The Hollins University M.F.A. degree in dance requires a total of 60-credit hours offering students an opportunity to immerse themselves for eight weeks during the summer months. The program takes place in multiple locations including an intimate learning atmosphere for five weeks at Hollins University and three weeks in Europe. The Hollins M.F.A. program offers the opportunity to engage with national and international dance communities, providing students with a wide range of experiences, opportunities, mentorships, and exposure to other practitioners in the international dance field. The M.F.A. students and faculty establish a unique community of committed artists/scholars who range in ages and experiences and are working to sustain their careers and deepen their relationship to dance.
The program offers a flexible yet rigorous course of study. Using the resources of multiple institutions, the program offers two tracks of enrollment: Low Residency Emerging Two Summer Track and Low Residency Mid-Career Two Summer Track (with credit qualification).
Low Residency Emerging Two Summer Track
The Low Residency Emerging Two Summer Track is designed for emerging artists, teachers and dance professionals. This course of study is mapped over two summers to allow for an extended immersion in intellectual and creative experiences.
Low Residency Mid-Career Two Summer Track
The Low Residency Mid-Career Two Summer Track is designed for mid-career artists, teachers and dance professionals who must study in a limited time frame that accommodates their employment/performance schedule. (Enrollment with professional field credit qualifications).
Courses
All M.F.A. students gather for a total of eight weeks during the summer months of June and July. The degree requires a total of 60 credit hours. During these summer sessions, students spend five weeks at Hollins and travel to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, for three weeks of summer study. Since summer 2023, Boyan Manchev and Ani Vaseva serve as co-coordinators of the European Study experience.
Using the resources of many institutions, the dance program offers two tracks that provide both flexibility and rigor.
Costs
Tuition
$975 per credit hour for 2024-25
Fees
- Nonrefundable application fee: $40
- Technology fee: $650 per year
- Health services: $395 per year
Our Faculty
We are a diverse artistic community that creates a learning atmosphere where students and faculty work alongside one another. We expand and deepen our relationship to dance and the world around us. Our teaching reflects a wide range of interests and experiences.
From professional dance instructors and mentors, to visiting artists and choreographers, the influences are endless. If you learn from the best, you’ll discover new ways to express yourself and refine your own style.
What Our Dance M.F.A. Graduates Are Doing
Graduates of Hollins University’s Master of Fine Arts program in dance are making notable contributions to the dance world as choreographers, performers, and artistic directors.
Residency Track Options
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Low Residency Emerging Two Summer Track
The Low Residency Emerging Two Summer Track is designed for emerging artists, teachers and dance professionals. This course of study is mapped over two summers to allow for an extended immersion in intellectual and creative experiences. This track is for highly motivated professionals seeking to expand their portfolio as they develop their professional careers. Acceptance into this track will be determined through a review of accredited professional experience and artistic maturity by a panel of Hollins faculty. Transfer credit is not accepted for students in the Low Residency Emerging Two Summer Track.
Application deadline: December 1
Summer I — June-July Location: Hollins and Bulgaria
Hollins University Session One (three weeks)
- INTERMEDIA STUDIO
- MENTORED STUDIO PRACTICE
- CONTEMPORARY BODY PRACTICES
- DANCE HISTORY AND CRITICISM
- CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICES I: creative process/making
- DIGITAL MEDIA TUTORIALS
- GRADUATE SEMINAR
Hollins University Session Two (two weeks)
- INTERMEDIA STUDIO
- CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICES I: creative process/making
- European Study Bulgaria (three weeks)
- MENTORED STUDIO PRACTICE
- CONTEMPORARY BODY PRACTICES
- HISTORY, THEORY, AND CRITICISM
- GRADUATE SEMINAR
Fall — September-December
- WRITING IN THE DANCE WORLD: CRITICISM & JOURNALISM – ONLINE
- GRADUATE SEMINAR – ONLINE
- INDEPENDENT STUDY
- THESIS FORMS I
- Include end of term 2-Day Retreat online
Spring — February-May
- CONTEMPORARY BODY PRACTICES II – ONLINE
- RADICAL PRESENCE/PERFORMANCE: READ THE SEEN/SCENE – ONLINE
- CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICES – IMAGINATIVE THINKING & CRAFTING – ONLINE
- THESIS FORMS II
Summer II — June-July Location: Hollins/Bulgaria
Hollins University Session One (three weeks)
- MENTORED STUDIO PRACTICE
- DANCE THEORY AND CRITICISM
- GRADUATE SEMINAR
- GRADUATE PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP AND CRITIQUE
Hollins University Session Two (two weeks)
- CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICES II
- European Study Bulgaria (three weeks)
- MENTORED STUDIO PRACTICE
- DANCE THEORY AND CRITICISM
- GRADUATE SEMINAR
- GRADUATE PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP AND CRITIQUE
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Low Residency Mid-Career Two Summer Track
The Low Residency Mid-Career Two Summer Track is designed for mid-career artists, teachers and dance professionals who must study in a limited time frame that accommodates their employment/performance schedule. Acceptance into this track will be determined through a review of accredited professional experience and artistic maturity by a panel of Hollins faculty. Twelve credits toward the degree will be granted in recognition of appropriate professional work as evidenced by works presented to date (choreography and/or performance), grants and fellowships received, continued dance education, and/or teaching residencies, professional references and letters. A portfolio of the work will be compiled during the course of study. Two-summer track applicants must be mature working artists with at least 10-12 years of experience in national/international dance platforms.
