Video of brief interviews with PhD Dance students describing their experience of the program, the classes, and the grad community here at The Ohio State University.

Video of BFA Dance students in various classes, rehearsals, and community events in the Ohio State Department of Dance. 

The Ohio State University Department of Dance not only reflects current national trends in dance research but also spearheads new areas of investigation in dance. The graduate programs in dance afford students opportunities to study and conduct research through the synthesis of three major spheres: creative activity, theoretical inquiry, and physical practice. Each degree program emerges from the practice of dance but is shaped through variation in emphasis over the three spheres. Graduate students focus on their individual areas of research, including perspectives drawn from inside and outside the dance discipline. The program locates itself at the active forefront of contemporary dance through choreographic and performative exploration, creative use of technologies, re-imagining the documentation of dance traditions, and emerging critical theory. 

The PhD in Dance Studies at The Ohio State University aims to apply a scholarly lens to the study of dance, producing artist/writer/teachers who can demonstrate literacy, intellectual acumen and a profound awareness of developments in their field. The focus of the doctoral program keeps the practice of dance at its core with theoretical and analytical inquiry grounded in and emanating from this rich nucleus of human activity. While not excluding the use of methodologies developed in other disciplines (such as literary criticism, cultural theory, anthropology and other social sciences), research emerging from the Department of Dance is centered in an investigation of movement practices, including the history and theory of composition and performance, cultural studies, and the analysis of movement. 

The PhD program requires a total 80 units of graduate credit, at least 50 of which must be earned beyond the Master's degree. It is a full-time degree; part-time students are occasionally considered on a case-by-case basis. All doctoral students complete a written qualifying examination at the end of the first year of study to prepare for continuing studies. Students entering the program with a bachelor's degree only complete an additional written comprehensive examination at the end of the first year in the program. 

Be sure to take a look at our students and their work.