Dance, Minor

Saint Louis University’s dance minor is a 23-credit program that aims to broaden perspectives about dance in various forms. SLU’s dance minor is open to all students interested in dance as a personal and cultural practice, regardless of their previous experience with the discipline.

Students in SLU's dance minor hone their bodies as skillful instruments for expression and communication. They heighten their awareness of an embodied human experience by applying formal and improvisational dance techniques, choreographic processes, rehearsal and performance practices. They also gain an understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of dance.

With a curriculum that encourages connections between dance and other personal and professional pursuits, the minor investigates dance as a concert art form and personal practice. Students also explore dance’s potential applications to other disciplines, such as medicine, psychology, theatre and music, physical and occupational therapy, health and exercise sciences, nutrition and dietetics, and athletic training. Seeking such intersections nurtures critical thinking, which can lead to developing novel perspectives that ignite creative thinking and innovation.

Curriculum Overview

Dance integrates mind, body and spirit. This can teach students to treat their body as an intelligent source for learning, exploration and discovery. At the same time, SLU’s education of the whole person fosters internal connections that sensitize students to a deeper understanding of themselves, their relationships with others and their world. Physical benefits of dance include improved balance, strength, coordination and performance, confidence, encouraging a life of integration, vitality, health and well-being. Therefore, the study of dance is well suited to inform and support any track of study, worldview or personal goal.

Toward this aim, students must complete eight credits in dance foundations, eight credits in dance technique, four credits in dance study and three credits in a related area of study. The three dance foundations courses include a theatre and dance history course, an introduction to dance course covering ballet, modern and jazz dance, and a choreography course. These three courses allow students to gain knowledge of essential dance styles, performance and choreography practices, and the history of dance and theatre.

Building on this, dance minors at SLU take a further eight credits (four courses) of technique in ballet, jazz and modern dance forms. For their final three courses, students must select two courses in dance study and one course in a related area of study.

Students may petition to apply credit from related disciplines to the minor with the approval of the coordinator, as well as to apply credit in dance study and a related area of study from dance courses offered at Saint Louis University’s Madrid campus, such as flamenco and Latin dance, among others.   

Dance students must complete a minimum total of 23 credits for the minor. Repeated course credits may not apply.

Continuation Standards

A student must maintain a 2.00 grade point average (GPA) in dance minor coursework.

Students can complete part of the dance minor at SLU’s campus in Madrid. 

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