.

Declaring the Major

For further information regarding the prerequisites for declaring the major, please see the Major Requirements tab on this page.

Honors Program

Majors in the Department of Dance and Performance Studies with an overall GPA of 3.3 in the University may, with the approval of the department, apply to complete an honors project. There are two types of honors projects:

1. Written-Only Thesis
2. Written Honors Essay and Production

Students should apply through the Undergraduate Academic Adviser and can find more detailed information on the TDPS website. 

Minor Program

The Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) offers a minor in Dance and Performance Studies. For further information regarding the minor requirements, please see the Minor Requirements tab on this page.

Confirm your intention to minor after enrolling in 1 course in the department. Transfer students can discuss coursework transfers into the minor, as well as dance level placement, with the Undergraduate Academic Adviser. Since your minor will be from the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, it is likely you will do most of your minor coursework here.

Other Major and Minor Program Offered by TDPS

Theater and Performance Studies (Major and Minor)

Visit Department Website

The Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies (TDPS) teaches performance as a mode of critical inquiry, creative expression and public engagement. Through performance training and research, the department creates liberal arts graduates with expanded analytical, technical and imaginative capacities. As a public institution, diversity and inclusion is a key part of teaching, art making, and public programming.

Undergraduate majors and minors are well prepared for the future, both as artists and engaged citizens of the world. At a time when scholars and practitioners across a variety of fields call for more cross-disciplinary intellectual collaboration and project-based learning in higher education, the department takes pride in its daily commitment to collaboration and to the kind of rigorously critical, team-based projects the department develops with its students, staff, and faculty both in the classroom and in its production season.

Learning Goals for the Major

By the end of their time in D&PS, beyond TDPS goals, students should possess the following:

1. Ability to synthesize a well-organized argument from textual or other evidence and to express it in formal, written form.
2. Proficiency in research methods (i.e., utilization of public and private archives, libraries, electronic databases, oral histories; textual and performance analysis).
3. Collaborative skills.
4. Foundational stagecraft and production skills and knowledge (e.g., design, craft and technology, stage management, and new media).
5. Literacy in foundational dramatic texts and fundamental concepts of performance theory.
6. Basic history of Euro-American dance practice, including issues of race, ethnicity, and multiculturalism in the performing arts.
7. Basic modern/contemporary dance technique in the Western concert dance tradition.
8. Understanding of the choreographic process and the tools necessary for this process.

Skills

Through upper division course work, electives, and capstone experiences students should also possess advanced training in at least one of the following:

1. Choreography.
2. Advanced Dance Technique.
3. History & Theory of Dance.