Come as you are. Leave as who you want to be.
Ohio State's Department of Dance leads the field of university dance departments through cutting-edge curriculum that features rigorous physical and scholarly inquiry.
We seek to leverage our reputation to become a leader in delivering the most progressive higher education dance training at all levels. From secondary school pre-professional training to advanced creative and scholarly research, we aim to become the preeminent hub in the professional dance field regionally, nationally and internationally.
The Department of Dance is committed to cultivating a rigorous year-round curricular model that draws upon multiple disciplinary and artistic approaches while encouraging students to position their own work and development within broad social contexts.
Our curriculum is designed to develop concrete skills in dance performance, choreography, somatics, historical and critical analysis, dance film and technology and community responsive pedagogy.
We strive to instill an intellectually broad and deep appreciation of the role that dance plays in human cultures around the world while ensuring our students are competitive in the current job market.
As we are committed to academic excellence, freedom of expression, activism, social transformation, and civic responsibility, we see this wholistic model as an unprecedented strategy in current university dance programs.
Furthermore, the Department of Dance takes seriously its responsibility to expand access to rigorous and diverse dance training as well as public understanding of and appreciation for dance — whether that be creatively, culturally or educationally.
The Ohio State University Department of Dance is a community of diverse individuals trained on a common nexus of inquiry, the rich and complex phenomenon of dance. At the heart of the Ohio State Dance experience is the notion of embodied scholarship, embracing the intertwining areas of physical practice, creative activity and theoretical inquiry.
As one of the premiere dance programs in United States, the department is at the forefront of contemporary modern dance through choreographic and performance exploration, creative use of technologies and reimagining the documentation of dance traditions. Visiting artists and scholars enrich all dimensions of the program and regularly augment the resident faculty. The students also benefit from institutional relationships with Dance/USA, BalletMet Columbus, Movement Research, Inc., of New York City, OhioDance, growing exchange programs with universities and centers in Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and Africa, and the Dance Notation Bureau Extension housed in the department.
In the summer, the department offers the H.A.T.CH. (Holistic Approaches to Transformative Choreography) incubator program, which provides a space to consider choreography as not only as product, but a process to understand our world. World renowned contemporary choreographers, such as Charles O. Anderson, Irvin Manuel Gonzalez, Alfonso Cervera and Sidra Bell are in residence over the summer and further engaging with the Department of Dance throughout the academic year.
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, the oldest Black dance company in Ohio and one of the premiere dance companies in the country holding works of some of the most innovative and influential choreographers of the 20th and 21st century is the Department of Dance’s Professional Company in Residence, creating access for our students to have in-person contact with world-class professional dancers.
The department’s facilities in historic Sullivant Hall at the gateway of the university’s campus recently underwent a renovation, and the newly remodeled building was unveiled with a Grand Reopening Celebration in September 2014. The renovated facility features a state-of-the-art, flexible performance space in the center of the building, on the top floor. The roof was raised to provide natural light during the day and a dynamic black-box performance environment by night. In addition, the new space includes six studios, a costume shop and a media lab. New neighbors within the building include the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library, ACCAD and the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy. This new vantage provides an expansive view of the University’s evolving Arts District, which includes Mershon Auditorium and the Wexner Center for the Arts.
The Ohio State University is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD).