Dance Program

The Dance Program at Franklin Pierce is a challenging and comprehensive curriculum in contemporary dance.  As a student in the program, you will work towards developing your body as a sensitive, strong, and responsive instrument of your creative spirit.  You will learn the value of physical and mental discipline and seek a balance between that discipline and the freedom and risk that is essential to creativity.  You will be encouraged to open your eyes to the history of the art of dance, its current life, and its future.

At Franklin Pierce you can choose several ways to pursue your interest in dance:

• through the Dance Concentration within the Theatre Major,
• through a Dance Minor,
• through elective dance courses

With any of these approaches you will find opportunities to choreograph and perform through the annual Winter Dance Concert, Dance Workshop Performances (twice annually), a spring Musical Theatre Production, and student-produced concerts.

Franklin Pierce is a member of the American College Dance Festival Association, and each year students attend the regional festival bringing choreographic work to be shown and adjudicated.  Students also have the possibility of internships with the New Hampshire Dance Institute, and arts-education program in local schools.

The focus of the Franklin Pierce program is in modern dance, with particular emphasis on technique and improvisation leading to choreography.  An art form that is in its very nature both broad and inclusive, modern dance offers tremendous potential for creative expression.  By grounding students in a strong technical base, while at the same time challenging their creativity, the program seeks to balance the freedom and discipline through which a young dance artist can thrive.

In addition to several levels of modern dance technique and composition, students in the program study ballet, anatomy, the teaching of dance for children, theatre dance, dance history, and dance criticism.  They also have the opportunity to present a senior dance concert and to participate in independent study and internships.  Students may elect to combine their dance studies with another discipline to create an independent major.

Students also have the unique opportunity to travel with department faculty to Lyon, France for a Dance Semester Abroad.  This program will take particular advantage of the Biennale de la Danse, an extraordinary international dance festival held every other year in the beautiful city of Lyon, known as the “doorway to Provence.”

Questions regarding the Dance Program at Franklin Pierce University may be directed to Professor Wendy Dwyer at dwyerwb@franklinpierce.edu

Want to Know More?

View the College at Rindge Academic Catalog for specific degree requirements and course information.

Contact

Franklin Pierce University
College at Rindge
1.800.437.0048
admissions@franklinpierce.edu