MFA in Dance, Creative Practice
Saint Mary's College of California is proud to offer our MFA in Dance degree in Creative Practice. Our program requires 60 units of course work and takes approximately 2 years to complete with cohorts beginning each year with a 4-week in-person intensive in June. To accommodate the personal and professional commitments of our students, we occasionally allow students to enter the program in other terms—however, this may vary the timing it takes to complete the program.
The MFA in Dance at Saint Mary's uses a low-residency model that favors working adults and highly motivated professionals seeking to sustain their portfolio as they develop their professional careers. With this in mind, we schedule the majority of our practical and performance courses during the June and January intensives.
A Flexible Low-Residency Program
Our Program Structure
Our program formally begins every year in June Term with a four week, in-person intensive at Saint Mary's campus.
The Fall term follows with synchronous online courses offered on Mondays from 4:30-6:30pm PST and/or once a month on Saturdays from 11am-2pm PST.
The January Term intensive begins on SMC's campus during the first two weeks of January and is followed by two weeks of asynchronous classes online.
Spring Semester then follows the same model as Fall. This schedule is repeated for the second year and culminates with a final, in-person June Term thesis presentation in the students third Summer.
June Term four-week intensive
The four-week intensive in June emphasizes performance and for second year students is their opportunity to polish and perform a final thesis presentation.
January Dance Intensive
In addition to honing dance skills, the January Dance intensive affords the students an opportunity to bond as a cohort. This is essential to foster cooperation and mutual support that facilitates success in the online asynchronous classes.
School and Department Information
Rogelio Lopez
Program Director, Graduate Programs in Dance
rl9@stmarys-ca.edu
925-631-4766
Collin Skeen
Assistant Director of Admissions and Recruitment
cas38@stmarys-ca.edu
925-631-4190