Enhance Your Education

Distinctive Programs in Dance

Our dance program provides you with unique performance opportunities.
Students completing the dance minor may participate in the Dance Ensemble or Choreography Workshop courses. Dance Ensemble is designed to create an experience similar to working in a professional dance company, while Choreography Workshop focuses on the artistic, administrative, and technical work of producing dance professionally. Along with the academic program, we have an active student dance organization, The Terpsichore Dance Collective, which produces a student concert every term.

Student Research and Creative Projects
Knox is a leader in promoting top-notch undergraduate research. In fact, more than 90% of our students complete an independent research or creative project by graduation. Projects are supported by an unusually rich array of Knox funding programs that together provide more than $200,000 each year in support of student work. The funding sources include the Richter Memorial Scholars Program, Ford Foundation Research Fellows Program, Ronald E. McNair Fellows Program, and department-supported independent studies. In addition, special fellowships awarded through national competitions and research grants give us an edge in top-notch undergraduate research and creative projects.

College Honors
You may elect to undertake College Honors in your senior year, carrying out an advanced research project presented and defended to a faculty committee that includes a distinguished outside examiner. An example of a recent Honors project in dance:

• "From Idea to Audience: The How and What of Meaning(s) in Modern Dance," Rachel McRoberts

Off-campus Study
You'll have the opportunity to participate in an off-campus program in dance that is offered over winter break. This program takes place in Chicago over a two-week period, during which you'll participate in dance classes at noted dance centers, attend several dance performances and concerts, and take trips to area museums. A highlight of the program is the "Professional Intensive" which takes place during the final week of the program. During this time, you'll work from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. daily with a selected professional dance company, learning the company's unique technique and repertory.

We offer several off-campus programs of particular interest to our dance students:

• Dance History and Contemporary Trends in Choreography, a two-week class held in Chicago. Students take daily classes with working dance professionals, attend several concerts, and go on field trips to area museums.
• The American College Dance Festival, a regional event that takes place every year. Recently, students attended this conference in Iowa, where a choreographed piece featuring five Knox students was one of nine dances selected for the festival's Gala Concert.
• If you're interested in dance and its context within theatre and the performing arts, you may also consider the interdisciplinary Chicago Arts Program.

Our dance program has a long-standing history of participating in campus wide residencies with visiting guest artists and companies. Through these residencies, you are given the opportunity to study and sometimes perform with world-renowned artists in the field of dance. Past residencies have included The Chicago Moving Company, Jellyeye Drum Theater, Jump Rhythm Jazz Dance Ensemble, Ready at Will, The Dance COLEctive, Doug Elkins, and David Dorfman Dance.

Internships
As a student of dance, you'll have the opportunity to expand your education -- to get that valuable experience you hear so much about -- by completing an internship. Internships provide an opportunity to:

• explore and test career options
• gain experiences and skills needed to succeed as a professional
• build a resume
• network and make critical connections
• experience a work environment

More and more employers are looking for college graduates with career-related experience. Our Center for Career and Pre-Professional Development specializes in helping you find an internship that best matches your goals and interests.