COURSE CURRICULUM

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance at the University of Alabama is a three-year, 60-credit-hour graduate program designed to develop students as professional dance artists, educators, and scholars through an integrated curriculum that combines advanced studio training, creative production, and academic inquiry. The program emphasizes a balance of classical and contemporary dance techniques, choreography, pedagogy, historical study, critical theory, and the use of emerging dance technologies, allowing students to refine both their physical artistry and intellectual understanding of dance as a cultural and performative practice. Students complete their coursework primarily on the Tuscaloosa campus, where close faculty mentorship supports technical growth, creative exploration, and academic development across multiple performance and research contexts. A defining feature of the program is the MFA Capstone Project, which serves as a culminating demonstration of artistic and scholarly synthesis; this project typically involves the creation and public presentation of a choreographic or performance work, accompanied by a written scholarly analysis and an oral defense that collectively demonstrate conceptual depth, artistic vision, and professional readiness. The 60-credit structure includes 39 credits in studio, creative, and performance-based courses such as contemporary technique, ballet, jazz, improvisation, composition, performance practicum, and collaborative or digital practices, with required engagement in improvisation/composition and capstone-related creative research. In addition, students complete 15 credits of academic coursework covering areas such as dance research methods, teaching methodologies, body politics, professional issues, and contextual studies, ensuring a strong foundation in both scholarly and pedagogical dimensions of dance. The remaining 6 credits are electives that allow students to tailor their studies toward individual research interests or interdisciplinary exploration within or beyond the dance program. Through this structured yet flexible curriculum, the MFA in Dance prepares graduates for diverse professional pathways, including performance careers, choreography, teaching in higher education or community settings, and advanced scholarly or creative work in the field of dance.