What degrees does the graduate program offer?

What is the difference between the MFA and the PhD?

What are the admissions deadlines?

How many applicants do you usually get each year, and how many do you usually accept?

Do you accept students straight out of undergraduate programs?

Is an undergraduate degree in dance required?

What Fellowships or Teaching Assistantships are available?

What do you think sets your program apart from the others?

Why does it take three years to complete an MFA in your program?

I see that the GRE is required to apply for a PhD but not for an MFA.  As an MFA applicant, could a high GRE score help me attain financial support as it does for the PhD?

Why do I need to pass the TOEFL?  Isn’t yours a dance program?

After graduation, what kind of jobs, positions, activities do your alums undertake?

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Q: What degrees does the graduate program offer?

A: An MFA degree in dance and a PhD degree in dance.

Q: What are the admissions deadlines?

A: Your completed application and support materials to the Department of Dance is due on December 1 of any given year.  The Graduate School has their own deadlines.  Please check their website for those.

Q: How many applicants do you usually get each year, and how many do you usually accept?

A: It varies greatly, but generally around 30-40 applications.  We accept 10-14.

Q: Do you accept students straight out of undergraduate programs? A: For the MFA, yes, occasionally we do accept applicants straight out of undergrad programs, though our preference is to accept students who have been out in the field for some time. An applicant's long-term goals weigh in our decision making process. For the PhD, we will consider applicants with Bachelors degrees who intend to fulfill the MA on the way to the PhD. However, we give preference to applicants with advanced degrees and/or equivalent professional experience.

Q: Is an undergraduate degree in dance required?

No. Many of our graduate students have strong dance backgrounds, but chose to study other fields during their undergraduate career, such as English, Political Science, Physics, Music, Business Administration and Psychology.

Q: What Fellowships or Teaching Assistantships are available? A: Fellowships are awarded by the University through a competitive process, based on nominations from departments. Students being considered for University Fellowships must have demonstrated exceptional scholastic and artistic achievement. The Enrichment Fellowshiop, also requiring nomination by departments, targets oustanding students who bring diversity to the student body. You may indicate interest in being considered for a fellowship by checking the box on our application. Graduate Assistantships for teaching or other work in the department are offered on a limited basis depending on the needs of the program and the expertise of the incoming candidate. If an Assistantship is not available to you in the dance department, you may ask our office for suggestions about where to look for other funding. For example, several of our students are funded through work at the Wexner Center for the Arts. http://www.wexarts.org/info/contact

Q: What sets your program apart from the others?

A: Our graduate MFA program, consistently ranked among the top in the nation, leads by its depth and breadth of offerings.  Our students gain superior knowledge of the field in its diversity of applications (performance, notation, choreography, history/theory, technology) while honing a focus within that range.

Research at the PhD level emerges from discipline-based scholarship. Theoretical and analytical inquiry is grounded in practice-based scholarship.

Q: Why does it take three years to complete an MFA in your program?

A: Our MFA program is a demanding one in which we expect students to immerse themselves by deepening their knowledge in familiar areas and exploring unfamiliar ones.  We are interested in working with professionals who are returning to school to learn and to be stimulated as part of a vital community, not just in a hurry to get a degree.  In addition, many of our courses are taught every-other-year, making it difficult to schedule a two-year MFA.

This also applies to the PhD program which requires a total of 135 graduate credit hours (at least 90 credits beyond the MA).

Q: I see that the GRE is required to apply for a PhD but not for an MFA.  As an MFA applicant, could a high GRE score help me attain financial support as it does for the PhD? A: The GRE requirement for PhD applicants is established by the University and integral to University funding structures, and in that sense is extrinsic to the requirements and funding opportunities of the department. The University does not impose this requirement on the MFA applicant. GRE scores are neither required nor expected in the MFA applicant file. However, any test score submitted by an applicant will be reviewed along with other required materials.

Q. Why do I need to pass the TOEFL?  Isn’t yours a dance program?

A: We value the interesting perspectives and contributions that international students bring to our program, and believe that they will benefit most from what we have to offer if they are fully engaged in all parts of graduate study. This includes both the creative/artistic and the scholarly. Although an MFA in Dance is weighted towards studio work, the reading and writing component is an integral part. Being competent in English insures a successful and more rewarding experience.

Q: After graduation, what kinds of jobs, positions, activities do your alums undertake?

Michael Estanich (MFA 2006) joined the dance faculty of the Department of Dance at University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, autumn 2006. 

Deborah Friedes (MFA 2006) has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study and do research on contemporary dance in Israel for the year 2007-2008.  She taught for Americorps 2006-2007.

Erin Tisdale (MFA 2006) taught Labanotation in the dance program at OSU this past winter, is assisting with documentation projects in the dance dept and in archiving at OSU's Theatre Research Institute. Last Autumn, she taught notation at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. As a visiting artist at Mercyhurst, Erin also taught Irish dance master classes and set a piece on their dancers.

