Our Mission
Principles of the Department of Dance
The vision of the Department of Dance of the Jordan College of
Fine Arts at Butler University is to provide excellence and
national leadership in the training of students for future
professions in dance and in the education of well-rounded
individuals. It seeks to develop young people capable of
specialization and versatility, technical mastery and artistic
expression, as well as to foster an understanding of dance in a
global context, and leadership in both its traditions and its
changes.
The mission of the Department of Dance is to seek committed and
promising students of dance, to develop in them a foundation of a
broadly-based dance training with a central but non-exclusive focus
on classical ballet, and to integrate this training with a liberal
arts education, in order to prepare students for future professions
in dance and to contribute to their wider communities.
Additionally, it is our mission to provide excellent quality dance
to Butler University, to Indianapolis and to the region.
The department of dance accomplishes its mission through the
following goals:
- To encourage and foster the educational development of students
in many facets of the art of dance, while promoting the development
of well-rounded, highly educated individuals of academic and
artistic excellence.
- To prepare dancers for future professions in many dance
endeavors: as performers, choreographers, teachers, administrators,
and scholars.
- To provide high quality technical training to serious dance
students with a central focus on classical ballet technique and
integrating significant additional study in other dance forms,
while providing a broad exposure to essential theoretical areas of
dance and to liberal arts, so as to encourage well-rounded,
thinking dancers who have much to contribute to their
profession.
- To serve the college, the University, and the community at
large through a variety of outreach programs and through
collaborations with educational and professional arts
organizations.
Since 1992, the National
Association of Schools of Dance (NASD) is the accrediting
agent of the department of dance. The organization is composed of
schools and individuals representing the highest traditions and
aims in the education of dance students. The association is
established to develop a closer relationship among schools and
programs of dance for the purpose of examining and improving
practices and professional standards in dance education and
training. The department of dance of Butler University, Jordan
College of Fine Arts, highly values its membership in
NASD.