Judith Garay
Associate Professor
Judith Garay is a ten-year veteran of the Martha Graham Dance Company. During her international performing career she performed with companies and choreographers in… More
Dance
The SCA Dance program provides the unique opportunity to study, create and perform dance within a collaborative, interdisciplinary department. The program features a variety of courses that include: dance technique and composition, choreography, repertory and performance, and the history and aesthetics of dance. This is enriched by courses in improvisation, experiential anatomy and body conditioning, dance/movement analysis, and the Ghana Field School.
Our students are challenged in studio and lecture courses to be versatile and articulate, to interact with new technology, and to understand that the collaborative process is crucial to their development as contemporary artists. Students engage with contemporary ideas and concepts through an understanding of dance viewed historically and in relation to other art forms.
We believe in a versatile approach to training and, to this end, offer technique courses in modern, contemporary, and ballet techniques. These courses, plus the course in experimental anatomy and body conditioning introduce students to the fundamental principles of movement while offering strong technical skills. Studio courses are accompanied by lecture courses in aesthetics and history as well as a selection of critical theory and history courses offered throughout the school.
Program Information
Our students have the opportunity to produce and perform original works throughout their four years of study. We provide numerous opportunities for performances; from informal concerts arranged and created by the students to highly produced performances with national and international guest artists and faculty. We are committed to offering our majors these opportunities in the belief that learning how to perform as an individual and as a member of a company is fundamental to their preparation for a professional career.
Composition and collaboration are important activities within the dance area and across the school, and we encourage cross-disciplinary projects in many of our courses. Now that we are located in brand new facilities in downtown Vancouver, we hope to continue deepening our existing connections and forming new ones with the local, national and international dance community through platforms such as our Apprenticeship and Guest Artist programs.
Other Information
Our main goals in the dance area include:
1) To promote a deeper understanding of the numerous expressive possibilities inherent in the human body.
2) To contextualize these possibilities through an understanding of dance in relation to the history of art, aesthetics, and critical theory.
3) To explore these possibilities through collaborative projects with other disciplines, including an engagement with new technology.
4) To present the results of these explorations as finished creative works that foreground the expertise of the artist as choreographer, performer, and thinker.
The School offers three options in Dance
Major in Dance (BFA)
Extended minor in Dance
Joint Degree/Diploma program with the National Ballet School
To graduate with a BFA, major in Dance, a student must complete 80 credit hours for the major itself, plus the 30 credit Faculty of Arts Breadth requirements within the total of 120 credits required for the degree.
Our upcoming dance area audition will be scheduled in April, 2013
(Please refer to SFU Calendar for full details.)
An extended minor in Dance requires a minimum of 45 credit hours in dance and related areas in contemporary arts.
The School also offers a joint degree/diploma program with the National Ballet School Teacher Training Program. This five-year program allows students to initiate their studies at SFU or the National Ballet School (NBS). To obtain a BFA degree and a NBS Teacher Training Diploma, students must spend their first three years at SFU, then transfer to the NBS for the remaining two years. Students who transfer to SFU after three years of study at NBS, then complete two years at SFU, receive a Bachelor of General Studies degree and the NBS Teacher Training Diploma.
The curriculum includes:
Technique classes in contemporary dance and ballet
Dance composition
Choreography courses, which include interdisciplinary explorations and collaborative experiences with students in the School
Repertory
Dance improvisation
Experimental anatomy and body conditioning for dancers
Dance/movement analysis
Dance Aesthetics
Dance History: 20th Century to the Present
Intensive Studies in Performance
The dance program is enriched with courses from art and culture studies, film, music, theatre, and visual art, and by the visiting dance companies and artists that perform at the SFU theatre and in the local community.
Performance is a major emphasis of the program.
Students have opportunities to perform in choreography created by faculty and guest choreographers, student-choreographed work, interdisciplinary performances, and graduate student productions.
Apprenticeships with local dance companies are facilitated and provide students with additional pre-professional experience.
The dance area provides a solid foundation for students who choose to pursue careers as performers, choreographers, teachers, writers, dance critics, dance/movement therapists and arts administrators.
Faculty Profile
Alumni Reflections
"Studying in an interdisciplinary environment helped expose me to different ways of thinking about movement. I've worked with dancers in a narrative filmmaking capacity and their approach was consistently refreshing and offered me different perspectives on the scenes I had written. I enjoy responding and reacting to their impulses and letting their body movement influence where I place the camera."
Jon Thomas (Film Student)