“home to one of the more progressive collegiate dance departments in New York”
Lang Dance offers a unique undergraduate curriculum centered on recent developments in the field, combining intensive practice and performance opportunities with a rigorous liberal arts education.
Dance at Lang
Part of the Arts program at Eugene Lang College, the Dance major offers a unique undergraduate dance curriculum centered on recent developments in the field. The program offers students a hybrid experience that combines intensive practice and performance opportunities with a rigorous liberal arts education, all within a flexible curricular structure that can be adapted for students with diverse interests and career goals.
In contrast to the conservatory model, in which dance students spend a majority of their time in the studio, the curriculum at Lang explores dance in a liberal arts framework and through varied modes of analysis. In Lang’s dance program, dancing is not merely supplemental to one’s academic work; rather, it is engaged as a mode of research, a vehicle for experience, and a source of embodied knowledge. Dialogue takes place across artistic genres and students are encouraged to think about dance in social, historical, and cultural contexts, through a variety of disciplinary lenses. This approach encourages aspiring dancers and choreographers to think about their role in society and to consider multiple ways of engaging a public through dance.
The curriculum emphasizes research and experimentation while fostering a sense of social responsibility. Studying dance at Lang is not only about learning the history of the discipline or training to become a performer or choreographer; it also involves looking to dance in order to think about the world. Students learn to think critically with and about their art, and they graduate with skills that enable them to explore, research, and engage in thoughtful discourse about whatever discipline they choose to pursue, whether dance or a related field.
Lang’s location in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village presents unsurpassed opportunities for undergraduates studying dance, affording access to some of the nation’s most adventurous artists, scholars and institutions who are questioning what it means to put a dance on stage. Students attend a variety of theater events, dance performances, concerts, lectures, films, and museum exhibitions and enjoy access to the NYC performing arts libraries. Lang dance faculty and guest artists are active professionals in New York City and serve as a valuable resource for students in the transition into the professional world as performers, choreographers, company directors, teachers, dance historians, theorists and critics.
The Dance major of the Lang Arts program is for students who wish to study dance in the context of a liberal arts education. Many courses in the Dance curriculum are suitable for students with any degree of previous experience, and the participation of nonmajors is encouraged.
photo © Frank Mullaney