QUT suspends Dance Performance degree

Queensland University of Technology has suspended its Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance Performance) degree from 2021. The University is, however, maintaining its BFA (Dance) degree. 

According to Damian Candusso, Head of School, School of Creative Practice, the decision to drop the BFA Dance Performance was made in recognition that it had many units in common with the BFA Dance degree. Suspending the Dance Performance degree will streamline the two courses into one while offering a greater number of directions for students to take their training. “Being one degree allows us to offer more options for students with a diverse range of career outcomes. These do include being a dancer but open up other options in terms of being a choreographer, teacher, artistic direction, physio, and others.” 

The overall number of places offered to dance students will not be reduced by the change – in fact Candusso says they could increase, as student numbers for the BFA Dance are not capped (whereas Dance Performance was capped at sixteen). 

The Dance Performance degree offered core technique classes in ballet and contemporary as well as two performances a year. Technique classes in the Dance degree, in comparison, focus on physical and conceptual approaches and cover a range of genres, according to the website, “for example, contemporary dance, ballet, hip hop, Latin dance.” However, Candusso says the BFA Dance will “allow us to expand where students can go in their degree” through its links to other university disciplines such as health and education, and by exploring digital technology, an increasing emphasis of QUT. “Some of the opportunities will involve the integration of technology, creating new opportunities for students to translate artistic concepts, embodied learning and kinaesthetic understanding, and to demonstrate this through the production and distribution of creative content.”

The university will maintain its connection with the local dance profession, such as the Queensland Ballet, Australasian Dance Collective and the Royal Academy of Dance. 

- KAREN VAN ULZEN