MA in Dance - American Dance Studies in Tallahassee United States | Florida State University

The Master of Arts (American Dance Studies) program centers on critically examining dance through publicly engaged academic work. Dedicated to both theoretical and physical research, it explores the importance of evolving and traditional movement practices in various settings, from theatrical stages to urban streets, digital screens, and social dance traditions. Courses cover dance history, historiography, cultural analysis, and ethnographic studies, offering multiple perspectives on dance's cultural impact throughout the Americas. The program leverages FSU's distinctive position in the American South and Florida Panhandle—a crossroads of African, European, Indigenous, and Caribbean movement traditions. Students explore dance's global dimensions through frameworks of diaspora and transnationalism, addressing themes of power, identity, modernity, environmental sustainability, and activism. Graduates are equipped for advanced academic pursuits or professional roles in dance administration, archival work, arts librarianship, dramaturgy, or performance. Both thesis and capstone options provide intensive study and opportunities for original, creative research aligned with individual interests.