Loyola University Chicago

About the Program

The Bachelor of Arts in Dance at Loyola University Chicago offers conservatory-style technical training within a Jesuit liberal arts curriculum in the service of social justice. Housed in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, the curriculum features classical, contemporary, and global dance forms — with training in ballet, modern, and jazz — contextualizing and enriching approaches to dance creation, research, and performance. The program also offers a Dance minor and a Teaching Artist minor. Students engage with Chicago's professional dance community through guest artists, internships, master classes, and performances including the Annual Dance Concert in the Newhart Family Theatre.

Degrees Offered

Coursework

BA requires 40 credit hours in the major (48 in the suggested 4-year sequence). Coursework spans ballet (levels IV-V, including pointe), modern (levels II-III), and jazz (levels II-III), plus Historical Contexts in Contemporary Dance Practice, Dance Kinesiology, Dance Composition, Dance Pedagogy, Rehearsal and Performance, Fieldwork in Chicago, and a Senior Showcase Capstone. Also offers a Teaching Artist minor. Separately, the School of Education runs a graduate-level dance-teacher certification pathway (K-12 licensure, per Dance Magazine coverage); this was not confirmed as a Dance-department MA/MFA on the department pages, so it is excluded from degrees_offered.

Notable Faculty

• Sandra Kaufmann
• Vershawn Sanders-Ward

Performance Opportunities

Annual Dance Concert in the Newhart Family Theatre with fully produced classical and contemporary repertory; site-specific works at Loyola University Museum of Art, the Institute for Environmental Sustainability, and Madonna della Strada Chapel; participation in musical theatre productions and independent projects; Rehearsal and Performance courses; master classes and workshops with guest artists.