Mission Statement - Scope and Objectives

Guided by an interdisciplinary faculty of artists and arts scholars, the academic programs in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance (WAC/DAN) have three overlapping missions: (1) the formulation of critical theoretical and intercultural insights into artistic creativity and the politics of representation, (2) the creation, theorization, and interdisciplinary study of dance and other body-based modes of performance, and (3) mutually beneficial engagement with the diverse cultural and artistic communities of Los Angeles.

The department is an interdisciplinary unit that finds its raison d'etre in a set of intellectual and artistic problems rather than an established academic discipline. By looking to world arts, the department seeks to decenter Western perspectives by recognizing that visual and performance art and other ways of knowing are situated locally and often made and distributed globally. Faculty members, who have international standing and are engaged in both creative artistic work and research, are interlocutors in dialogues about the frictions and flows implicated by the department's name. As such, WAC/DAN is defined by a dynamic interdisciplinary approach that encourages intercultural literacies and repertoires, including and transcending geography, ethnicity, class, and other distinctions of identity.

The undergraduate program offers majors in Dance and in World Arts and Cultures.

The B.A. in Dance thoroughly integrates learning to dance, learning to make dances, and critical interrogation of dance as a cultural practice. Students study a variety of dance techniques from around the world throughout their studies. They enroll in a four-term sequence in dance composition, with additional opportunities to participate in the creation of their own dances, as well as working as dancers in the creation of new works by faculty members and visiting artists. Further, they engage in a core of four courses in the study of scholarly discourse around the body and dance, launching a critical inquiry into their own study of bodily practices, internalization of the embodied experience, and how bodily ideas and embodied experiences are interpreted and communicated outwardly an interpersonally, both locally and globally.

The B.A. in World Arts and Cultures highlights culture and representation as key perspectives for understanding creativity in local and global arenas. Three areas of cross-cultural and interdisciplinary study are available: arts activism, critical ethnographies, and visual cultures. These areas define the department commitment to a range of practices, including ethnography, activisms, visual and related expressive arts, documentary and short films, museum and curatorial studies, performance, and other creative perspectives and methods. Courses combine theory and practice and are grounded in culturally diverse artistic expressions.

All students are encouraged to complement the required set of core and elective departmental courses with others offered across campus, such as courses from ethnic and area studies programs, and may organize their course of study in relation to particular interests or professional goals (e.g., international comparative studies, intercultural studies, education, area specializations such as Africa, Asia, or Latin America, minority discourse, gender studies).

The graduate program offers Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in Culture and Performance and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance, with an emphasis on choreography. Culture and Performance (CAP) students research communities, cultures, and transnational movements through heritage and globalization studies, multivocal ethnographies, dance and theories of corporeality and embodiment, visual and material culture, critical museum and curatorial studies, documentary practice and Internet interventions, as well as arts activism and interdisciplinary art-making. The M.F.A. in Dance offers opportunities to engage multiple movement practices as students work on pioneering research in the form of new choreography. Students may focus on media, dance studies theory, and theories of the body as supplements to their work as choreographers. The Art | Global Health Center within the department presents further opportunities for learning and practice.

While operating with considerable independence, the degree streams are unified by the department's common concern for aesthetic production, corporeality and performance, the dynamics of tradition, and culture-building in contemporary societies. Connections are forged between critical theory and artistic practices, and attention is given to the changing social roles and responsibilities of artists, practitioners, and scholars of the arts in the U.S. and worldwide.

Undergraduates and graduates have excelled in fields including technology and the arts, videography, documentary work, public service, education, theatrical/events production, performing arts, urban planning, law, environmental activism, public health, and medicine. They have made careers in community nonprofits and activist groups, government arts agencies, museums, and arts foundations. Potential careers for M.A., Ph.D., and M.F.A. graduates also include positions in research universities and colleges, and M.F.A. graduates are active as choreographers/ performers in their own companies or with other professional organizations.