Dance

Patty Cohn, Center for Art and Dance 200
507-786-3248

wp.stolaf.edu/dance

The St. Olaf College Dance Department engages students in the study of dance as a vital community and artistic practice. Partnering with the College’s liberal arts curriculum and building interdisciplinary relationships, the dance program encourages the exploration of complex ideas through investigation, knowledge, and expression of the body. 

Our program combines embodied practice with critical thinking to root dance forms from around the world in their culturally, socially, and politically informed values. This combination is a fundamental means of self-discovery, understanding other dancing bodies, and advancing an anti-racist, equitable, and just community. Whether students in our program become dance artists, choreographers, scholars, or teachers or integrate their skills and knowledge into other fields, they grow into movers, makers, and thinkers who responsibly engage in, serve, and shape the community around them.

St. Olaf College is a charter member and an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Dance.

 

Overview of the Major

Movement-intensive and language-intensive classes present dance as a vital community and artistic practice. The St. Olaf College B.A. in dance guides students toward becoming dance artists, choreographers, scholars, teachers or integrating their skills and knowledge into other fields. Students grow into movers, makers, and thinkers who responsibly engage in, serve, and shape the community around them.

Performance and Creative Opportunities

Companydance© is a student dance company comprised of a range of separate projects and pieces offering a wide variety of performing opportunities. Modeled to provide students with a pre-professional repertory dance company experience, Companydance also serves as an extension of the dance faculty’s teaching and creative practices. It is open by audition to ALL students. Companydance strives to be inclusive and accommodating to the evolving interests, needs, and abilities of a broad spectrum of students (dance majors and non-majors), while encouraging student responsibility, creative collaboration, community building, and of course great dancing. To provide for the optimum growth and safety for the students in Companydance, each member is required to be concurrently enrolled in a dance movement-intensive class at an appropriate level. Auditions for Companydance are held during the first week of the fall term and sometimes during the spring term. Students selected to be a part of Companydance will be registered for Dance 180 every semester they are involved. 

Veselica International Dance Ensemble is open by audition to ALL students. The company exemplifies a global perspective that strives to spread awareness of dance forms from around the world. Veselica™ (pronounced veh-SELL-eet-sah) translates as "celebration." Artistic Director Anne von Bibra founded the international dance ensemble in the late 1980s. Auditions for Veselica are held during the first week of the fall term and sometimes during the spring term. Students selected to be a part of Veselica will registered for Dance 170 every semester they are involved. 

Distinction

See Academic Honors

Details about the distinction process can be found on the Dance Department web page.