Undergraduate Program

Welcome to the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.

TDPS houses two sets of majors and minors; one set in Theater, and the other in Dance.  You can find more information about the learning goals and course requirements of our programs using the links to the left.

Within the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, we understand performance to be a mode of critical inquiry, a means of a creative expression, and a vehicle for public engagement. Our goal is to produce “the whole artist;” as such, our classes, workshops, and productions challenge students to expand their critical and creative capacities.

The T&PS or D&PS major trains students to begin careers in areas as diverse as those of professional theater (acting, directing), dance (performing choreographing), theater management and design (stage management, and costume, scenic and lighting design), teaching and scholarship in performance-related fields, writing-based fields (advertising, editing), body-based fields of study (health care and somatic practices), law, and social work, especially as it relates to community-based arts projects.  Currently, TDPS alum have gone on to careers in television, film, dance, and theater, as well as pursued work in law and medicine.

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, we take pride in our daily commitment to collaboration and to the kind of rigorously critical, team-based projects we develop with our students, staff, and faculty both in the classroom and in our production season.

We aim to bridge the divide between practice and scholarship, and to create an environment in which students engage with theoretical and historical material—deepening their work as writers, thinkers, analyzers, and movers.