Bachelor

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance)

  • CRICOS code: 093583B
  • VTAC code: 3800638931
  • International VTAC code: 3800638933

What will I study?

Overview

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) is a three-year full-time degree centred around studio practice, expanded dance thinking and performance. Throughout the course you will develop an integrated practice as a dance artist. Expertise in dance as a way of knowing opens doorways for careers as performers, makers, leaders, activists, collaborators and cultural partners in a global world.

The program focuses on the rigorous preparation of dancers as artists and cultural leaders working across all areas of the profession including performance, community, arts management, health and wellbeing sectors. It recognises that contemporary dance takes many forms and flourishes in diverse contexts, so it prepares you through an emphasis upon dance within an arts ecosystem. The course structure also equips you with the professional skills for ensemble and autonomous careers in dance.

The course matrix emphasises the following core graduate capabilities: Practice; Make; Interact; Perform; Connect; and Reflect. These competencies are developed throughout the degree towards a graduate profile that is industry-ready whilst equipping you with skills for life-long learning and creative resilience. The learning of dance as an arts practice is a core component in the preparation of a professional dancer, and knowledge of diverse movement techniques and the concepts that underpin them, is considered essential to flexibly adapt to different choreographic ideas and opportunities.

Coordination, movement memory and performance qualities (expressiveness and focus), are fostered through embodied learning, open enquiry and exchange within a cohort experience of dancing together. Intensive skills development and practice take place alongside workshop and rehearsal processes for a range of performance situations. You will gain experience and know-how in performing for stage, art gallery and museum, gardens and outdoor sites, screen and digital spaces.

Deepening your artistic knowledge through acquiring mastery and craft, you will energetically engage with the creation of dance in both a local and international context. During the degree you will have the opportunity for placements with local Melbourne dance organisations and to participate in a Global Atelier, a travelling studio programme through which students learn from leaders in the dance field and cultivate arts citizenship. Such collaborative skills and intercultural competencies are integral to your training.

Your breadth studies

As part of your course at each year level, you can select breadth subjects either from our VCA elective subjects, or explore cross disciplinary studies from the wider University community, accessing multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills that will build on existing knowledge or present opportunities for you to investigate and develop new interests.

The breadth subjects available to commencing BFA students include those in fine arts (acting, animation, dance, production, film and television, music theatre, screenwriting, theatre and visual art), as well as music education, Indigenous knowledges, law, languages, psychology, social sciences, humanities, science, marketing and many more.

More about the University’s breadth subjects

Sample course plan

View some sample course plans to help you select subjects that will meet the requirements for this bachelor.

300-point program