Department of Dance and Theatre

Main Departmental Office
Radio, TV, Film and Performing Arts Building, Room 242

Mailing address:
1155 Union Circle #310607
Denton, TX 76203-5017
940-565-2211

Dance Office
Stovall Hall, Room 180
940-565-3432

Lorenzo Garcia, Chair

The Department of Dance and Theatre is dedicated to the professions of theatre and dance as central concerns of a civilized society and as primary methodologies in the education of its citizenry. Small groups of teachers and students, using as a foundation the artists and the artworks from both past and present and from all cultures and civilizations, collaborate in rehearsals and public performances derived from the finest possible classroom experiences. Scholarly and empirical research is combined with a high level of spontaneous creativity to develop the entire spectrum of theatre arts. Emphasis is placed on the impact between performing artists and appreciative spectators. Playwrights, actors, dancers, choreographers, directors, designers and technicians are taught to discover and to enhance their own creativity, to bear witness through their artistry to the richness of human life and to make artistic performance the means of educating the people who are present when the performance occurs.

These student artists also must learn to design and manage each of the technical and administrative crafts that constitute the business of theatre and dance in the 21st century. A person who can create and manage a successful theatre or dance organization can do the same in any field for which a few of the basic skills have been acquired. There is no technology — that of computers, for example, lasers or the film and video industries — that does not manifest itself in the craft of theatre and dance.

The Department of Dance and Theatre operates several facilities designed and equipped to generate, organize and conduct research in dramatic performance. The Stovall performance space, four dance studios, an acting/directing studio, a scene shop and costume shop, scenery and costume collections, and a department library indicate a commitment to providing the finest possible theatre and dance education.

Research

Faculty and students of the Department of Dance and Theatre engage in research through the development of artistic works and explorations of symbol transfer during the continuum of impact between spectators and dancers or actors. In addition, experimental and empirical studies are concerned with the phenomenology and the semiotics of dance and theatre activities as well as traditional methods of biographical, historical and literary research, and movement studies.

Topics on which research has been conducted in the department encompass actor/audience perceptions of a play in performance, actor/character relationships, directorial roles, British drama education, the theatre of Margo Jones, the educational theories of Bertolt Brecht, body-space and time-movement relationships, body language, and the social order and pragmatics of performer/audience communication.

This commitment to research and creativity in theatre and dance has generated continuing financial support from the Martha Gaylord-Tom Hughes Scholarship Program; the Katherine M. Altermann Scholarship Fund; the Ann Bradshaw Stokes Foundation; the Ralph B. Culp Endowment Fund; the Ed DeLatte Musical Theatre Scholarship; the Lucille Murchison Scholarships in Dance, Costuming and Technical Theatre; the Eugene Mills Dance Scholarships; and the Chun Hui Lee Dance Scholarships.

Courses

Dance

Theatre

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Department of Dance and Theatre

Research

Courses