The Dance program encourages students to focus on many areas of dance. These include the study of various styles of dance technique, choreography, performance, history, critical theory, kinesiology, movement analysis, ethnology, education, and visual media. The program is unique for offerings in Asian and Pacific dance.
Annual concerts include two productions in the Earle Ernst Laboratory Theatre that feature the work of student choreographers and one Kennedy Theatre main stage production with choreography by faculty and guest artists. Productions feature newly created, classical and indigenous dance from a wide variety of traditions. Additional Asian and Pacific dance and music events include end-of-semester student presentations in Orvis Auditorium and at the small amphitheatre in the Music Department complex.
Dance scholarship emphasizes an interdisciplinary base for innovative research in the field of performance and cultural studies in dance. The program emphasizes practice as research and the theoretical consideration of dance. Students focus on scholarship in choreography, movement analysis, heritage, globalization, technology, ethnography, education, corporeality and embodiment.
Graduates of the University of Hawai‘i Dance Program are now: