My Profession

This blog post is about my profession and why I chose to pursue it. Finding the academic journals was hard but everything else was fun to write about and share!

M.Fitzsimmons. “UA Dance Building.” 11/27/10 via Wikimedia. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

1. What do students in your program or department learn how to do?

• Dance majors at The University of Arizona School of Dance focus on learning correct dance technique and getting performance experience. They are required to study all three styles of dance: ballet, modern, and jazz. The goal is to prepare dancers for future professional careers in dance post graduation. 

2. What do people who get degrees in this field usually go on to do for work?

• After getting their BFA degree in dance, dancers have many options. They can either join professional dance companies and perform concert work, get an agent and do commercial work, dance on broadway, dance on cruise ships, or become teachers and choreographers. 

3. What drew you to this field?

• I have been dancing ever since I was three years old. It has always been a dream of mine to become a professional dancer. While some people start their dance careers straight out of high school, I wanted to go to college and earn a BFA in dance. I chose The University of Arizona School of Dance because it has one of the top programs in the country. 

4. Name three of the leaders/most exciting people involved in this field right now in 2016. Why are they interesting or exciting to you? These could be individual people or specific companies, organizations, businesses or non-profits. Hyperlink us to a homepage professional website for each person, if possible.

• Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is one of my favorite dance companies. They are one of the most popular modern dance companies that are based in Chicago. They travel around the world performing their repertoire. 
• William Forsythe is an individual who really interests and inspires me. He is a leading choreographer in the 21st century who uses ballet technique and makes it modern and abstract.
• Tabitha and Napoleon Dumo are other leading choreographers in the 21st century. They are based in LA and do more commercial work. They are involved in many organizations and are well known in the dance world. 

5. What are the names of three leading academic/scholarly journals in your field? Where are they published? Give us the names and locations of at least 3. (HINT: If you have no idea what the answer to this question is, try Googling “What are the top academic journals in [insert field of study]?” and peruse the results). Make the titles of each journal into a working hyperlink to the website for that publication. (NOTE: if your links aren’t included or don’t work or if the page it directs us to is blocked from public view, I will not be able to assign you full credit for this exercise).

• One leading academic journal in my field is the American Journal of Dance Therapy.  It is published by Springer US and is found only online. Another leading academic journal is Dance Chronicle: Studies in Dance and the Related Arts. It is published by Routledge and is found online and in text. Finally, Legacy in Dance Education is a popular academic journal in dance. It is published both online and in text.