Academic program

Theater and Dance

Associate Professors Dugan (chair), McDowell, and Smith; Assistant Professors Huang and Koepke; Visiting Assistant Professor McPheeters; Senior Lecturer Vecsey; Visiting Lecturers Kimball, Mahler Salinas, and Wood.

Our Mission

The Bates Theater and Dance Department believes performance is for everyone. Through embodied artistry, activism, collaboration, and scholarship, our curriculum explores performance theories, physical practice, creative processes, history and historiography, and culturally inclusive engagement with productions. We welcome all who wish to join our community to engage in experimentation, innovative technologies, and informed experiential learning.

Our Disposition

The Bates Theater and Dance Department acknowledges its part in addressing the systemic nature of oppression through the arts, which necessitates a critical understanding of the forms we engage and the histories of exclusions and trauma therein. We seek to both hold the joy of performance and address the harm that may occur when seeking embodiment and collaboration, while providing students the knowledge and tools to dismantle structural inequities and personal biases.

Our Vision

The Bates Theater and Dance Department provides an unparalleled liberal arts experience led by faculty and staff who are active professionals in their field. We empower a diverse community of students to cultivate their unique and expansive approaches to artistry, interdisciplinary collaboration, and activism with a fierce commitment to transform and better the world.

Theater

Theater at Bates invites students to develop existing abilities and enthusiasms and to discover new ones. Studying theater means making connections. There are many parts to assemble and explore: acting, directing, design, stage management, dramaturgy, playwriting, technical skill, dramatic literature, theater history, and performance studies. Because theater is an art that spans millennia and is practiced all over the world, connections must be made with and between multiple cultures and traditions. To make things by making connections is to learn about process, self-discipline, collaboration, and critical thinking. To that end, the curriculum strikes a balance among artistic training, technical skills, and the study of theater literature, history and theory. Majors are prepared for graduate work in the humanities, for further professional training, or for initial steps toward a career in the field.

In conjunction with academic work, the department annually produces on average about ten performance events (plays, dance concerts, devised work, showcases, and more) in its three theaters. These involve large numbers of students, both majors and nonmajors. The department invites all members of the community to join in the creation of these events.

More information on the theater curriculum is available on the Theater website.

Dance

The Department of Theater and Dance offers a major and a minor in dance. Integrating both theory and practice within the framework of a liberal arts education, the curriculum develops an understanding of art, culture, and the positionality of individuals through the lens of dance. With a variety of performing, choreographic, contextual, and individualized study opportunities, the dance program nurtures artistic independence, interdisciplinarity, and above all, a strong supportive community.

More information on the dance curriculum is available on the Dance website.