The rising tide of PhD studies in dance

By Jennifer Kaplan

Just call them doctors, these newly minted PhDs of dance studies. They’ve completed rigorous academic training. They’ve performed quantitative and qualitative research. They’re in hot pursuit of a degree in dance studies, the relatively young but burgeoning discipline that examines the field from multiple frames: historic, sociological, philosophical, epistemological, and somatic, to name a few.

R. Diyah Larasati, who holds a doctorate in dance history and theory at the University of California-Riverside, performs with the university's Javanese Gamelan Ensemble. (Photo by Steve Walag)

Dance as academics
Dance is mainly thought of as an ephemeral and physical art form, rarely as an academic pursuit. Both within and beyond academia, many wonder what a PhD in dance studies might do, for even in 2009, a majority of dance departments around the country are staffed with retired professional dancers or professors who earned MFAs and PhDs in other disciplines like theater, cultural studies, or performance studies.

“Dance as a[n academic] discipline for so many years was marginalized,” notes Dr. Luke Kahlich, a professor and doctoral coordinator in dance at Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University in Philadelphia. “While it has a notation system, it’s really not used widely like in music, so it’s often difficult for other academic disciplines to see that dance really is a rigorous academic discipline.”

Jacqueline Shea Murphy, associate professor at University of California–Riverside, puts the PhD in dance studies in context with other arts disciplines: “Why a PhD in art history or performance studies? We should have the conviction and passion to see dance as something worthy and deserving of sustained scholarly engagement, and to have the same tools that scholars have been bringing to other forms. We ask questions about gender, questions about philosophy, questions about politics and society. Scholars have brought these questions to many different forms, from literary studies to political science to anthropology.” So, she asks, why not dance?

Why PhDs?
Even with hundreds of undergraduate dance programs around the country, many in academia still wonder if a doctoral degree is necessary. And might the field face a glut as candidates complete their dissertations and exams at the four doctoral programs in dance studies in the United States? But beyond teaching in universities, those with doctorates in dance work at arts agencies and public policy groups across the country. And within academia, the need for highly qualified teachers who can teach upper-level courses in theory, history, and interdisciplinary topics has grown in recent years as university administrators begin to recognize dance studies as a legitimate academic field. Dance studies bridges study of movement-based techniques with topics as diverse as somatics, educational policy, historiography, and cross-disciplinary uses of technology, to name a few.

Options and new directions
In recent years, the field has grown richer and more complex, as evidenced by the increasing number of scholarly articles and books on dance published by university presses. While in the past many dance academics earned their doctorates in other disciplines—from education to literature to performance studies and anthropology—today students are seeking out dance studies. (One program, Texas Woman’s University, received 50 or 60 applicants for 8 slots last year.) And PhDs can take scholars beyond the tenure track: Many recently minted PhDs are breaking into leadership roles within academia, into scholarly groups like the Society of Dance History Scholars, and into policy-making organizations.

One of the most established programs, at Texas Woman’s University (begun in 1958 in Denton), caters to current academics seeking to enhance their credentials for promotion opportunities or moves to more prestigious universities. Dr. Penelope Hanstein, professor and chair of dance, explains that TWU recently revamped the program, shifting to a low-residency requirement that accommodates professionals’ academic schedules. (In low-residency programs, students meet for intense periods during the summer and one-week visits during the fall and spring semesters, with course readings and discussions continuing online throughout the year.)

A typical student, according to Hanstein, “has been engaged in artistic practice for a number of years and has reached a point where he or she wants to start theorizing that artistic practice. I see an interest in writing, in pursuing specific research agendas—and the doctoral degree will facilitate continued professional development.”

Few prospective applicants arrive without a sense of what areas of study they intend to pursue. “Our program is not a default degree to do because [a student] doesn’t know what else to do,” Hanstein notes.

Four programs, four focuses
Each of the American doctoral programs in dance maintains a distinct focus. UC–Riverside prides itself on the diversity of its master’s and doctoral candidates and on its emphasis on cultural studies, says Shea Murphy. “Our program is good for students who are excited by thinking about dance and its meaning and want to do so alongside an exciting group of faculty and students.”

As in the other programs, applicants are required to have a movement practice to be admitted, but it needn’t be in a traditional form like ballet, modern, or bharata natyam. “My practice these days is yoga,” says Shea Murphy. “We have people who have a Mexican folklorico background; people who have a ballet background; people who have a hip-hop background.”

TWU’s focus on theorizing artistic practice, Hanstein says, means that “at the core it is a research and writing degree; that’s the credential of a PhD. People are engaged in a variety of artistic practices; though they may not be currently making a lot of work, they definitely have that experience.” She emphasizes that the dissertation involves original research, experimentation, and writing; presenting a choreographed concert (an MFA requirement) isn’t enough.

Temple’s program focuses more on educational and quantitative research. “We have people who are writing about brain and learning theory, cognition, and teaching about dance,” says Kahlich, the chairperson, who notes that movement practice is highly encouraged. “The PhD is geared toward that kind of study of the discipline.”

Of the newest doctoral dance studies program, at Ohio State University, chair Susan Van Pelt Petry says, “We are attracting students who already have an MA, or in some cases, an MFA in dance or in a related area such as ethnography or dance education, but who have experience of dance. We do expect dancers who are artist-scholars and require that they have had some kind of physical practice so that their research is rooted in movement experience.”

“We have people who are writing about brain and learning theory, cognition, and teaching about dance. The PhD is geared toward that kind of study of the discipline.” —Dr. Luke Kahlich, doctoral coordinator in dance, Temple University

Ohio’s program is still defining itself, but Van Pelt Petry points to the department’s longstanding relationship with the Dance Notation Bureau in New York: “We house the DNB Extension office here and there’s been a long history in this department of movement analysis and movement notation. With that and with the increasing technology interest and strengths in our program, we realized we could offer a unique PhD program.” This is Ohio’s third year offering doctoral courses, and its first cohort of PhD candidates—three—will graduate in 2010.

Getting a job
The big question is where these PhDs can find work. “None of us can foretell the future, and the economy is putting a damper on a lot of things,” says Karen Eliot, a former Merce Cunningham dancer, now an associate professor involved in creating OSU’s program. “We see PhDs in art history who are going into public advocacy work [and] governmental and funding organizations. This opens up possibilities for dance to be at the table with the other art forms. The field will have people with the credentials to work in governmental organizations.”

John, 44, a PhD candidate at TWU, is realistic about his chances of getting a coveted faculty position, especially in this tight economy. “Because of budget cuts, I don’t think there are going to be all these junior track jobs out there. I’m concerned that there won’t be jobs. You may need to do something else as a minor, or focus on writing. If you’re just doing [a PhD] to be a full professor at a university, I don’t think that’s the full reality anymore,” he says.

A bright future?
But Eliot believes opportunities for PhDs in dance studies will expand: “We have to think beyond what we’re doing at the academic level and think about what is happening at arts organizations and government and funding agencies. Let’s see what happens if we get trained, educated, smart people in dance. It can only help us.”

Hanstein concurs. While the majority of TWU’s graduates return to academia, she says, “we envision them going into things like arts leadership, arts advocacy, policy work.”

Byron Richard, 52, a former dancer with Bebe Miller and Nina Wiener, formed his own company before pursuing a PhD. He was working in professional development with teachers at a state educational agency in Minnesota and felt he needed more research skills to progress in his job. With his wife’s consent, he moved the family, including two young children, to Philadelphia to enter Temple’s doctoral program in dance studies.

“At Temple, I lucked out,” Richard says. “I found the qualitative research focus had an impact on what I was interested in, and my research experience was very action oriented. We were in classrooms: I was doing phenomenological interviewing of teachers, doing interpretative studies, talking to kids, collecting a variety of qualitative materials almost immediately. I was basically building a repertory of approaches to qualitative research and sensed that this could have some value for classroom practitioners. So that thread carried through.”

