UNC undergrads in the 2013 spring dance concert “Intimacies”

If you’ve thought about getting your master’s degree in dance education but can’t imagine uprooting yourself to attend graduate school, check out the University of Northern Colorado’s new dance education master of arts. Designed to meet the needs of current and aspiring dance educators, the degree can be completed almost entirely online, over two years, with an on-site commitment of only two three-week summer institutes. Though you do need an undergraduate degree to apply to the program, a dance degree is not required. Students will study a broad range of topics: how to teach dance to K–12 students; choreography; production; lesson plan design; and injury prevention. Sandra Minton, retired coordinator of UNC’s dance program and designer of the MA curriculum, will be teaching some of the online courses–which, she says, pose a particular hurdle for her as the instructor. “You have to be very detailed in the way you respond, in the way you give feedback in an online class,” says Minton. “The students need to be able to understand exactly what you’re trying to say to them.”

Those interested in applying must do so by April 1.

Photo by David Grapes, courtesy of UNC