Application deadline: December 1
Summer I — June-July Location: Hollins and Bulgaria
Hollins University Session One (three weeks)
- MENTORED STUDIO PRACTICE
- CONTEMPORARY BODY PRACTICES
- DANCE HISTORY AND CRITICISM
- DIGITAL MEDIA TUTORIALS
- GRADUATE SEMINAR
Hollins University Session Two (two weeks)
- INTERMEDIA STUDIO
- CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICES I
European Study Bulgaria (three weeks)
- MENTORED STUDIO PRACTICE
- CONTEMPORARY BODY PRACTICES
- DANCE HISTORY AND CRITICISM
- GRADUATE SEMINAR
Fall — September-December
- INDEPENDENT STUDY
- PORTFOLIO
- THESIS FORMS I
- Include end of term 2-Day Retreat online
Spring — February-May
- CONTEMPORARY BODY PRACTICES II – ONLINE
- PORTFOLIO
- THESIS FORMS II
Summer II — June-July Location: Hollins/Bulgaria
Hollins University Session One (three weeks)
- MENTORED STUDIO PRACTICE
- DANCE THEORY AND CRITICISM
- GRADUATE SEMINAR
- GRADUATE PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP AND CRITIQUE
Hollins University Session Two (two weeks)
- CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICES II
European Study Bulgaria (three weeks)
- MENTORED STUDIO PRACTICE
- DANCE THEORY AND CRITICISM
- GRADUATE SEMINAR
- GRADUATE PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP AND CRITIQUE
-
Dance M.F.A. International Residencies
All students of Hollins’ M.F.A. program in dance travel off site to dance centers throughout the world. In an effort to expand experiences beyond the campus setting, students will study, present their work in various settings, view concerts, and immerse themselves in specially designed “study tracks.”
Specifically designed to promote exchange within a larger dance community and to better understand the internationalization of dance education, these residencies open pathways that will create lifelong relationships and opportunities.
European Dance Study – Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Students travel to dance centers throughout the world to study with members of the thriving international professional and academic community. Students experience mentored studio time and the facilitation of a program of creative work and take part in discussions and readings. Past residencies have taken place in France, Austria, Belgium, and Germany. The M.F.A. Dance European Study has been located in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, since 2023.
Boyan Manchev, European Study Co-CuratorBoyan Manchev is a philosopher and professor at the New Bulgarian University (Sofia) and at the HZT – UdK (Berlin). He is also former director of program and vice president of the International College of Philosophy in Paris. His actual research, which proposes the perspective of a radical materialism, is focused on the fields of ontology, philosophy of art, and political philosophy. Manchev has lectured widely at European, North-American, and Japanese universities and cultural institutions. He has organized and/or collaborated on a number of projects, congresses, and public forums dealing with philosophy, art, and politics at the CIPh (Paris), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Tanzquartier (Vienna), Apexart (New York), CND (Paris), BAK (Utrecht), UTCP (Tokyo), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), among others. He curated the exhibition Out of Time at the Sofia City Art Gallery (March – April 2011). He has participated as theorist, dramaturge, or performer in theatre and contemporary dance projects, including Tim Etchells and Adrian Heathfield’s The Frequently Asked, Boris Charmatz’s expo zero and Poster session “Mouvement” for the Festival d’Avignon, and Ani Vaseva’s Frankenstein, A Dying Play. Manchev is the author of seven books and more than 100 book chapters, catalogues, and other publications in various languages. In the last years he has appeared in Logic of the Political (Sofia: Critique&Humanism, 2012); Miracolo (Milano: Lanfranchi, 2011); L’altération du monde: Pour une esthétique radicale (Paris: Lignes, 2009); La Métamorphose et l’Instant – Désorganisation de la vie (Paris: La Phocide, 2009); Rue Descartes 64: La métamorphose, ed. by B. Manchev (Paris: PUF, 2009); Rue Descartes 67: Quel sujet du politique?, ed. by G. Basterra, R. Ivekovic, and B. Manchev (Paris: PUF, 2010). His book The Body–Metamorphosis (Sofia: Altera, 2007) deals extensively with contemporary art, performance, and dance.
Ani Vaseva, European Study Co-CuratorAni Vaseva was born in 1982 in Sofia. She graduated in theatre studies and theatre directing at NATFA, Sofia. She is a theatre director, the author of theatre plays of critical and theoretical texts on dance and theatre, and holds a Ph.D. in performance studies from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Among her visual projects are Still Here. On The Meteor Arhcipelago (together with Georgi Sharov, Museums Night, Plovdiv, 2015), Gorgons In The Depot, or Apocalypse Now (exhibition curated together with Monika Vakarelova and Boriana Rossa, part of The Other Eye project of Maria Vassileva at the Sofia Municipal Gallery, 2013), In-Out (installation, part of the Love exhibition, curated by Maria Vassileva, Raiko Alexiev gallery, 2012), Power Fridge Points (together with Natalia Todorova and Ivana Nencheva, Tanzquartier Wien, 2011), The War Of The Little Girls (together with Ivan Donchev and Boyan Manchev, Vaska Emanuilova gallery, 2010) etc. Among her last performances are A Play For Us (2018), Roadtrip to Hell (2017), The Murderer And The Whore (2017), Lovecraft (2016), Total Damage (2016), Maldoror (2015), A Play for You (2014). Her book What Is Contemporary Dance (2017) explores the complex processes and conflictual ideologies that stand behind the concept of contemporary dance. Between 2015 and 2018 she has been teaching history and theory of theatre and literature at New Bulgarian University and the Luben Groys Theatre College, where together with Leonid Yovchev she was leading an acting class in 2017-18.
