The BA minor stream in Dance Studies aims to produce dance artists, writers, researchers, and arts workers ready to enter the performing arts industry and secondary and tertiary educational institutions. Thinking, Writing and Making dance are three broad areas of study linked by the key terms of corporeality and movement.

Thinking: Your studies will cover the history, theory and analysis of dance in diverse cultural contexts, locating dance within a larger ecology of related national and international practices and knowledges. This expansion is also reflected in the interdisciplinary orientation of the major stream, reflecting current practice in the field of dance practice and theory.

Writing: Students are encouraged to develop a writing practice alongside their creative or theoretical interest in dance, and explore the various relationships between writing and dancing.

Making: The studio-based content involves movement-based practices and techniques, recognising the role of studio-based learning and the develop physical knowledge which is fundamental to the discipline of dance.

Dance Studies at UNSW has strong ties with local industry through teaching staff and associated professional residencies, and is aligned with the existing ecology of dance practice in NSW with a focus on self-authored movement research, offering clear pathways to higher research in Creative Practice and Dance Theory.

The subject-specific aims of the BA minor stream in Dance Studies are:

A student who wishes to gain a minor stream in Dance Studies must complete 36 units of credit including 12 uoc at Level 1, 12 uoc at Level 2 core courses ARTS2xxx Choreography and Theory and ARTS2xxx Composition Across Music and Dance, and 12 uoc at Level 3.

The pathway to the studio-based subjects in Level 1, 2 and 3 of the Dance Studies Major (including Dance Technique and Somatic Practices which can be taken as free electives), is via a performance-based assessment in the Level 1 gateway course, ARTS1005 Thinking, Writing and Making Dance. In this subject, students will be asked to self-select a level for the tutorials (studio-seminars) based on their experience as a dancer. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced studio-seminars will be offered. A student with little or no dance experience should select a Beginner group. A student with substantial skills in social dance forms (traditional - kathak, indigenous etc, or salsa, tango, hip hop etc) or western techniques (ballet, contemporary, jazz, tap) should select Intermediate. Students with a Dance HSC result in band 5 or 6, Intermediate level in a major dance syllabus (RAD, Cechetti, BBO etc) or significant professional dance experience should select Advanced.

Students in the intermediate and advanced studio-seminars who obtain a Credit in the performance assessment for ARTS1005 Thinking, Writing and Making Dance can proceed to the studio-based subject ARTS1006 Introduction to Movement Practices (Level 1, S2) of the Dance Studies Minor and those taken as free-electives in Level 2 and 3.

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