His dissertation, “ ‘Daddy Root Me In’: Tethering Young Sons in the Context of Male Intergenerational Child-Centered Dance Education,” grew from his in-depth research and studies in various methodologies. Today, an education research coordinator at the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Minnesota, a state agency, he credits his doctoral education for his success: “I was able to work with arts educators more broadly through action research and particularly collaborative action. The PhD studies really had the most impact in exposing me to a variety of methodologies and action research.”

Is it for you?
Most doctoral candidates take four to seven years to complete their degrees, and while some receive stipends or assistantships from the university, many finance their education through loans and private grants or personal funds. There’s some concern that students are seeking doctorates in order to avoid dealing with the current dismal job market.

Hanstein notes: “A PhD isn’t for everyone. I think unlike so many other fields in academia, those who decide to pursue a doctoral degree in dance often are interested in a career shift and are driven to research and writing. Dance is at its core a practice-oriented field. Those of us who came into the field as dancers and choreographers—that’s where our life is. So doing doctoral work isn’t necessarily for everyone.”

Doctoral Programs

Doctoral programs in dance seem to be small and individualized. Some vary the number of slots depending on how long current students are taking to complete their degrees.

Ohio State University
Department of Dance, 1813 N. High Street, 022 Sullivant Hall, Columbus, OH 43210
Chair: Susan Van Pelt Petry
dance@osu.edu
dance.ohio-state.edu/4_degree_programs/PhD.html

Admission requirements: MA, 3.5 graduate school GPA, official college transcripts, GRE scores

Core courses: Modes of inquiry in dance; history, theory, and literature of the analysis of movement; history, theory, and literature of choreography; resource seminar; competency in one foreign language or current system of dance notation or movement analysis

Temple University
Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance, Philadelphia, PA 19122
Chair: Dr. Luke Kahlich
boyer@temple.edu
temple.edu/boyer/dance/index.htm

Admission requirements: Personal data sheet, PhD questionnaire, writing sample, curriculum vitae, audition/interview/professional presentation

Core courses: Dancer and the dance medium; dance and the gendered body: historical perspectives; meaning in dance; black performance; problems in dance research; dance in higher education; research partnerships; aesthetic and philosophical inquiry; research structure: dance ethnography

Texas Woman’s University
Department of Dance, P.O. Box 425708, Denton, TX 76204
Chair: Dr. Penelope Hanstein
dance@twu.edu
twu.edu/dance/doctoral-program.asp

Admission requirements: MA in dance or related field, or equivalent professional experience demonstrated by a record of significant scholarly achievement (dancemaking and/or research and writing); academic record reflecting the ability to pursue advanced study; proficiency in written, verbal, and movement communication skills, teaching, performing, choreographing, and/or other related experience

Core courses: Scholarly inquiry in dance; epistemology of the body; movement observation and analysis as a research tool; aesthetics of art-making; designing online learning; experiencing the virtual body in space; pedagogical foundations for dance; issues in historical inquiry; curriculum inquiry; guest artist workshop; philosophical inquiry; performance and pedagogy of scholarly writing; theorizing performance process; qualitative research methodologies; theory analysis and theory development research; research colloquium; seminar preparation for qualifying examinations

University of California–Riverside
Department of Dance, 900 University Avenue, 121 Arts Building, Riverside, CA 92521
Chair: Marta Savigliano
danceadvising@ucr.edu
dance.ucr.edu/

Admission requirements: Statement about experience in dance history and theory; previously prepared research paper or the equivalent; working knowledge of movement; acquaintance with movement observation and analysis; preparation in general historical and cultural studies; GRE scores

Core courses: Political approaches to dance studies; historical approaches to dance studies; rhetorical approaches to dance studies; cultural approaches to dance studies; six additional graduate-level courses are required, plus competence in a language other than English. Specific requirements may be determined for each student.

4 Responses to “Higher-Ed Voice | Call Her Dr. Dance”