The Dance MFA Creative Research, Culture, and Practice named option is a 60-credit, two-year program with a summer term in between academic years.
This terminal degree program is designed for experienced dance artists seeking a critically and culturally focused academic program within a multidisciplinary international community. Creative artists admitted to this program will gain the critical, aesthetic, technical, and interdisciplinary tools needed to innovate, create, and lead in the rapidly evolving global dance field.
The program welcomes dance artists with professional experience and with varied backgrounds and approaches to dance, spanning culturally rooted practices, popular, and contemporary forms, who are prepared for graduate-level inquiry, and driven by innovation and leadership in the dance field. Students will develop and refine their teaching and creative research while exploring their unique contribution to the dance and contemporary performance.
This in-residence, on campus MFA program has intentionally small cohorts and is highly selective. Students entering the UW–Madison MFA in Dance program are offered tuition remission, generous monthly stipends, access to UW–Madison health benefits, and other annual funding opportunities.
Photo: Li Chiao-Ping’s “DIRTY LAUNDRY” photo by Mats Rudels.
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ADMISSIONS
Graduate admissions is a two-step process between academic programs and the Graduate School. Applicants must meet the minimum requirements of the Graduate School and the Dance Department’s requirements. All prospective Dance MFA students must apply directly to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School. The Dance Department requires a separate application.
Deadlines
Sep 3: Application Opens
Dec 1 : Application Closes
Mid-Jan: Finalist Candidate interviews
Feb 1: Offers made, waitlisted candidates also notified
April 15: Deadline to accept
The program does not offer admission in the spring or summer.
We are currently unable to admit any new International graduate students– this is a temporary pause for Fall 2026 admissions due to a delay in the federal review of our updated Form I-17, which is a required step in our university’s ability to enroll international students.
Application Requirements
Graduate School Application
Transcripts
2 letters of recommendation
Application Fee
Test scores* (if applicable, see below)
Dance Department Application:
Artist Statement
Portfolio
Resume or CV
*English Proficiency
Every applicant whose native language is not English, or whose undergraduate instruction was not exclusively in English, must provide an English proficiency test score earned within two years of the anticipated term of enrollment, see Minimum Requirements for Admission policy.
*GRE
NOT required
FUNDING
Students entering the UW–Madison MFA in Dance program are offered tuition remission, generous monthly stipends, access to UW–Madison health benefits, and other annual funding opportunities. Students are assigned assistantships within their first year of study, which may be a Teaching Assistantship (TA) or Lecturing Student Assistantship (LSA) or Project Assistantship (PA).
REQUIREMENTS
DANCE: CREATIVE RESEARCH, CULTURE, AND PRACTICE MFA
Total credits: 60 credits
Minimum residence credit requirement: 30 credits
Annual Review: Students will participate in an annual review each year of the program to ensure academic satisfactory progress. This review will include the student’s graduate advisor and graduate committee.
Core Courses (28 credits)
DANCE 455 Dance Composition III (3)
DANCE 466 Curating the Practice: Global Approaches to Engaging Dance (4)
DANCE 665 Dance History & Theory (3)
DANCE 675 Dance and Community (3)
DANCE 762 Research Methods (3)
DANCE 776 Dance Curriculum and Teaching Practices (3) [1 credit per semester for 3] semesters)
DANCE 990 Creative Project for Research (9) [3 credits over 3 semesters]
Creative Research, Culture, and Practice (23 Required Credits, 9 Elective Credits)
DANCE 318 West African Dance & Music in the Americas (3)
Dance 679 Dance Field Work (3)
9 credits from:
DANCE 345 Video Design for Perf./Vis. Arts (3)
DANCE 355 Dance Composition II (3)
DANCE 440 Adv. Production Lab (1)
DANCE 451/452 Dance Repertory Theater (1)
DANCE 551/552 Adv. Dance Repertory and Performance (1)
8 credits:
Dance technique courses 300 and above. Credits can also be fulfilled through directed study in undergraduate dance technique courses.
9 credits:
Elective graduate-level dance courses and/or research-related areas of study as agreed upon by the advisor.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Demonstrate a range of familiarity with creative methodologies in dance, (e.g., improvisation, scoring) and apply them in flexible and adaptable ways to meet project- and problem-specific needs.
- Formulate an individual artistic vision in balance with critical analyses, historical perspectives, and curatorial lenses.
- Cultivate and practice collaborative skills across disciplines using a variety of in-person and virtual (synchronous and asynchronous) modes of communication and collaboration.
- Investigate dance in diverse community settings and in social, cultural, political, and historical contexts, nationally and internationally.
- Develop and practice a critical vocabulary for communicating about one’s own work and that of others.
CONTACT
Amairani Zepeda
Department Program Coordinator
amairani.zepeda@wisc.edu
(608) 262-1691