Amiti Perry (MFA 2006) is artistic director of Bridge For Dance Company-in-residence, NYC. Emily Lawrence (MFA 2005) was Director of the Dance Program at Dickinson College (2005-2007) and was just been hired as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Kenyon College for AY2007-08. Joseph Alter (MFA 2005) is on the dance faculty at San Diego State University and Artistic Director of Joe Alter Dance Group.

Tiffany Rhynard (MFA 2005) is a choreographer and video artist.  She taught at SUNY Potsdam in upstate New York, and is currently Artist in Residence at Middlebury College.

Lillian Grey (MFA 2005) is the Production Manager at the Capitol Theatre in Columbus, OH.

Elizabeth Waterhouse (MFA 2004) is a member of the new Forsythe Ballet in Frankfurt, Germany.

Teena Custer (MFA 2004) is teaching Hip Hop at OSU; she is touring her solo Hip Hop dance theatre show “The Be-Girl Diaries.”

Marlon Barrios Solano (MFA 2004) was appointed Guest Artist at AACAD for one quarter. He now teaches at Long Island University.

Beatrice Ayi (MA 2004) teaches Labanotation and Ghanaian dance in the Department of Dance Studies, School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana.

Chad Hall (MFA 2004) performed with the Lost Angeles-based company Diavolo and currently teaches at the Loyola-Marymount/LA.

Vanessa Justice (MFA 2003) received the 2001 graduate student research award from the Congress on Research in Dance (CORD) for her paper entitled “Mapping the Phenomenon of the Body: The Concept of Body as Experienced and Expressed by Isadora Duncan, Chandralekha, and Anna Halprin,” and has had her choreography presented in prominent venues in New York City.  She teaches at Long Island Universtiy.

Rachel Boggia (MFA 2003) took on a Research Associateship at OSU after graduation.  She danced at Trisha Brown Studios on scholarship  Sept-Nov. 2005 and was invited to audition in November 2005. In Au 2006 Boggia was offered a 2 yr. Visiting Professorship at Dickinson College in Lancaster, PA.             Karl Rogers (MFA 2003) is dancing with Terry Creach and David Dorfman. Paul Ocampo (MFA 2003) is an Assistant Professor at Southern Utah University and a Guest Dancer with Repertory Dance Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Megan Slayter (MFA 2003) is Production Manager and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan.

Hannah Kosstrin (MA 2003) serves as the web content editor for the Society of Dance History Scholars and has been accepted into the PhD in Dance Studies program at Ohio State University to begin Autumn 2007. 

Erika Randall (MFA 2003) taught at the University of Illinois/Champaign-Urbana (2003-2007) and has just accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position at the University of Colorado.

Kareen Balsam's (MFA 2003) DVD and performance M.F.A. project was purchased by PBS television for inclusion in Reel New York  Wi 2004.

Danah Bella (MFA 2002) is teaching at Radford University.

Chen-Ying Wang (MFA 2002) has danced with Repertory Dance Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah since graduation.

Kristin Horrigan (MFA 2002) is on the dance faculty at Marlboro College. She has been a Visiting Artist at a number of institutions, including Dean, Providence, Kenyon, Keene State and Oberlin colleges. Her work has been published in academic journals such as Dance Magazine and Contact Quarterly. Her current  research regards intergenerational dance and she directs a company of dancers who range in age from 23 to 88 in Northampton, MA.

Leslie Seiters (2002) is an Assistant Professor at San Diego State University.

Mei-Chen Lu (MFA 2002) has held a full time position as librarian at the Dance Notation Bureau in New York City, New York since graduation.

Carla Hughes (MFA 2001)  is director and dance specialist in Erie, Pa, in a new Charter School of the Arts.

Victoria Watts (MFA 2001) taught at the Royal Academy of Dancing in London, England from 2001-2003. She is now in a doctoral program in Cultural Studies at George Mason University.

Barbara Thatcher (MFA 2001) is Performing Arts Assistant at the Wexner center for the Arts in Columbus, OH.

Jamie Jewett (MFA 2001) received a Graduate Student Research Alumni Award (GSARA, 2000) and 2 PEGS awards.  His videodance Auslander was selected for screening at the Dance on Camera Festival 2000 in NYC.

Meida McNeil (MFA 2000) is completing her dissertation in the doctoral program in Performance Studies at Northwestern University and was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to further her studies in Trinidad.

Christine Chen (MFA 2000) joined STREB in 2004.  Prior to that she performed with Flyaway Productions, AXIS Dance Company, Dandelion Dancetheater, Element Dance Theater and presented her own work throughout the Bay Area, California, and Utah.

Ligia Pinheiro (MA 2000) In Sp 2001 Pinheiro was appointed Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. In Au 2004 Ligia Pinheiro received tenure at Wittenberg University. In Au 2007 Pinheiro will enter the OSU Department of Dance's PhD Program.

Joshua Monten (MA 2000) in a theatre/dance company in Basel, Switzerland after several years of performing with an opera ballet company in Nuremburg, Germany. A chapter of his thesis will be published in a book edited by Melanie Bales (forthcoming, University Illinois Press).