World Music, Dance, and Theater Minor

As a world music, dance, and theater minor, you will have access to an interdisciplinary course of study, drawing on the distinctive methodologies and training inherent in several disciplines. The minor encourages students already interested in the performing arts to explore those outside Euro-American traditions. World music, dance and theater spans several fields in its applicability, and you will find the courses both relevant and rewarding.

sample courses:

Fundamentals of Jazz Dance

This course introduces the basic principles and vocabulary of traditional jazz dance as influenced by American social dances and its relationship to the rise in popularity of jazz music. Both are unique to America and are rooted in African American and European American culture.

Musics of the World

This course provides an introduction to the field of ethnomusicology as well as a survey of selected musics from around the world. We will investigate not only musical sound itself but how music interacts with other cultural domains, such as religion/cosmology, politics, economics, and social structure. The course will use case studies from regions around world (such as Indonesia, India, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America) to illustrate the conceptual problems and methodologies raised by the cross-cultural study of music, as well as acquaint you with the rich variety of music around the globe.