Visual & Performing Arts

Program Description

California Institute of the Arts

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Located in Valencia in Southern California, the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) School of Dance offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree emphasizing dance performance, choreography, and production and a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) emphasizing choreography. An audition is required of all incoming students. M.F.A. applicants must submit a portfolio. M.F.A. applicants who have passed a preliminary portfolio selection are then invited to the CalArts campus for an audition and interview. Information on the audition and portfolios is available at http://calarts.edu/apply.

The B.F.A curriculum places a strong emphasis on the individual development of each dancer through modern and ballet techniques, performance opportunities, and dance production and nurtures creative freedom through dance composition and choreography. All undergraduate students must fulfill the Critical Studies Requirements (40 percent of the total curriculum), which include courses in the humanities, social sciences, cultural studies, and natural sciences. Equal importance is placed on studies relating to dance, such as production technology, music, dance history, anatomy, kinesiology, video, digital technologies, production crewing, Pilates, and African and Indonesian dance as electives. Interdisciplinary collaboration is encouraged on all levels, broadening the future of dance in ways that constantly challenge the imagination.

Program Facilities

 The CalArts Sharon Disney Lund Dance Theater is a 50-foot-by-70-foot space used exclusively for dance performances, rehearsals, and classes. This hall features wall-to-wall L Air sprung flooring covered with seamless black Lonstage. Retractable theater seating allows for many different staging configurations. Seating capacity is usually 125 persons, with a maximum capacity of 250.

In addition to the Sharon Disney Lund Dance Theater, there are three other full-time dance studios available for technique classes, composition classes, and rehearsals. The two larger dance studios measure 36-feet-by-50-feet each. Each studio has one mirrored wall and barres set into the other three walls, and is equipped with a set of eight portable barres, a piano, and power outlets for sound and video equipment. Both spaces have L Air sprung floors covered in seamless Lonstage. The third studio is 39-feet-by-23-feet and has a sprung wooded floor, a full wall of mirrors, and a chalkboard.

A fully carpeted Pilates body-conditioning studio measures 39-feet-by-23-feet. It has a mirrored wall and includes the following equipment: four Pilates studio reformers, two trapeze tables, one Wunda chair, one whale, four tumbling mats, and one Pacemaster Pro-Plus treadmill.

The School of Dance’s array of digital, video, and sound equipment allows M.F.A. and B.F.A students to experiment with multi-track mixing and video editing techniques while creating movement-themed DVDs as well as Web page design. Digital video is incorporated into documenting all dance works and a variety of other classroom and production purposes.

In downtown Los Angeles, The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, known as REDCAT, is housed as a separate entity in the stunning, Frank Gehry–designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. REDCAT is conceived as a unique platform to showcase CalArts experimental and interdisciplinary work in dance, theater, music, the visual arts, and film/video.

Faculty and Alumni

 The student-faculty ratio is 7:1. The School’s faculty consists of well-known, seasoned professional artists who are continuing to pursue and explore dance while teaching. The School of Dance faculty members include Stephan Koplowitz, Dean; Cynthia Young, Associate Dean; Laurence Blake, Assistant Dean; Andre Tyson, Assistant Dean; David Kroth; Colin Connor; Kate Fox; Ed Groff; Francesca Penzani; Robin Cox; Rosanna Gamson; Stephanie Nugent; Mitchell Rose; and Glen Eddy.

The School of Dance has alumni performing and touring in dance companies, choreographing, directing, and teaching. Among these are Jamie Bishton (B.F.A., 1984), former dancer, Twyla Tharp Dance; Keisha Clarke (B.F.A., 1998), former dancer, Garth Fagan Dance; Katie Diamond (B.F.A., 2003), Jonathon Fredrickson (B.F.A., 2006), and Ryan Mason (B.F.A., 2007) dancers, Limon Dance Company; Frit Fuller (B.F.A., 1984, M.F.A., 1988) and Frat Fuller (B.F.A., 1986), co-artistic directors and choreographers, KIN Dance Company; Jacques Heim (M.F.A., 1991), internationally acclaimed artistic director and choreographer, Diavolo Dance Theater; Sahar Javedani (M.F.A., 2003), artistic director and choreographer, Compani Javedani; and Dallas McMurray (B.F.A., 2006), dancer, Mark Morris Dance Group.

Student Performance/Exhibit Opportunities

 The School’s annual performance calendar comprises eight to ten formal concerts featuring choreographed works by student, faculty members, and guest artists. This schedule provides students with regular performance opportunities at each stage of their development.

Special Programs

 The School of Dance has an ongoing exchange program with the London Contemporary Dance School. Each fall, two upper-division undergraduates selected by the dean and faculty enjoy the unique opportunity to study abroad for one semester. The B.F.A. Program offers a special seminar called NEXT! Preparing for My Future in Dance. In addition, students participate in the Next Dance Company, which features the artists of each year’s graduating B.F.A. class and is designed to mirror the experiences graduates are likely to encounter in professional companies.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: January 5. Required: essay, high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, 2 letters of recommendation, audition. Auditions held 7 times on campus and off campus in New York, NY; Boston, MA; San Francisco, CA; videotaped performances are permissible as a substitute for live auditions with approval from the department and for international students.

Contact

Ms. Zari Wigfall, Admissions Counselor, School of Dance, California Institute of the Arts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, California 91355; 661-253-7771, fax: 661-253-1562.